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Pieces of Chicago's history and cultural experiences go on sale Thursday to raise money for city cultural programs. The eBay offerings include an authentic Playboy Bunny costume from the 1960s. NPR's David Schaper reports.

George McKee Elsey quietly witnessed and participated in the making of American history as an aide to two presidents — Roosevelt and Truman. Now 88, he tells his story in An Unplanned Life.

At the heart of country musician Jon Randall's new CD, Walking Among the Living, there's a bit of family history. The singer-songwriter's "North Carolina Moon" is an update of a tune that his father began to write when Randall was still in high school.

On the eve of a likely invasion of Iraq, NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations about the history of casualties in war. In Vietnam, the United States lost more than 58,000 soldiers. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, 147 were killed on the battlefield. Many Americans have come to expect fewer casualties to be the norm for conflicts. Boot is the author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. We also hear from people in San Diego, Cleveland and Austin about what they expect will be the number of battlefield deaths if war occurs.

A hot new film, Laurel Canyon, stars Frances McDormand as a hard-livin', hard-lovin' record producer in '70s L.A. In the real world, female record producers were virtually nonexistent in the music industry. How come? NPR's Neda Ulaby investigates in a two-part series. Today: the secret history of women rock 'n' roll producers, with music from Sheryl Crow, the Fleetwoods, the Shangri-las and Missy Elliott.

Author James Mann's latest book, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, details 30 years of professional relationships among the president's foreign policy advisors. Mann speaks with NPR's Liane Hansen.

In a turning point in American history, the Supreme Court ruled 50 years ago that separate educational facilities for blacks were inherently unequal. A look at how Americans reacted, through the letters they wrote to their president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Her latest book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, is just out in paperback. It's about a religious text that is little known -- the secret Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945. She will explain why it was suppressed by the church and kept out of the canon. Pagels has been called one of the world's most important writers and thinkers on religion and history. She won the National Book Award for her book, The Gnostic Gospels. Pagels is a professor at Princeton University. (Original airdate: June 4, 2003)

The Taliban has denied responsibility for what is being called the worst bombing in Afghanistan's history, in which at least 80 people were killed and dozens more wounded by a suicide bomber's blast at a dog-fighting event. Funerals have already begun in Kandahar, where the governor expressed outrage at the attack.

The leader of Myanmar's military junta says he's willing to meet with the country's opposition leader who has been under house arrest for 12 years. Monique Skidmore, author of several books on Burma, talks about the history of the military junta.