Stephen Sondheim is widely hailed as the greatest modern American musical theater composer. Elisa New speaks with Broadway stage actors and Adam Gopnik to explore Sondheim's singular ability to blend lyrics and music.

Yusef Komunyakaa went to Vietnam as a journalist but came home a poet. John Kerry, Julie Taymor, Elliot Goldenthal, a chorus of veterans and Komunyakaa himself discuss the beauty and horror of war – and the challenge of making art of it.

Join John Hodgman, Rafael Campo, Jane Hirshfield, a chorus of couples and host Elisa New as they consider what may or may not lie beneath the surface of William Carlos Williams's brief tribute to marital relations.