TV critic David Bianculli previews public television's "P.O.V." episode called "Dream Deceivers," an analysis of a Nevada court case in which the heavy metal band Judas Priest was sued by the parents of two teenagers who shot themselves after listening to the band's music.
The record label, led by producer Sam Phillips, launched the careers of legends like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Rock historian Ed Ward remembers several of the other, lesser-known acts Phillips signed during Sun's heyday.
On the anniversary of soprano Maria Callas' death, classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz will review two new video cassettes of televised performances Callas gave in Hamburg, Germany in 1959 and 1962.
J&J recently lost a bid to settle lawsuits that claimed its talc powder products, including baby powder, caused cancer. Author Gardiner Harris says the company's defense "is beginning to crumble."
Advocate for the aging Maggie Kuhn died last Saturday at age 89. She won national attention for the cause of the elderly when she formed The Gray Panthers, a highly successful lobbying group that pressured local, state and federal agencies recognize the rights of the aging. (Rebroadcast)
In her memoir, Susannah Cahalan writes about the month she descended into madness, experiencing seizures, paranoia, psychosis and catatonia. At first, her family was frightened, and her doctors, baffled. The eventual prognosis? A rare autoimmune disease that was attacking her brain.
Movie producer Art Linson. He broke into Hollywood with "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." His other films include "Casualties of War", "The Untouchables," and "This Boy's Life". The New York Times called him an "energetic tough guy film maker with a tendency for the offbeat." Linson grew tired of everyone (including his mother) always asking what he does. So he's written a book about his job called "A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood" (Grove Press).
Married Broadway stars Danny Burstein and Rebecca Luker both contracted COVID in the spring. Burstein was hospitalized. Luker's case was less severe, but it came soon after she was diagnosed with ALS.
Wainwright is best known for his 1973 hit "Dead Skunk ." Considered by many to be a satirical and caustic folksinger, his latest album, History, is a highly personal album. He sings frankly about marriage, parenthood, and child abuse.
Drummer Ralph Peterson's partners are two brothers who are a generation younger than him. The album Triangular III catches this working band in action.
Camilla Taylor, lawyer for the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, was lead lawyer on Varnum v. Brien — the case that led to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage there.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz never saw She Loves Me on Broadway, but recently discovered the reissued original cast recording. He says the musical has the feel of classic operetta, and succeeds at everything it sets out to do.
Sculptor Duane Hanson died on Saturday in a Baca Raton hospital in Florida at the age of 70. The cause was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to the The Miami Herald. We'll hear an interview with Hanson conducted in 1990. Hanson was known internationally for his life-size super-realistic sculptures of people. His sculptures are so life-like that a museum worker in Florida once called the fire department for help when one of Hanson's sculptures failed to respond to his attempts to get her attention. Hanson was born in Alexandria, Minn in 1925. [Originally broadcast 6/18/90]
Foxcatcher is about wealthy heir John du Pont who hosted Olympic wrestlers on his estate. The director talks about casting Steve Carrell, the challenge of filming wrestling scenes and his film Capote.
As jurors deliberate whether to convict Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Masha Gessen says there are still some "gaping holes" in the case. Her new book is The Brothers.
Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone discusses the comedy of Harry Shearer, best known for his two years on the cast of "Saturday Night Live" and for his role as the heavy metalist Derrick Small in the movie "This is Spinal Tap," the concert film spoof.
We remember crime novelist George V. Higgins. He was found dead at his home on Saturday, apparently of natural causes. He was 59. He was best known for his best seller, "Friends of Eddie Coyle," published in 1972. (REBROADCAST from 9/30/1986)
As a former counterterrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations, Richard A. Clarke often had to imagine worst-case scenarios. His first novel — a thriller — does just that: set five years in the future, it envisions the United States on the verge of another war in the Middle East.
The intersection of religion and politics was a subject of dispute this year when the question arose over whether Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should receive communion. McCarrick is the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and heads of the task force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians.
