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Host David Wright talks with ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin, Ph.D, about his new book Medicine Quest. Plotkin has done extensive research throughout the rainforests of South America to explore the healing secrets of the natural world. Plotkin says we have a lot to learn from the biodiversity of the rainforest, especially from unlikely sources such as spiders, snakes and tree bark.

Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Ted Clark about the Middle East Peace talks underway at Camp David. President Clinton returned from a four-day trip to Japan and immediately plunged back into the negotiations, trying to determine if there was potential for a peace accord to be reached.

NPR's Guy Raz reports on the history of the Vice Presidency. It wasn't until the 20th Century that the position took on real importance. Even today, the position requires someone who can both balance the ticket and fit into the administration.

Eight days of intense track and field competition wrapped up on Sunday night in Sacramento. Coaches and athletes consider these US Olympic trials as one of the greatest track meets in the world. The high levels of competition mean many world class athletes don't make the US Olympic team. KPBS reporter Nancy Greenleese has the story.

Playwright and Commentator Thom Jones talks about basketball and "Yo Mama" jokes, in a piece adapted from his play, "Birth of the Boom."

Host Bob Edwards talks to NPR's Steve Inskeep about the possibility that Texas Governor George W. Bush will choose former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as his running mate. Bush is expected to make the announcement today.

Linda talks to Jacob Weisberg, SLATE magazine's chief political correspondent, about the latest round of political ads for the presidential campaigns.

NPR's Nina Totenberg reports on a very conservative appeals court that made a series of important and controversial decisions that made it to the Supreme Court this past term. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals was upheld by the Supreme Court on its ruling that a key part of the Violence Against Women Act was unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court rejected the 4th Circuit's decision that the Miranda warnings to a criminal suspect were not necessary if a court were confident the defendant's confession was given voluntarily.

THINKING -- Commentator Donald McCaig says the countryside can be noisy, with the sounds of thunderstorms or the peeping of frogs and bleating of sheep. But on summer evenings it's quiet enough to hear yourself think. He says that's unlike the city, where the challenge is not so much the din, as knowing what the noises mean. (2:30)NOTE: MUSIC AFTER THIS PIECE WAS HARMONICA VIRTUOSO RICHARD HUNTER, FROM HIS CD "THE SECOND ACT OF BEING FREE" ON TURTLE HILL PRODUCTIONS, PO BOX 651, MONROE, ct 06468-0651. PHONE: 203-459

Karen Michel reports on the Alice Neel retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Painter of New York's famous and not-so-famous, Neel's uncompromising adherence to figurative painting at the height of abstract expressionism left her outside the city's art scene for much of her life. The Whitney exhibit is the first major retrospective of Alice Neel's artwork since her death in 1984.