The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters have written together since the 1970s for several major newspapers and magazines. Their latest piece covers Native American-owned casinos and appears in this month's Time magazine. This September, they also published The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You.
Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code is second only to the Harry Potter series as the best-selling novel of all time. It has inspired a whole slew of writing on Biblical puzzles, the life of Mary Magdalene, and some debunking of Brown's premise.
Now comes the long-anticipated film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou. Our film critic says that the real story about this mega-budget movie is that it's an embarrassing nonevent.
Monsignor John Patrick Foley of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Temple University professor Leonard Swidler discuss their views on the popularity of the pope, his concern for social justice, and what some see as his conservative positions toward doctrine, hierarchy, and women in the church. Fresh Air listeners call in with their questions.
Father Niall O'Brien. He has worked for over 20 years as a missionary priest in the Philippines. He was imprisoned by the Marcos regime because he helped the poor to start self-reliant Christian communities. He continues his work in the Philippines under the Aquino government.
New mysteries, new jeopardies and only eight episodes to explore them: The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are back, but the ongoing Hollywood writers strike means a shorter season than planned. Fresh Air's TV critic — and him you can trust — previews the season premiere of Lost, airing tonight on ABC.
Newsweek magazine's religion writer Kenneth L. Woodward's new book examines the politics surrounding how the Roman Catholic Church decides who will become a saint. Woodward says it's the most democratic process in a profoundly undemocratic institution.
Father Michael Doyle. He's the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Camden, New Jersey, which sits in the center of a rundown neighborhood in one of the most depressed cities on the East coast. A deeply religious man who over the years has had his differences with the church hierarchy, Fr. Doyle has committed his church to social change and helping the poor.
Allen writes for the National Catholic Reporter. He's a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR, and he writes a weekly Internet column called The Word from Rome. His new book is called, All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks.
With Desmond Tutu leaving as the Anglican Bishop of Capetown, South Africa, Njongonkulu Ndugane will replace him. He is an outspoken leader against poverty, third-world debt, and HIV/AIDS.
The much anticipated conclusion of ABC's mystery-drenched serial drama didn't clear up everyone's questions. But to critic David Bianculli, it did make for a satsifying capstone to a story that captivated millions.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times columnist's new memoir explores her past, present and future — her relationships with her parents and children, her faith, her career and her feelings about herself over the past five decades.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews the premiere of the new season of Lost. The ABC series about a group of castaways on an island is going into its second season.
In a new memoir, James Lasdun describes how a former-student-turned-friend stalked and slandered him online. Give Me Everything You Have is a meditation on what it means to control your reputation on the Internet -- and the book is Lasdun's attempt to fight back.
Journalist Andres Oppenheimer is the senior foreign correspondent for The Miami Herald. He spent more than five months in Cuba researching his new book, "Castro's Final Hour," which looks into how the country has been affected by the collapse of Soviet Union, which had provided ample material support to Castro's government.
Novelist, essayist, and reporter Barbara Grizutti Harrison. Her new book is called "Italian Days." It's a chronicle of her travels through Italy, but it's also more introspective, influenced by her parents Italian heritage and her conversion to Catholicism after a childhood spent in the Jehovah's Witnesses.
This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. The Nobel Prize winner, who died in 2019, spoke about aging and regret in this 2015 interview.
Dave Brubeck's quartet released the groundbreaking record Time Out, which introduced odd-time signature jazz music to a mainstream audience. He was recently commissioned to compose a Catholic mass.
TV critic David Bianculli review the original pilot of "Gilligan's Island," which will be broadcast for the first time. He says it might be worse than the original.
