History

Journalist Justice Malala explains how Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk kept the country on a path to peace after the 1993 assassination of Chris Hani. His book is The Plot to Save South Africa.

Belafonte starred in films and helped popularize calypso music in the U.S. in the 1950s. In the '60s he became a civil rights activist. He died April 25. Originally broadcast in 1993.

Since the 1960s, Mitchell has been one of the most influential singer songwriters in popular music. We'll listen back to her 2004 Fresh Air interview.

Shields has had a long career as a model, and a Broadway film and television actor. A new two-part Hulu documentary looks at her childhood roles and the toxic culture that perpetuates misogyny.

Smith's poems, which are addressed to his young children, describe what their ancestors endured and escaped. He also examines the joy and anxiety of parenthood, especially as a Black father.

Linda Simpson performed in and chronicled the drag scene in the '80s and '90s, taking some 5,000 photos of performers. She calls Tennessee's anti-drag legislation "ridiculous."

Caro isn't solely interested in telling the stories of famous men. Instead, he says, "I wanted to use their lives to show how political power worked." Originally broadcast in 2013 and 2019.

Jolicoeur, who died Feb. 12, co-founded the hip-hop group De La Soul in the 1980s, while still in high school. The group brought a sense of fun and wit to the genre. Originally broadcast in 2000.

Bacharach, who died Feb. 8, wrote hits in the '60s and early '70s with longtime collaborator Hal David. We listen to a 2010 interview with them.

Journalist Mark Whitaker says that much of what's happening in American race relations today traces back to 1966, the year when the Black Panthers were founded and the Black Power movement took full form.

Otsuka has recently been awarded the Carnegie Medal for Excellence for her novel about a Japanese American woman who's lost much of her memory to dementia. Originally broadcast Feb. 22, 2022.

Imani Perry says the South can be seen as an "origin point" for the way the nation operates. Her book South to America traces the steps of an enslaved ancestor. Originally broadcast Jan. 25, 2022.

British-born Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer profiled Netanyahu in his 2018 biography Bibi. He describes Netanyahu, who's served more than 15 years as Israel's prime minister, as a knowledgeable statesman whose interests lie in macroeconomics and geopolitics. But, Pfeffer adds, Netanyahu has a "strange detachment" when it comes to social issues.

American Sirens author Kevin Hazzard tells the story Freedom House, a neighborhood nonprofit that, with the help of a pioneering physician, trained some of the nation's first paramedics.

Maddow's podcast uncovers the widespread anti-Semitic, pro-German sympathies active among major religious and political leaders in the U.S. in the lead-up to U.S. entering WWII.

Author Adam Hochschild says Wilson used the first World War as an excuse to spy on Americans, censor the press and plan for the mass deportation of immigrants. His new book is American Midnight.

The scenes in the new documentary Harvest Time show footage taken when Young was making the album Harvest. We listen back to two Fresh Air interviews with Young, from 1992 and 2004.

In How the Word Is Passed, author Clint Smith explored U.S. sites that deal with the legacy of slavery. Now, in The Atlantic, he writes about German memorials to the Holocaust.

Infantryman Robert Kotlowitz was one of only three in his platoon to survive an ill-advised attack on the Germans. Robert Williams served with the Tuskegee Airmen. Originally broadcast in '99 and '95.

Steven Spielberg's new film "The Fabelmans" is a semi-autobiographical film based on his childhood and teenage years, and tells the story, in a fictionalized way, of how he fell in love with movies, and became a filmmaker.