Rebecca Traister's incisive analysis of misogyny and gender roles in the 2008 election takes on Tina Fey's satire, "Iron my Shirt" T-shirts and Hillary Clinton's "Night of the Imaginary Tears."
Today is the official start of the 2010-11 TV season, and for the first time in many years, all of the major networks are unveiling most of their new and returning shows in a single, event-packed week. Our TV critic, David Bianculli, is impressed by the effort -- but not, this year, by the results.
Plant's new solo album is called Band of Joy. That's the name of a group he was in back in 1967, before Led Zeppelin, with drummer John Bonham. Rock critic Ken Tucker says that if the album title suggests nostalgia for older musical styles, there's nothing musty about the results.
For the past three years, sportswriter Jim Gorant has been following the pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick's compounds. Grant, along with an animal behaviorist and dog trainer, explains how the Vick dogs have been evaluated and rehabilitated.
The new series is set in Atlantic City in the 1920s -- where corruption and organized crime run as freely as the banned booze. Critic David Bianculli is impressed by the cast, which includes Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald, and says the emotionally intense drama is worth adding to your must-see list this fall.
The documentary Catfish may not be on the up-and-up. But does it matter? David Edelstein says no. Catfish, he says, provides a "true sense of adventure" and conveys emotions that "run the gamut from anxiety to contempt to curiosity to compassion."
We listen back to excerpts from a 1988 interview with the NBC broadcaster, whose fascination with linguistic excess led to a series of books about the English language. During his long career Newman covered President Kennedy's assassination and the Six-Day War. He died on Aug. 13 at age 91.
The plot shakeups at the beginning of this season's Mad Men have left Jon Hamm's character Don Draper a broken man. Hamm talks about Draper's evolution, details how he auditioned for the role and talks about his newest movie, Ben Affleck's crime thriller The Town.
Many of Spencer's novels feature a turning point -- a dreadful, unplanned act committed by one of the characters. In his latest book, Man in the Woods, a carpenter accidentally kills a man, which leads him to question himself and his relationship with God.
There are 10 times more microbial cells on and in our bodies than there are human cells. And these bacteria aren't just there for the ride. Dr. Jeffrey Gordon explains how they contribute to the physiology of the human body and why they may hold the key to fighting some diseases.
In Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer outlines his ideas about the Constitution and about the way the United States legal system works. Breyer explains how the justices debate each case on their docket, why he interprets the Constitution as a living document, and details what he thinks is the worst decision the high court has ever made.
Filmmaker Lixin Fan's Last Train Home documents the journey 130 million migrant workers make back to their rural villages every Chinese New Year. But the movie is not only about families traveling home -- it's about China's modernization. Critic John Powers says the images in the "epic and intimate" movie are absolutely ravishing."
Skaggs became a mainstream country music star in the 1980s, but in recent years, he's become more interested in performing in a traditional bluegrass style. Ken Tucker says the tracks on Skaggs' album Mosaic "don't just fit together -- they lock into place with a firmness."
Science writer Jennifer Ackerman explores "the uncommon life of your common cold" in her new book, Ah-Choo! She explains why colds follow that familiar throat-to-nose-tochest path of misery -- and details what science shows about various cold remedies. (Prepare to be disappointed.)
More than 6 million African-Americans moved from the South to cities in the Northeast and Midwest between 1915 and 1970. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson documents the resulting demographic and social changes in her history of the Great Migration, The Warmth of Other Suns.
A couple of years back, the two-time Oscar nominee announced he was giving up acting to become a rapper. David Edelstein reviews Casey Affleck's film I'm Still Here, which tracks Phoenix's transformation -- and says there may be a real madness in Phoenix's method performance.
Perry has released what is commonly considered the pop hit of the summer, a song called "California Gurls." Perry has a new album, Teenage Dream, which rock critic Ken Tucker says is just one part of what he calls "the Katy Perry art project."
Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom has been called "a masterpiece" by Time Magazine and has received rave reviews from critics. Franzen talks about the runaway success of his previous novel The Corrections, and the strong reaction elicited by Freedom.
Why all the adulatory attention, critics ask, for Jonathan Franzen's latest domestic drama about marriage and family? Even though Franzen gets more praise for doing what many fine female writers do "backwards and in heels," critic Maureen Corrigan says Freedom has earned its high praise.
The 60-year-old comedian, who often joked about his own life in his raunchy stand-up routines, died Friday from injuries suffered in a car accident. Fresh Air remembers Schimmel with highlights from a 2008 interview in which he discusses his memoir Cancer On $5 A Day.
