Farai Chideya runs through the day's headlines of news affecting black life and culture. Thursday's topics include the reversal of a controversial prison sentence in Georgia and Fisk University being barred from selling paintings once owned by artist Georgia O'Keefe.

As a child, Bettye Kearse heard the same story that her mother and grandfather heard when they were children: She was a direct descendant of former President James Madison. She and forensic scientist Dr. Bruce Jackson talk about trying to prove Kearse's lineage through DNA testing.

When men have a hard time taking care of themselves, health journalist Andrea King Collier and Dr. Willarda Edwards say women should be equipped to step in. They've penned the book, The Black Woman's Guide to Black Men's Health.

Detroit Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield is baseball's perennial bad boy. He says what he wants, when he wants. He recently shook things up by taking on baseball's head office, saying that Major League Baseball prefers Latin American players to African Americans. His new memoir is Inside Power.

Singer and musician Maysa soothed and electrified audiences in the '90s as a member of the British jazz band Incognito. Now the sultry singer explains why has lent her voice to a new record of R&B; oldies.

Ousmane Sembene of Senegal was a novelist, film-maker and a beacon of hope and resistance to many across the continent of Africa. He died last weekend at the age of 84. Odile Cazenave, associate professor at Boston University's department of romance studies, talks about his significance.