Terry Gross

Ayad Akhtar's debut novel, American Dervish, tells the story of a Pakistani-American boy in Milwaukee coming to terms with his religion and identity. Akbar drew on his own experiences exploring the Muslim faith as a teenager growing up in Wisconsin.

Michelle Alexander says that many of the gains of the civil rights movement have been undermined by the mass incarceration of blacks in the war on drugs.

The Souther actor discusses playing a white supremacist turned born-again Christian on the critically acclaimed FX series Justified -- and how he gets into the mind-set to play one of TV's worst bad boys.