Kurt talks with Broadway diva, Patti Lupone, the star of "Gypsy." And we’ll hear how the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra keeps performing, against all odds, in wartorn Baghdad. An Iraqi guitarist carries his love of American blues into his new life as a refugee in Damascus. And a folkie-turned-biologist gets us to listen to the wild.

The ultimate summer camp for artists. For a century New Hampshire’s MacDowell Colony has given artists studio space in the woods, no interruptions, and a picnic basket delivered to the cabin door. We’ll hear from MacDowell alums Mike Daisey, a monologist, and Tara Geer, a visual artist. The writer Henry Alford gets inspired to start his own artist colony, and delivers lunch by subway to a hand-picked group of artists. Plus, novelist Porochista Khakpour and an in-studio performance from gospel legends, The Blind Boys of Alabama.

Kyle Baker turns Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion into a 21st century graphic novel. “Little House on the Prairie” hits Minneapolis in the form of a big splashy musical. Kurt talks music and politics with songwriter Randy Newman. And we see how a hippie architect became the Yoda of computer programming.