Terry Gross

Few topics are off-limits for the brash comedian: She has joked about her many face lifts, her husband's suicide, her bankruptcy and the sacrifices she made as a female performer. The documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work follows the comedian as she fights to still make people laugh.

When the Hoover Dam was finished in 1935, it was three times larger than any other dam on the planet. Journalist Michael Hiltzik examines the humongous engineering achievement — including how the Hoover Dam was conceived, designed and built — in a new book, Colossus.

Pawnshops, payday lenders, check cashers and rent-to-own companies take in $33 billion a year. In writing his new book, Broke, USA, Gary Rivlin discovered how the businesses justified making huge profits off the working poor.