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Tell Me More host Michel Martin and editor Ammad Omar crack open the listener inbox for Backtalk. This week, they talk about the controversy surrounding the Washington Redskins' team name.

There's no evidence that it appeals to voters, but a pair of politicians gave the cameras an upthrust middle finger this week. The German candidate tweeted a defense of his gesture, saying: "Straight talk doesn't always need words."

Many Americans are now living longer, but one group is being left behind. The average life expectancy for white women who dropped out of high school is shorter than it was two decades ago. Host Michel Martin finds out more from Monica Potts, a journalist at The American Prospect.

The gelada, found in Ethiopia, makes a gurgling noise that scientists say is close to human speech — at least in how much facial coordination it requires. One theory scientists are trying to test is if the monkey's vocal agility came from its tendency to hang with other geladas in large groups.

For decades, DNA has been used to identify victims of crime, even victims of war crimes. But there's no international standard for using DNA analysis for identifying bodies after a disaster. So some scholars are calling for an international group with the same reach as weapons inspectors.

Congressional investigators said that during a two-year period, the agency paid people who were working while claiming they were disabled.

Terry McMillan, the best-selling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back, tells NPR's Scott Simon that she writes because she wishes she were a magician. She shows off her tricks in Who Asked You?, a novel with many narrators — including a woman named BJ and her husband, children and grandkids.

A group of five United Nations diplomats has gone beyond talking and taken up singing in their effort to achieve world peace. Host Scott Simon talks to several of the ambassadors, whose album, Ambassadors Sing for Peace, came out on Tuesday.

Apple's introduction of two new iPhones — one, made of plastic in bright colors; the other, a more expensive aluminum model available in gold — may create two classes of users. So it will be easy to tell who paid the big bucks and who decided to go cheap.

Famed fashion icons Bethann Hardison, Iman and Naomi Campbell have joined a coalition that presses for more diverse representation on the runway. The group has sent a letter to the governing bodies of the fashion world calling out specific designers for their lack of diversity.