Segments by Date

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone reviews the film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.

Comedian Richard Belzer. After struggling through a poor and difficult childhood and a rough decade trying to make it as a comic, he is now performing in comedy clubs from coast to coast. He is also appearing in movies, and starring in comedy specials on cable TV.

Paul Grushkin, author of a new book titled The Art of Rock, which traces the last 30 years of rock through the art designed to promote concerts.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker surveys his picks for the year's 10 best releases.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff surveys his picks for the year's ten best, and worst, films.

Fresh Air's Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone, whose writing on contemporary culture appears regularly in The Village Voice.

Book critic John Leonard reviews a collection of essays by Primo Levi.

Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new Angel Records CD of previously unreleased performances of soprano Maria Callas.

David Dinges, a professor of psychology at The University of Pennsylvania. He has recently started a chronobiology research lab to study how cycles of time and light can affect behavior and mental health. He will discuss our internal biological clock, sleep disorders, and how shortage of light can affect our moods.

Language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg addresses the lengths companies go to in order to come up with the right names for new products.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead surveys his picks for the year's ten best releases.

Aljean Harmetz. She writes about the personalities and business of Hollywood's film industry for The New York Times.

Poet, essayist and short story writer Tess Gallagher. A collection of her new and earlier poetry has just been published. It's titled Amplitude: New and Selected Poems.

Television Critic David Bianculli reviews "The Singing Detective," the BBC miniseries that PBS will air in early January. The series was written by Dennis Potter, who wrote the 10-hour 1979 BBC series "Pennies From Heaven," starring Bob Hoskins.

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.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker continues his review of new recordings with a Christmas theme. His survey begins with the punk band The Ramones and ends with Prince.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Ironweed" based on the novel by William Kennedy. It stars Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Carol Baker.

Rock singer and songwriter Bryan Ferry. In the 1970s, he was the lead singer and principal songwriter for the British band Roxy Music, the band that also launched the career of Brian Eno.

Food writer Mimi Sheraton. She is the food critic for Time Magazine. She has written for the New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine, and she's written several books on food and dining out and now publishes a newsletter.

Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews two recordings of the Gershwin musicals "Of Thee I Sing" and "Let 'Em Eat Cake." They were both conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas earlier this year on the fiftieth anniversary of the composer's death.