A podcast cottage industry that first emerged in the 2016 presidential election is drawing to a close. Critic Nick Quah wonders if the shows, designed to help explain the chaos, simply added to it.
John Powers says The Copenhagen Trilogy is a story about escape — escape from menial work, escape from traditional female roles, escape from boredom, escape from reality, and escape from the heavy weight of a self that was shaped in her childhood, a time, she writes, that's "long and narrow like a coffin."
New York Times reporter Jim Tankersley discusses Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion economic stimulus/pandemic relief package — as well as his plans for infrastructure work and clean energy investment.
Historian Russell Shorto, delved into his own family and his grandfather who was a mob boss in the industrial town of Johnstown, Pa. Shorto says his grandfather's involvement with the Johnstown mob initially began as an offshoot of Prohibition, which opened doors for Italian Americans facing employment discrimination.
Ellen and Ben Harper both grew up in the Folk Music Center in Claremont Calif., which Ellen's parents founded in 1958. They join Fresh Air to discuss Ellen's new memoir, Always a Song.
Now that former President Donald Trump has left office, the community of believers in the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory are left wondering what will happen next. Washington Post national technology reporter Craig Timberg has written about QAnon and related subjects in recent months.
My Year Abroad is Chang-rae Lee's new exuberant novel that takes readers on an excursion out of the New Jersey suburbs and across the Pacific into some of the more luxurious reaches of Asian megacities.
The Lady and the Dale is a new HBO documentary miniseries co-directed by Nick Cammilleri and Zackary Drucker. It's about a female automobile executive who took on the Detroit automakers and tried to market a gas-efficient car in the 1970s, at the height of the oil crisis.
Journalist Jon Fasman says local police are frequently able to access very powerful surveillance tools — including publicly accessible CCTV cameras, automatic license plate readers and cell phone tracking devices — with little oversight. Fasman embedded with different police departments across the country to see how officers integrate technology into their day-to-day job.
The Human Factor gives a behind-the-scenes view of the peace effort between Israel and Palestine. We talk with filmmaker Dror Moreh and Dennis Ross, President Clinton's point man in the effort.
New Yorker writer John Colapinto says the development of vocal structures may have been the key to humans' becoming the dominant species on the planet. His new book is This is the Voice.
King began his career on radio in the '50s and went on to host Larry King Live on CNN, which ran for 25 years and taped over 6,000 shows. He died Jan. 23. Originally broadcast in 1982.
Evan Osnos talks about Joe Biden's enduring quest to become president. He says Biden has a different mindset today than he once had: "He's a man who is at peace." Originally broadcast Oct. 27, 2020.
In the 1960s and '70s, Johnson, who died Jan. 11, played on recordings by Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner and Carla Bley. He also led his own ensembles, including Gravity. Originally broadcast in 1984.
Daniel Lieberman is a professor in the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard. He says that the notion of "getting exercise" — movement just for movement's sake — is a relatively new phenomenon in human history. His new book is Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding.
Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and bassist Mark Helias play together in a new remotely recorded digital album. These seasoned improvisers line up just right, despite the recording challenges.
Trump called climate change a hoax. Biden calls it an existential threat. Washington Post journalist Juliet Eilperin talks about how Biden might reverse some of his predecessor's policies.
Biographer Janice Nimura tells the Blackwell sisters' story in the new book, The Doctors Blackwell. Nimura says Elizabeth was "greeted with everything from rejection to hilarity" during her years at Geneva Medical College in upstate New York.
