With the end of the writer's strike, live programming returned to network television this weekend in a big way. TV critic David Bianculli reviews last night's 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast, as well as the weekend's new episode of Saturday Night Live, starring Tina Fey.
Inspired by Sinn Sisamouth and other Cambodian stars of the '60s and '70s, brothers Zac and Ethan Holzman created a fusion cover band — complete with a former Cambodian pop star who had recently moved to Los Angeles.
Neurological researcher Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke 12 years ago. While the damage caused by a stroke is often devastating, Taylor was able to make a complete recovery after becoming her own experimental subject.
Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews John Edgar Wideman's new book, Fanon (a Novel), which mixes fiction, biography and memoir in an effort to capture the life and mind of psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Like Before, Somewhat After, the new recording from drummer George Schuller and his quintet Circle Wide. The disc salutes the music of pianist Keith Jarrett's '70s-era quartet.
In July 2007, Brent Stirton shocked the world with a photo of a murdered mountain gorilla — one of seven killed, execution-style, in their jungle preserve. This year, Stirton returned to the Congo to help answer a question many had asked: Who killed the Virunga gorillas?
In the 1970s, George Carlin's seven dirty words routine was the center of a famous obscenity case. More recently, the comic was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Carlin died of heart failure Sunday at the age of 71.
The '60s sitcom was often a one-joke affair; the film's starry-eyed geek has room for nuance. You can make a case for both Maxes, but critic David Edelstein misses the tube's lovable boob. Anne Hathaway's Agent 99, now ... that's another matter.
The debut short-story collection by Nigerian writer and Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan offers a sobering view of a world in which atrocity is commonplace, and the unthinkable is the everyday.
Taking a break from the family-friendly Shrek series, the comic actor stars in the bawdy summer comedy The Love Guru. It's an irreverent — some say too irreverent — romp about a self-help specialist from the subcontinent.
Peanuts and corn dogs may spell summer for some, but for others, they mean allergy misery. Dr. Hugh Sampson, president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, talks to Terry Gross about foods to avoid.
Actor Liev Schreiber had what he thought was a good idea: He'd reach out to a Baghdad film student, offering him an internship on a shoot. But as Nina Davenport's documentary proves, good intentions don't always end in good outcomes. Critic-at-large John Powers has a review.
Rapper, producer, fashion designer, restaurateur, grass-roots organizer and Broadway actor? Sean "Diddy" Combs might be the hardest-working man in hip-hop. He talks to Terry Gross about his career — and the "characters" behind his ever-changing names.
Singer and actress Kelli O'Hara has received three Tony nominations in as many years. She currently stars in the crowd-pleasing revival of South Pacific.
Fresh Air's film critic reviews three epically intimate new films — an Antarctica documentary from Werner Herzog, a Guy Maddin meditation on home and self, and the heartfelt biography Chris & Don.
McSweeney's contributor Dan Kennedy found what he thought was a dream job in the music industry: Director of Creative Development at Atlantic Records. Rock on: an Office Power Ballad is the tale of his time at the label — where he arrived just in time for what he describes as the collapse of the music business.
