In The Secret History of the War on Cancer, environmental-health expert Devra Davis warns that we're ignoring dozens of cancer-causing chemicals, like asbestos, benzene, vinyl chloride, and dioxin.
She writes that, like the tobacco companies, the chemical industry has managed to obfuscate the carcinogenic dangers of chemical and other toxic waste.
Davis directs the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and teaches epidemiology in the university's public-health graduate program.
Rock historian Ed Ward looks back at the birth of the country music industry, during the early days of Fiddlin' John Carson, A.P. Carter and his wife, Sarah, and the Tenneva Ramblers.
In 2015, three Americans on a Paris-bound train stopped a terrorist attack in progress. Eastwood recreates the incident — and audaciously casts the real-life heroes as themselves — in his new film.
Fresh Air book critic, Maureen Corrigan has more suggestions for summer reading: "A Little Yellow Dog" by Walter Mosely (W.W. Norton); "Cause of Death" by Patricia Cornwell (G.P. Putmans Sons); and "Lily White," by Susan Isaacs (HarperCollins).
John Hope Franklin died March 25 at the age of 94. As a historian, scholar, and activist Franklin advanced African-American causes throughout his career. Fresh Air remembers the historian and scholar with an interview from 1990.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead remembers Mengelberg, who died Friday, as a "musical anarchist" who taught classical counterpoint and wrote dozens of catchy melodies.
Television critic David Bianculli considers the networks' penchant for the docudrama and looks at NBC's upcoming movie, "Howard Beach: Making the Case for Murder."
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced many Americans to reshape their lives. For New Yorkers whose plans and priorities were cast loose, the shocking losses were followed by a challenge: what to do next. That dilemma is at the heart of Jay McInerney's The Good Life.
Yeoh felt relieved when she first read the script for Everything Everywhere All at Once: Finally, here was a film that cast a middle-aged mother as an action hero. Originally broadcast April 2022.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new film "Don Juan de Marco" starring Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway -- a cast full of attractive magnetism.
The first volume of Kaoru Takamura's 1997 eccentric crime thriller has just been translated into English. Inspired by a real-life case, Lady Joker reveals its world in rich, polyphonic detail.
Frank Chin is critical of many other contemporary Asian American writers; their works, he says, rely too much on western forms, cater to white audiences, and misrepresent Asian culture. His new collection of short stories, The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R.R. Co, reveals his own perspectives on the Chinese American experience.
TV critic David Bianculli calls the new sitcom, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis, has an intriguing premise and promising cast, but it follows a familiar, cookie-cutter formula, and its writing needs work.
Record producer Thomas Z. Shepard, one of the most imaginative and successful producers of Broadway and classical recordings. Shepard has produced the cast recordings for "Sweeney Todd," "Ain't Misbehavin'," "La Cage Aux Folles," and "Me and My Girl," which has just been nominated for a Grammy.
Two kinds of people consume Christmas music: those who actually like the stuff, and folks who need something listenable on hand in case seasonal visitors insist on some ornamental mood music. For both groups, two new jazz brass albums should do the trick. Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews.
Fresh Air's movie critic does not think any masterpieces were made this year, but he does compare Daniel Day Lewis to Julius Caesar and have some choice thoughts on the movie version of Les Mis.
The East is a romantic activist outlaw fantasy in which Brit Marling plays an agent who poses as a radical activist to catch an eco-terrorist group. It's one of those melodramas in which someone on the morally wrong side has a spasm of conscience and maybe crosses over. Maybe.
Architecture and Design Critic Thomas Hine has written a new book, The Total Package: The Evolution and Secret Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Tubes. He explores the effect packages have on consumer emotions and purchases.
