Our Favorite Author Interviews of 2012

Almost every day on our program, we end with a "Reporter's Notebook," on events or issues that aren't necessarily leading the news. Today, we present a collection of our favorite interviews from this year with the authors of remarkable books. We hear how Barack Obama's biographer learned more than the President knew about his own ancestry; why Exxon-Mobil's not really an American company — and how women came out of the secretarial pool into senior positions in the news industry. We also get a scathing account of America's fumbling efforts to transform Afghanistan — before and during our longest war. Plus, a conversation with Salman Rushdie about surviving a fatwa.