The star of Noah Baumbach's new film, Greenberg, initially wanted to be a serious actor -- and he's still got a thing for Vietnam War movies. Stiller talks to Terry Gross about how he got from that initial ambition to films like Meet the Parents and Zoolander.
A fiery feminist, former political reporter and founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, Carpenter was the person who wrote the 58-word text that newly sworn-in President Lyndon B. Johnson read when he returned to Washington after President Kennedy's assassination. LBJ's onetime executive assistant was also press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson; Fresh Air remembers her with excerpts from a 1987 interview.
Jane's Fame, Claire Harman's book about the author of Emma and Sense and Sensibility, reveals the gap between her legacy -- modest, indifferent to fame and devoted to her characters -- and her ambition.
The AMC seres Breaking Bad and the new Discovery Channel nature series Life premiere on Sunday night -- and Showtimes' Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara are back Monday. TV Critic David Bianculli reviews all four -- and tells you which ones are worth watching.
A story of the sultry all-girl '70s rock band fronted by Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, The Runaways is an exhilarating story of female self-expression that's also a cautionary tale of female exploitation. Kristen Stewart co-stars as Jett, but critic David Edelstein says it's Dakota Fanning as Currie who gives the film its electricity.
Chilton, who died Wednesday from a heart attack, was the lead singer of the '60s teenage band the Box Tops and the '70s power pop group Big Star. He joined Fresh Air for two interview, first in 1991 and again in 2000. Today, we remember the cult musician.
Until his arrest in 2004, nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan -- the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb -- ran a vast smuggling network that sent nuclear material to Iran and Lybia. In his book Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies, weapons expert David Albright explains how Khan's network continues to threaten global security.
The book by the conservative strategist is called Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Rove tells Fresh Air the decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 was not based on wrong information from the Bush administration, but was based on wrong information from the intelligence community.
Michael Lewis' new book The Big Short chronicles the 2008 financial collapse through the investors who realized what was happening to the U.S. economy while it was happening -- and then made a fortune by betting against the markets.
Starting tonight on the FX cable network, Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant is back playing another man with a badge -- this time in Justified, a modern-day Western based on stories by Elmore Leonard. TV critic David Bianculli review the new series for Fresh Air.
Speculation is growing that Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's longest-serving member, will step down in June. New Yorker legal correspondent Jeffrey Toobin discusses who is likely to replace Stevens -- and offers his take on how the court will rule on the future of gun control laws.
Bach's cantatas contain some of his greatest music, but their individual sections are seldom performed out of context, least of all by celebrities. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwarz says Hilary Hahn's new CD, Bach: Violin & Voice, provides a welcome exception to this rule.
Bourne Identity director Paul Greengrass and leading man Matt Damon have re-teamed for Green Zone, a fictionalized account of the U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in the first year of the Iraq occupation. Film critic David Edelstein reviews the political thriller.
After producing Band of Brothers in 2001, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg return to World War II with The Pacific, a 10-part historical miniseries beginning Sunday night on HBO. TV Critic David Bianculli review the series, which examines the Pacific theater of operations.
The Oscar-nominated actress stars in the new Paul Greengrass thriller Green Zone as a journalist investigating the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. She has also played a port authority police officer in the HBO series The Wire and Michael Scott's girlfriend on The Office.
Seven years after the death of Johnny Cash, producer Rick Rubin has selected 10 more songs among the many he produced for Cash late in the singer's life. Rock critic Ken Tucker examines the end result, the album American VI: Ain't No Grave.
Since the U.S. invasion, 4 million Iraqis have had to leave their homes. An additional 2 million have left the country entirely, and many are still outside its borders. NPR's Deborah Amos tells the story of these displaced Iraqi citizen in her new book, Eclipse of the Sunnis.
Vince Gilligan created the Emmy Award-winning drama Breaking Bad, starring Bryan Cranston as a high-school chemistry teacher who becomes a meth dealer to secure his family's finances. Gilligan tells David Bianculli why he chose Cranston for the role -- and why he thinks Breaking Bad is different from every other show on TV.
David M. Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States. His book, Comeback America, details the current financial crisis and offers his ideas on controlling spending and restoring fiscal responsibility in the United States.
Singer and songwriter Mark Linkous, who performed under the name Sparklehorse, took his own life at the age of 47. Rock critic Ken Tucker remembers the man behind the albums Good Morning Spider and It's a Wonderful Life.
