Guests
"My first rhymes were... kind of advanced for a young kid. 'I'm the king of hip-hop/Renewed like the Reebok' ... I look back on that rhyme now and I'm like, man, that's pretty prophetic."
Jay-Z is one of the most successful hip-hop artists of all time. He discusses growing up in Brooklyn surrounded by drugs and violence, and the stories behind many of his famous songs.
"I wanted to be an actress. The comedy was making secretaries laugh so I could get in to see the agent. And finally one secretary said to me: You're very funny, you should do stand-up."
Before she passed away in 2014, Rivers talked with Fresh Air in 1991, 2010 and 2012 about how her comedy evolved -- and why she didn't care what others thought of her.
"I built up a sort of pharmacological launch pad with amphetamines and LSD and a little cannabis on top of that, and when I was really stoned I said: I want to see indigo now."
The famed neurologist talks to Fresh Air about how grief, trauma, brain injury, medications and neurological disorders can trigger hallucinations -- and about his personal experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs in the 1960s.