Dave Davies

Bradley Cooper starred as a schoolteacher heading to Vegas for a wild bachelor party in the 2009 raunchy bromance The Hangover. He reprises his role for the sequel, alongside actors Zach Galifanakis and Ed Helms -- and a drug dealing money named Crystal.

ProPublica reporters Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger recently won the Pulitzer Prize for their stories about the banks and hedge funds that realized what was happening to the U.S. economy while it was happening -- and then made vast fortunes by betting against the markets and creating fake demand.

Parasitic tapeworms, the world's largest hornet and a bug with overly aggressive mating habits are all featured in science writer Amy Stewart's book Wicked Bugs, which examines more than 100 of the strangest entomological creatures on the planet.

Science writer Susan Freinkel chronicles the rise of plastic in consumer culture — and its effects on the environment and our health — in Plastic: A Toxic Love Story. Freinkel says plastics leach potentially harmful chemicals into our bloodstream — and that scientists are now figuring out what that does to our bodies.

Science journalist Marc Kaufman says we're closer than ever to finding out if there's life on other planets in the universe. He details the current research and challenges for scientists in First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth.

In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,000 toys into the ocean. What happened to those toys led writer Donovan Hohn on a worldwide journey filled with beachcombers, oceanographers, ship captains and environmentalists.

New York Times labor and workplace reporter Steve Greenhouse explains why other states with large budget deficits are now also considering taking on public unions -- and how the standoff between organized labor and Republican governors is likely to play out.

In the film Animal Kingdom, Australian actress Jackie Weaver plays the matriarch of a criminal family who has a twisted relationship with her sons. Weaver and Animal Kingdom's director Michael Michod discuss their unglamorous portrayal of a crime syndicate.

After Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., the man who shot him, James Earl Ray, was able to evade the FBI during a two-month-long massive worldwide manhunt. Writer Hampton Sides traces the movements of both King and Ray in his book, Hellhound on His Trail.

This interview was originally broadcast on April 28, 2010.