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On this edition of Conversations, Jeff VanderMeer talks with host Dan Skinner about “A Peculiar Peril,” a book for young readers 8 to 80. VanderMeer is a…

Excerpts from Wagner's Parsifal, Act III including Good Friday music. Engineer(s): Chubias Smith

Kansas Public Radio celebrates National Poetry Month with "Life Distilled: Four Decades of U.S. Poet Laureates." Join us at 8:00 Sunday evening as KPR Presents features the words of Poet Laureates Ted Kooser, Mark Strand, and Topeka-born Gwendolyn Brooks.

Best known as the host of The Newshour on public television, Jim Lehrer is also the author of dozens of novels. His latest, Eukeka, is set in Kansas and was the subject of Lehrer's talk at the first River City Reading Festival. Engineer(s): Chubby Smith

Opera is My Hobby Friday 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM One of the longest running shows on American radio, Opera Is My Hobby debuted on Kansas Public Radio (then KANU) in September 1952, during the very first week the station was on the air! Every week, Dr. James Seaver selects recordings from his vast collection of LPs, CDs, 78s and even wax cylinder recordings for programs spotlighting legendary performers of the past, as well as up- and-coming singers. Recent shows have included tributes to tenor Jussi Bjoerling and soprano Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, highlights from the Victor Blue Label recordings from the early 20th-century, plus excerpts from Mozart's The Magic Flute and Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus. The artist(s): 5 September: Famous Concerted Numbers in Opera This program will present some of the most famous and popular concerted numbers in opera in chronological order, starting with the finale to Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, starring Elizabeth Schwartzkopp. Then we will hear the celebrated canon "Mir ist so Wunderbar," from Act I of Beethoven's FIDELIO, featuring Christa Ludwig. Next will come the delightful finale to Act I of Rossini's BARBER OF SEVILLE, with Sills, Gedda, and Milnes. Next we will hear Maria Callas in the powerful finale to Bellini's NORMA. The second half of the program will start with the famous sextette from Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, sung by Caruso and Sembrich, followed by the quartette from Verdi's RIGOLETTO, starring Gigli and Galli-Curci. Our program will conclude with the finale trio from Gounod's FAUST, with Sutherland, Corelli, and Ghiaurov and the wonderful trio from Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER, featuring Elizabeth Schwarzkoff, once again with Crista Ludwig and Teresa Stich-Randall. Engineer(s): Chubias Smith

The Kansas Legislature started its 2009 session this week, with many difficult issues and choices for lawmakers to tackle. Join KPR Presents as we rebroadcast Governor Kathleen Sebelius' State of the State address, and hear reactions from key lawmakers, as well as their own thoughts on the political year ahead. Featured guests include Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, Senate President Steven Morris, the new Speaker of the House Mike O'Neal, new House Minority Leader Paul Davis, as well as analysis from University of Kansas political science professor Burdett Loomis.

Chief Justice of United States John Roberts spoke to an overflow crowd at the Lied Center on April 30th. Roberts is the first sitting chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to speak at the University of Kansas; his speech marks the 40th lecture in the Vickers Memorial Lecture Series, sponsored by the KU School of Business. You can hear Roberts' speech at 8:00 Sunday evening on KPR Presents. Engineer(s): KU Media Services

One of the longest running shows on American radio, Opera Is My Hobby debuted on Kansas Public Radio (then KANU) in September 1952, during the very first week the station was on the air! Every week, Dr. James Seaver selects recordings from his vast collection of LPs, CDs, 78s and even wax cylinder recordings for programs spotlighting legendary performers of the past, as well as up- and-coming singers. Recent shows have included tributes to tenor Jussi Bjoerling and soprano Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, highlights from the Victor Blue Label recordings from the early 20th-century, plus excerpts from Mozart's The Magic Flute and Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus. The artist(s): 15 August: The Artistry of the Italian Mezzo-soprano Ebe Stignani This wonderful singer was born in 1904 in Naples. She studied voice at the Naples Conservatory with Agostino Roche. The director of the San Carlo Theater heard her in a school concert and engaged her to make her operatic debut at the San Carlo in 1925, at the age of twenty-one, in the taxing but great mezzo role of Amneris in Verdi's AIDA. Her debut was so sensational that Toscanini engaged her for La Scala, where she made her debut as Eboli in Verdi's DON CARLO. She remained as the first mezzo of La Scala until her retirement from opera in 1953. Strangely enough, she never sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, but she did sing at the San Francisco Opera and had great operatic triumphs at Covent Garden in London and elsewhere in Europe and South America. We were fortunate to hear her sing in Donizetti's LA FAVORITA at the Rome Opera in 1953, toward the end of her great international career. I believe that she had one of the most perfect and powerful mezzo voices I ever heard on the operatic stage. On our program she will sing music from Verdi's AIDA, DON CARLO, and the "Manzoni Requiem." She will also sing music from Bellini's NORMA and Donizetti's LA FAVORITA. Engineer(s): Chubias Smith

This month marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ray Bradbury. On this week's KPR Presents, we celebrate the life and legacy of Bradbury and explore his 1953 masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451.

After cracks in the health care service for returning veterans began to appear, President Bush appointed Senator Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Director Donna Shalala to the President's Commission on Care for Wounded Veterans. Senator Dole talks about the work of that commission in an address at the National Press Club on May 23, 2008.