Melvin Van Peebles, who died Sept. 21, was best known for his 1971 film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. He spoke with Fresh Air in 1990. His son Mario, also an actor/director, was interviewed in 2004.
Atlantic writer Caitlin Dickerson talks about Haitian immigrants at the border, and explains how both Trump and Biden immigration policies are based on a racist system created by the Founding Fathers.
Pere Ubu leader David Thomas remixed two of his favorite Ubu albums, 1998's Pennsylvania and 2002's St. Arkansas, saying that the remixes are so substantial, they amount to being two new albums.
Activist Tarana Burke is the founder of the #MeToo Movement and has worked with Black and brown girls who are survivors of sexual violence. She originated the phrase and concept Me Too in 2006, as a way for victims to share their stories and connect with others. The Me Too hashtag went viral in 2017, in response to the Harvey Weinstein allegations of sexual assault.
In 1991, attorney Anita Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her when he was chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and she worked there as an adviser to him. Thirty years later, Hill's new book, Believing, draws on her own experiences, as well as the stories shared with her by victims of sexual harassments and assault.
Doerr's follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The Light We Cannot See follows five young people, each living in dangerous times across the span of eight centuries.
Dear Evan Hansen star Ben Platt suffers from anxiety, but not when he's on stage. Platt drew on his own anxiety to play Evan Hansen, a socially insecure high-school senior who lies about having been close friends with a classmate who dies by suicide. Platt originated the role and went on to win a Tony for his performance in the original Broadway production. Now, he's starring in a new film adaptation of the musical.
Critic-at-Large John Powers reviews the movies 'Wife Of A Spy', a Hitchcockian thriller by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and 'Azor', the debut feature by Swiss director Andreas Fontana.
The soul and R&B legend, who died in 2004, was recently voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1998, Charles came on Fresh Air to promote The Complete Country & Western Recordings: 1959-1986.
B.J. Novak served as a writer and an executive producer of The Office, and played Ryan, one of the stars of the series. Novak created the new topical anthology series The Premise. Each episode deals with an important cultural issue, like social justice, sex tapes, guns, and how we’re shaped by social media. Novak talks about both shows, his early days doing standup, and how his idea of comedy and good writing was affected by his father, writer William Novak.
WSJ reporter Jeff Horwitz says Facebook executives often choose to boost engagement at the expense of tackling misinformation and mental health problems, which are rampant on their platforms.
Remakes of TV classics don't have to be bland. The Wonder Years now centers on a Black family's experiences in 1968; Scenes from a Marriage flips the script on traditional gender roles.
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Max Chafkin talks about the tech billionaire who broke with most of Silicon Valley in backing Trump. Thiel also secretly funded the lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker.
Osnos' new book focuses on coal country in West Virginia; hedge fund culture in Greenwich, Conn.; institutional racism in Chicago and why Democrat Joe Manchin holds remarkable sway in the Senate.
Smart is nominated for Emmy Awards for her performances Hacks, about a veteran comic working with a Gen-Z comedy writer, and the crime drama Mare Of Easttown. Originally broadcast May 2021.
The pioneering music impresario, who created the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, died Sept. 13. Originally broadcast in 2003.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Art Cullen discusses the battle to keep print news alive in small-town America. Cullen runs Iowa's Storm Lake Times, along with his brother, the paper's publisher.
Film critic Justin Chang says 'Blue Bayou' succeeds is in its portrait of the strength and the fragility of families in situations where the decks are stacked against them.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead does extensive background research whenever he works on a book. For his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle, that meant learning how stolen items get "fenced."
