Weekend Edition Sunday

On-Air Challenge: Every answer is the name of a state capital. You are given a word. The first letters in the word are the first letters in the name of the capital. The last letters in the word are the last letters in the name of that capital's state. For example, given the word "main," the answer would be "Madison," the state capital of Wisconsin. Madison starts with M-A and Wisconsin ends with I-N.

Vanessa Carlton started her career intending to become a professional ballet dancer, but instead, she followed her dreams of becoming a musician. Now, she's a classically trained pianist, a singer and a songwriter. Her 2002 debut album, Be Not Nobody, earned three Grammy nominations. She's followed up that smash debut with three more albums, the latest of which is titled Rabbits on the Run.

Lake Superior is a central character in author Ellen Airgood's debut novel, South of Superior. Guest host Linda Wertheimer talks with Airgood about how a Chicago outsider's entrance into a sleepy town along the lake reveals aspects of an America long past.

A recent Pew Research Center poll found that the public is closely divided the debt limit debate. It also shows that a great number of people do not understand the consequences of failing to raise the debt limit. Host Linda Wertheimer speaks Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, about the findings.

Close to 10 million people urgently require food aid in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, with children and the elderly in the direst situation. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton travels to Northwest Kenya for a first-hand look at the results of the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa.