The blues and rock guitar player's career was put on hold when he was arrested and imprisoned for charges that may have been racially motivated. Rock historian Ed Ward reflects on some of Berry's post-prison work, which never matched his earlier success.
O'Neil worked at NBC and CBS before starting his own independent network. He joins Fresh Air to discuss how football teams and networks have coordinated before games, the pros and cons of instant replays, and his new book, The Game Behind the Game.
The book Geek Love is about carnival performers who intentionally take drugs during pregnancy in order to give birth to deformed children. Author Katherine Dunn says she used deformity as a metaphor to make a larger point about body image and disability.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new made-for-TV movie about a murder investigation on a space colony. It's enjoyable enough -- but even with a scantily clad star and improbable plot, it's no Barbarella.
Bassist Eberhad Weber's new album, on the ECM label, is airy, effects-laden, and often devoid of blues-inflected harmony. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says it's the kind of thing he usually hates -- but he still likes Weber's music.
Anderson was a street performer and con artist before he was cast in the first season of Cheers. That part eventually led to his role in the show Night Court. Anderson has a new book called Games You Can't Lose: A Guide for Suckers.
Critic Ken Tucker says the new video Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons is a delightful reminder of the wry ways Americans dealt with their emotions during World War II.
At 65, Kuhn was forced to retire from her job solely because of her age. In 1969, she founded the Gray Panthers, which advocated for the rights and dignity of older people. Early on, the group also participated in the anti-war movement. Kuhn joins Fresh Air to talk about aging and the different expectations placed on people of her generation.
Each of Grafton's detective novels begin with a letter of the alphabet. Her newest book is called "F" Is for Fugitive. She says that, in order to bring authenticity to her stories, she studied up on forensics, visited a morgue, and learned to fire a gun.
Ken Tucker says Petty's first album without his backing band, Full Moon Fever, makes him proud to be an American -- it's a fine, mainstream rock album.
The Italian film director died last week at the age of 67. Film critic Stephen Schiff says that Leone's movies had a unique symbolism and vision of the American West that only an outsider could have imagined.
Maureen Corrigan has regularly read the Sunday New York Times wedding announcements. She says the kind of information that's printed -- and the kinds of couples who are highlighted might say as much about the paper's editorial slant as much as it does the current state of marriage.
Band leader and composer Mercer Ellington is the son of Duke Ellington, and leads the Duke Ellington Band. As a young man, Mercer Ellington played trombone, French horn and trumpet in his father's ensemble. Two recent Mercer Ellington albums have won wide acclaim: "Digital Duke" and "For Ellington," performed by the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says that some composers elevate film scores, including Bernard Hermann, who wrote the music for several Alfred Hitchcock movies. A new collection of those compositions is now out on CD.
Tom Goodkind, Bruce Paskow, and Lauren Agnelli are veterans of the New York punk scene. Their new band, the Washington Squares, plays traditional folk songs with a rock edge.
Book critic John Leonard reviews David Grossman's novel See Under: Love, about Holocaust survivors. Leonard says he's still not sure if the fantastic plot and inventive structure work -- or if the ambitious book is indeed a masterpiece.
Wayans is the brother of actor and director Keenan Ivory Wayans, and has been pursuing a career in stand-up. He's been appearing in films recently like Beverly Hills Cop, though he's frustrated by the lack of complex and varied roles for black actors. Wayans' forthcoming movie is called Earth Girls are Easy.
Rock historian Ed Ward says the term has been mis-applied, often describing bands that record labels saw as commercially viable, rather than the kind of music they played. He says that Bob Dylan pioneered the folk-rock sound; British bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span helped it evolve.
Buckley co-founded the National Review and hosts the television program Firing Line. His new book, On the Firing Line, includes transcripts of some of his interviews. Buckley studied at Yale and later joined the CIA. Throughout his professional career, he has sought to revitalize the political right and the Republican Party.
