Terry Gross

Former national security official Rush Doshi says President Trump's sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods sparked a clash in which China prevailed. We look at the current state of U.S.-China relations.

Boots Riley's new film is "I Love Boosters." It opens in theaters on May 22.

Tech reporter JOANNA STERN. She’s chief technology analyst for NBC news. Her new book is called I am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to do (almost) Everything. It chronicles the experiment she tried throughout most of 2025, handing over every task, large and small, to AI - if AI was capable of doing it. From reading her mammogram and ultra sound, to folding her t-shirts, responding to her email and texts, serving as her therapist, and helping her write her book.

TV critic DAVID BIANCULLI reviews “Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure,” a special celebrating Sir David Attenborough’s contributions to the history of nature documentaries. It premiered May 6 on PBS. Attenborough turned 100 May 8th.

Film critic JUSTIN CHANG reviews Silent Friend, a century-spanning film about humanity’s relationship with the plant world.

Enter Me

Producer JEFFREY SELLER. He produced Rent with his business partner. Seller's own company produced Hamilton. He also was a producer of Lin Manuel Miranda’s first musical, In the Heights – as well as the satirical adult puppet musical, Avenue Q, and the revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban. Seller grew up without much money in a neighborhood outside Detroit that was nicknamed Cardboard Village, because the houses were so cheap and shoddy. Seller is the author of the memoir Theater Kid.

TV critic DAVID BIANCULLI reviews the latest adaptation of William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies. It's the first adaptation for television and it is presented by Netflix and the BBC.

(1.) Journalist GEORGE PACKER is a staff writer at The Atlantic. His new article is titled The Venture-Capital Populist: How David Sacks and the New Tech Right went Full Maga and Captured Washington.” He writes about how and why many Silicon Valley leaders have become identified with the Right, with President Donald Trump and MAGA. These tech billionaires are now often referred to as oligarchs, because of their money, power, and access to the White House. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

Legal scholar KIMBERLE WILLIAMS CRENSHAW. She coined the expressions: critical race theory and intersectionality. She wanted those expressions to help describe racial and gender discrimination in America. Her new memoir is called Backtalker: An American Memoir. (INTERVIEW BY TONYA MOSLEY) (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).