Despite the economic recession — or perhaps because of it — the kidnapping business is booming. In his recent New York Times Magazine article, journalist Nicholas Schmidle explores the international hostage market and its impact on workers.
Robin D.G. Kelley's new book, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, focuses on the career of the eccentric jazz pianist and composer. It reveals new details about Monk's life, music and mental health problems, and provides a glimpse into the New York jazz scene of the mid-twentieth century.
Jazz great Thelonius Monk had a unique sound that won him millions of fans — and it certainly stole the heart of the Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter. In a new documentary, The Jazz Baroness, filmmaker Hannah Rothschild explores the unusual friendship between the American jazz pianist and the Englishwoman, and the impact they made on modern music.
The act of passing on a passion is one of the greatest gifts you can give. Book critic Maureen Corrigan promises that the books on this list — mostly slim, unforgettable volumes about places or things that the writers themselves deeply love — are merrily infectious.
For decades, singer songwriter Geoff Muldaur has been reinterpreting blues and jazz of the '20s and '30s. Today, we'll play some of the tracks from Muldaur's new album, Texas Sheiks, and he'll perform some songs live. Muldaur's band, also called Texas Sheiks, is currently on tour.
Music critic Ken Tucker reviews Fearless the second studio album by country-music singer/songwriter Taylor Swift. It debuted as number one on Billbaord's Top Country Music Albums.
How does organized crime influence terrorism? Investigative journalist David Kaplan discusses the relationship between terrorism and criminal syndicates, and how that relationship may have played out in the recent attacks on Mumbai.
Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal are Sam and Tommy Cahill, one an upright Army captain on his way back to Afghanistan, the other a delinquent, newly paroled after a three-year sentence for robbery. But the real center of Jim Sheridan's movie isn't the brothers, but their whole teetering clan, which will collapse and rebuild itself in complicated new ways.
The Oscar-nominated 1979 film My Brilliant Career stars Judy Davis, as a young woman growing up in rural Australia at the end of the 19th century. Film critic John Powers gives Davis credit for creating the template for the Australian screen actress: bravery, incandescence, and occasional cussedness.
President Obama has said he wouldn't send more troops to Afghanistan if he didn't think the security of the American people was at stake. Peter Bergen gives us an update on the threat: what's left of the Taliban and its connection to al-Qaida.
Director Jason Reitman likes to fill his movies with tricky characters, and then put them in situations that test their convictions. His latest project, Up in the Air, is no exception: George Clooney's character has made a career of firing people.
Texas Sheiks offers new versions of old blues, Western swing and ragtime music. The Sheiks are led by singer-songwriter Geoff Muldaur and the album features the guitar work of the late Steve Bruton.
Yours Ever: People and Their Letters is a revelatory collection of the nutty and the noble encased in private correspondence. Book critic Maureen Corrigan says Thomas Mallon's unpredictable criticism knocks the book out of the realm of the ho-hum.
Vic Chesnutt was paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 18, but he's still a massively productive songwriter. Chesnutt has fifteen albums under his belt and his songs have been covered by Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins, and R.E.M. His new album, At The Cut, is a collaboration with Guy Picciotto of the band Fugazi.
After a lifetime of acting, the 84-year-old Hal Holbrook is still racking up new accomplishments. Last year, he received his first Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his performance in Into The Wild. This year, he stars in a new film, That Evening Sun.
In the late 1960s, Tommy and Dick Smothers challenged those who tried to tame their wildly popular show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. TV critic David Bianculli joins host Terry Gross to talk about the legendary comedy duo who tackled political issues and censorship.
Forty years after siblings Richard and Karen Carpenter signed with A&M Records, Richard Carpenter is releasing a 40th-anniversary compilation CD, Carpenters: 40/40. The two-disc set includes 40 tracks with hits including "Top of the World" and "We've Only Just Begun."
In an apocalyptic-movie age, The Road is the doomiest. A close translation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, the film tracks a father and son as they fight to survive in an ash-gray world haunted by death and global destruction. Critic David Edelstein says that its depiction of unbearable extremity, John Hillcoat's film achieves a kind of sublimity.
Martin Scorcese said of Sam Fuller's work, "If you don't like the films of Sam Fuller, then you just don't like cinema." The maverick screenwriter and director died in 1997, but a new 7-disc selection of his work embodies what's most enjoyable and enduring about pulp fiction.
A secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians includes some names that have recently been prominent in the headlines: Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bart Stuck and Rep. Joe Pitts. Writer Jeff Sharlet describes the men's involvement with the Family, and discusses recent developments within the group.
