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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. It's easy to assume that we humans rule the Earth. After all, we can clear-cut forests, we can chop the tops off mountains. We can harvest anything we want from the land or the sea. But before we get too cocky, let's not forget about those other titans of the Earth, the bugs.

Police departments have come under increased scrutiny from the Obama administration as the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division steps up investigations of corruption, bias and excessive force.

Some of the targeted law enforcement agencies have had ethical clouds hanging over them for years — the New Orleans Police Department being the prime example — but others, like the Seattle Police Department, aren't exactly usual suspects.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, we'll hear how a former male model and amateur boxer with no experience making documentaries wound up making one about the elusive and irascible drummer of the legendary rock band Cream. That's in just a few minutes.

This interview was originally broadcast on Sept. 21, 1999.

It's no coincidence that composer Philip Glass and This American Life host Ira Glass have the same last name: They're second cousins, but they didn't know each other well when the Field Museum in the Chicago asked Ira to interview Philip on stage in 1999.

On today's Fresh Air, we replay excerpts from that conversation in honor of Philip's 75th birthday, which is Tuesday.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Forty years ago tonight, the Peanuts gang made Halloween history with the first broadcast of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!.

The animated cartoon, featuring Charlie, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Snoopy and of course the Red Baron, was the third "Peanuts" TV special. And it might have been the last, according to producer Lee Mendelson, who remembers CBS executives pressuring the show's creators.

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MICHEL MARTIN, Host:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News.

The protests and the violence in Libya are continuing, which has led to a jump in oil prices, which has led to a jump in the price of gas. We'll talk about how and why what is going on half a world away is affecting what's left in our wallets here. That is later in the program.