In a new podcast series from WNYC and the History Channel, journalists Kai Wright and Lizzy Ratner take us to New York in the mid-'80s, when the HIV virus first took root - so new, it didn't even have a name.
Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from Central America, arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border each year. In Everyone Who is Gone is Here, Jonathan Blitzer examines the historical roots of the crisis.
Journalist Antonia Hylton has written a new book, "Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum". And in it, Hylton traces one of the last segregated asylums in the nation - Crownsville Hospital in Maryland, built in 1911 from the ground up by 12 Black men who would later become patients there, some spending their entire lives in the hospital.
The Washington D.C.-based band is led by Elizabeth Nelson, who is also a published music critic. It shows — the music is packed with wordplay, jokes and an undercurrent of serious dread.
Claiming to be a musicologist, the composer and arranger performed premieres of "newly unearthed" works by the nonexistent Bach. Schickele died Jan. 16. Originally broadcast in 1985.
The Shangri-Las mixed a tough image with songs about teen love. Weiss, who died Jan. 19, left the group in the late '60s, and released her fist solo album in 2007. Originally broadcast in 2007.
New York Times correspondent David Sanger says that Iran and its proxies are posing new challenges: "We're seeing outbreaks of low-level but highly damaging conflict all over the region."
Tótem is the radiant second feature by the terrific Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés. Set over the course of a single, life-changing day, this ensemble film thrums with a lively, chaotic intimacy.
Tracee Ellis Ross co-stars in the Oscar-nominated movie American Fiction. For eight seasons, she starred in the ABC comedy series Black-ish. We talk about her new projects, her superstar mother, Diana Ross, and forging her own path outside of her mother's success. We also talk about how she's come to embrace, at 51, never having children or being married.
Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is very much its own creation, but you might think of it as an Iranian American spin on John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces — wedded to Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.
The new drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, from the Vietnamese writer and director Phạm Thiên Ân, envelops you with its gorgeous images and hypnotic rhythms.
Time correspondent Simon Shuster has been interviewing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since 2019, when Zelenskyy was still a famous entertainer and satirist. Shuster talks about Zelenskyy's rise to power, the infamous call with Trump that led to Trump's first impeachment, and how the war with Russia has changed him. Shuster's new book is The Showman.
Dr. Uché Blackstock was one of the first doctors to raise the alarm that COVID-19 was disproportionately impacting Black people. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about how medical schools contribute to inequities in health care, and what we can do about it. Her book is Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine.
Tony Soprano was far from the typical protagonist of a TV drama. He wasn't just flawed; at times, he was utterly amoral. But audiences stayed with him — right up until the series' perfect ending.
The HBO series recently won six Emmy awards. We talked about the show with head writer/creator Armstrong in 2023, plus we listen back to conversations with Cuklin and Macfadyen from 2021 and 2022.
Known for his strong opinions, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post critic also reviewed films on Morning Edition for two decades. Shales died Jan. 13. Originally broadcast in 1989.
Home schooling is now America's fastest growing form of education, but Washington Post reporter Peter Jamison notes, "It's remarkable how little oversight there is of home-schooled children."
