Monday night on PBS, American Masters presents a two-hour biography of Johnny Carson. Carson retired 20 year ago this month, and vacated a throne that TV critic David Bianculli says no one has managed to claim since.
Book critic John Leonard says that the collected letters of humorist S.J. Perelman reveal a surprising amount of vitriol directed toward a number of notable film and literary figures. But it's not all doom and gloom.
Our first Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, David Scheffer. As such, he looks into violations of international humanitarian law anywhere in the world. He's just returned from Macedonia where his mission was to see what conditions the Kosovo refugees were exposed to, and to determine the nature of the crimes committed against them. Scheffer is a senior aide to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato released a dazzling CD of Handel arias — Furore, a collection of set-pieces from operas and oratorios in which Handel's characters experience flights of passion.
Benjamin Natelson is a neurologist who directs the New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Center. He's just written "Facing and Fighting Fatigue: A Practical Approach." (Yale University Press) He specializes in treating chronic fatigue syndrome. He says that while many people think CFS is all in their heads, there is actually a physiological component to the condtion.
A new monologue by the NPR commentator, playwright, and housecleaner. "Drama Bug" was featured on This American Life, a nationally broadcast radio program hosted by Ira Glass and produced at WBEZ in Chicago. Sedaris is known nationally for his humor writing; he launched his radio commentator career with his "SantaLand Diaries," broadcast during NPR's "Morning Edition in 1992.
Singer-songwriter Peter Case. He took a Greyhound to California in the 70s, played guitar on the streets of San Francisco, and later got involved in the L.A. band scene in the early 80s, where he started a band called The Plimsouls. Since then, he's had a solo career. His new album is called "Six Pack of Love" (it's on the Geffen label).
As a Black artist in the indie-rock space, Strange makes distinctively original music. Where his debut album showcased a highly eclectic performer, his sophomore effort is even more impressive.
Novelist Mary Gordon has a new collection of essays, "Good Boys and Dead Girls: And Other Essays." Catholicism has been a constant theme in her novels, which include: "Final Payment," and "The Company of Women." American fiction by men, Catholicism, and abortion are some of the issues she write about in her new book
Musician Laurel Sprengelmeyer — aka Little Scream — refers to prayer, devotion, heaven and Satan on her new album. Critic Ken Tucker calls Cult Following a "testament to desire and endurance."
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new series of original Broadway cast albums from shows that didnât succeed but which contained numbers that shouldnât be forgotten. (on DECCA).
Jack Gillis, director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America and author of The Car Book. He will release consumer test results on how the 1988 cars scored for safety, fuel economy, comfort, etc.
In the summer of 1998 she began work on her new album, Roads of Travel, and it was released in March, 2003. It includes a duet with her father, Johnny Cash. Other guest vocalists include Sheryl Crow and Steve Earle. Last month, Cash's stepmother June Cash died.
French actor Vincent Cassel plays a ballet-company boss who pushes a fragile Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. The character is a hard guy -- though not quite the ruthless gangster Cassel played in the thriller Mesrine.
Singer June Carter Cash was a Grammy-winning singer, a songwriter, musician, actress and author. She was married to Johnny Cash, and she came from the Carter Family, the country music pioneers. She died of complications from heart surgery at age 73, just four months before Johnny Cash died. This interview originally aired on June 19, 1987.
Serial Productions, which is part of New York Times Audio, has just released a new documentary podcast series called "The Coldest Case In Laramie." It's hosted by Kim Barker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who's covered policing. Podcast critic Nick Quah has this review.
Public intellectual George Scialabba contemplates the role of great — and not so great — thinkers in his new collection of essays, What Are Intellectuals Good For? Critic Maureen Corrigan calls it "a pleasure to read."
Ronan Farrow's 2017 exposé of the sexual misconduct allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein in The New Yorker earned him a Pulitzer Prize and helped usher in the #MeToo movement. Now, in his new book, Catch and Kill, Farrow writes about the extreme tactics Weinstein allegedly took in an attempt to keep him from reporting the story.
