When it comes to comedy, Late Night host Seth Meyers is clear about what drew him in: "I got into it because it looked like the most fun job in the world," he says. "And it has not led me astray."
The only literary work about punctuation I'm aware of is an odd early story by Anton Chekhov called "The Exclamation Mark." After getting into an argument with a colleague about punctuation, a school inspector named Yefim Perekladin asks his wife what an exclamation point is for. She tells him it signifies delight, indignation, joy and rage. He realizes that in 40 years of writing official reports, he has never had the need to express any of those emotions.
Washington Post correspondent Souad Mekhennet has risked kidnapping and imprisonment to report on extremist groups, such as ISIS and the Taliban. Her new memoir is I Was Told to Come Alone.
Author Mark Bowden says the capture of Hue, Vietnam, was part of a wave of well-planned Communist attacks that shocked American commanders and helped turn U.S. public opinion against the war.
Rachel Weisz plays a widow who might have designs on her cousin's fortune in a new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's 1951 novel. Critic David Edelstein says the film will keep viewers in suspense.
Salma Hayek plays a Mexican-American massage therapist who attends the dinner party of a wealthy client in Beatriz At Dinner. Reviewer Justin Chang calls the film an "elegantly acerbic new comedy."
After defying her country's ban on woman drivers, Manal al Sharif was arrested. The outcry by people all over the world led to her release. She tells her story from growing up in Mecca, and adhering to the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam to being a security engineer at Aramco, the Saudi national oil company.
Actor Giancarlo Esposito talks about coming back to play Gus Fring in Better Call Saul, after originating the role in Breaking Bad. . . and how being bi-racial has affected his life and career. He's the son of an white Italian father, and an African-american mother, who was an opera singer.
Conservation photographer Paul Nicklen has been documenting the wildlife in the arctic regions of the world for decades, often getting dangerously up close with the animals he encounters in the sea and on land.
Author Sheryll Cashin's talks about the Loving v. Virginia ruling, which overturned state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Cashin grew up the child of civil rights activists in Huntsville, Ala
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new short story collections: The Winter Without Milk by Jane Avrich, and The Laws of Evening by Mary Yukari Waters.
He began his career with the Yardbirds in 1966. Two years later, Page formed Led Zeppelin. His powerful playing established the framework for classic tracks like "Whole Lotta Love," "Rock 'N' Roll," "Black Dog," "When The Levee Breaks" and "Achilles Last Stand." Remastered footage from several 1970s Led Zeppelin concerts has just been released on a 2-DVD set.
Illustrator Marjane Satrapi is the author of the memoir, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. The book is in the form of an illustrated comic. Satrapi was born in 1969 in Iran, and grew up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. One reviewer writes, "A triumph... Like Maus, Persepolis is one of those comic books capable of seducing even those most allergic to the genre."
DC Comics' new Wonder Woman adaptation centers on a trained warrior who hates war. Critic David Edelstein says the heroine is the best part of the film's "tacky superhero universe."
Giles Martin says he included outtakes and raw performances in the new box set to show "how human the making of Sgt. Pepper was." The original album was produced by Martin's father, George.
David Sedaris' new book comes directly from his diaries from 1977-2002 and includes entries about everything from picking fruit and cleaning houses for a living, to going to art school, the life changing broadcast of his Santaland Diaries on Morning Edition, getting sober, and the deaths of his mother and sister.
After forty years in comedy Al Franken became a U.S. Senator for the state of Minnesota. He's now in his second term. During his first term he did his best to not be funny so that his voters and congress would take him seriously. He'll talk about his life and transition from comedy to politics.
Critic-at-large John Powers reviews the autobiographical novel which has become a big bestseller and has been translated into 20 languages. John says the novel is as relevant in America as it is in its home country.
The title of Cate Shortland's new film, Berlin Syndrome, is a sly riff on "Stockholm syndrome," that condition in which a hostage begins to feel sympathy for her captor. It's never clear what sets the Berlin version apart, and in some ways Shortland and the screenwriter, Shaun Grant, seem to be figuring it out as they go along.
