Early Jazz from Around the Country

Journalist Sylvester Monroe grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing project on Chicago's South Side; he was later accepted into a private prep school and, eventually, Harvard. Drawing on these experiences, Monroe wrote for Newsweek about the underreported experience of poor black men in the United States. He has expanded that work into a book, called Brothers.

The critically-acclaimed jazz artist is known for her use of electronics in her performances. She joins Fresh Air to discuss musical development and her experience as a woman in a male-dominated scene.

TV critic David Bianculli says that the new CBS drama, about a couple's marriage and divorce, reminds him of the Wonder Years, Moonlighting, and Thirtysomething. The flashbacks to past decades are novel, but replete with unrealistic dialogue and stilted references to pop culture of the time.