Nastaha Lyonne co-created, co-wrote and stars in the Netflix series Russian Doll, about a woman who keeps dying the same death and comes back to life to do it again. The idea of dying and coming back to life has personal resonance for Lyonne.
John Mulaney spent five years as a writer on SNL. He won an Emmy for writing his 2018 comedy special Kid Gorgeous, which was recorded live at Radio City, and is streaming on Netflix. In the animated series Big Mouth, about adolescence and puberty, Mulaney voices the character Andrew.
.J.M. Berger studies extremists, their twisted ideologies, the misinformation they feed on, how they use social media to amplify their message and recruit new followers, and the violent acts they incite and commit.
The former co-leader of the Aussie band The Go-Betweens reflects on success and failure on his latest solo album. Critic Ken Tucker says Inferno is proof of Forster's credentials as a pop musician.
Dale told Fresh Air in 1993 that his distinctive guitar style came, in part, from the ocean waves he surfed: "The waves did create my feelings of that sound." Dale died March 16.
The former U.S. poet laureate, who died March 15, was a prolific writer as well as a conservationist and a conscientious objector during World War II. He spoke to Fresh Air in 2008.
Showtime's drama about wealthy New York power players features writing, acting and directing that have gotten better with each season. Critic David Bianculli calls the show "astoundingly relevant."
Peele mixes horror and hilarity in a new film about a family who runs into terrifying doppelgängers of themselves while on vacation. Critic Justin Chang says star Lupita Nyong'o carries the movie.
New Yorker journalist Ed Caesar discusses Arron Banks, the British businessman who funded the most extreme end of the pro-Brexit "Leave" campaign — possibly with help from Russia.
Blanton makes folk-based music that prizes wordplay and has an antic sense of humor. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the personal is always political on her new album.
Both Lennie Tristano and Herbie Nichols were active on the New York scene in the 1950s. Though worlds apart stylistically, their music demonstrates how the piano accommodates myriad personalities.
As a teen, Heidi Schreck debated the Constitution in competitions. As an adult, she saw how it shortchanged the women in her family. Her play, What the Constitution Means to Me, will run on Broadway.
When Frans de Waal started studying nonhuman primates, in the Netherlands more than 40 years ago, he was told not to consider the emotions of the animals he was observing.
One of the most joyous, true life, "on-the-road" adventures in literary history took place in the summer of 1927. It began in Mobile, Ala., when a young Langston Hughes, who was traveling in the South, stepped off the train from New Orleans and ran smack into Zora Neale Hurston.
Deveau and the Borromeo String Quartet perform piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven as chamber music on a new recording. Lloyd Schwartz says the album is "full of feeling and discovery."
As head of New York City's correctional health services, Dr. Homer Venters spent nine years overseeing the care of thousands of inmates in the jails on Rikers Island. Though he left Rikers in 2017, what he witnessed on the job has stayed with him.
Chinese writer-director Jia Zhangke examines upheaval in modern China in his latest film, a gripping drama of crime and punishment about a woman and her gangster boyfriend.
AIDY BRYANT is a cast member on 'Saturday Night Live' and star of the new comedy series 'Shrill' based on Lindy West's book about identifying as fat and feminist.
Based on the true story of a crime gone wrong, Wanda is considered a cinematic landmark. The 1970 film, which is now out in a restored version, was written and directed by its star, Barbara Loden.
