Terry Gross

The AMC show about a high school chemistry teacher turned meth dealer ended its fifth and final season on Sunday. Writers Peter Gould and Thomas Schnauz say there was "absolute sadness" in the writers' room as they put the last plot points into place.

In his new book Tip and the Gipper, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews reflects on his time as a top aide to Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill during Ronald Reagan's presidency. He compares O'Neill and Reagan's unlikely friendship to today's approach of "government by tantrum."

In The Story of the Human Body, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman explains how our bodies haven't adapted to modern conditions. The result is "mismatch diseases" -- ailments that occur because our bodies weren't designed for the environments in which we now live.