Segments by Date

Producer JEFFREY SELLER. He produced Rent with his business partner. Seller's own company produced Hamilton. He also was a producer of Lin Manuel Miranda’s first musical, In the Heights – as well as the satirical adult puppet musical, Avenue Q, and the revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban. Seller grew up without much money in a neighborhood outside Detroit that was nicknamed Cardboard Village, because the houses were so cheap and shoddy. Seller is the author of the memoir Theater Kid.

TV critic DAVID BIANCULLI reviews the latest adaptation of William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies. It's the first adaptation for television and it is presented by Netflix and the BBC.

(1.) Journalist GEORGE PACKER is a staff writer at The Atlantic. His new article is titled The Venture-Capital Populist: How David Sacks and the New Tech Right went Full Maga and Captured Washington.” He writes about how and why many Silicon Valley leaders have become identified with the Right, with President Donald Trump and MAGA. These tech billionaires are now often referred to as oligarchs, because of their money, power, and access to the White House. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

Legal scholar KIMBERLE WILLIAMS CRENSHAW. She coined the expressions: critical race theory and intersectionality. She wanted those expressions to help describe racial and gender discrimination in America. Her new memoir is called Backtalker: An American Memoir. (INTERVIEW BY TONYA MOSLEY) (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

(1.) Scottish writer DOUGLAS STUART. His debut novel Shuggie Bain won the Booker Prize in 2020. His other novel is Young Mungo. His latest, John of John, is about a son dealing with the weight of his father’s expectations on a remote Scottish island. Both father and son are concealing their sexualities. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW)

Critic-at-large JOHN POWERS reviews The Devil Wears Prada, 2 starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.

We remember conductor, composer and musician MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS. He was a longtime music director of The San Francisco Symphony, known for his innovation, his ability to translate classical music for the general public, and for fostering contemporary music. He founded the New World Symphony for young players. He got his musical inheritance from his grandparents, who were stars of the Yiddish theatre. Tilson died last week at age 81. He had battled brain cancer since 2022. (THESE INTERVIEWS ARE REBROADCAST. THEY ORIGINALLY AIRED ON SEPTEMBER 27, 1995 and MARCH 28, 2012.)

Book critic MAUREEN CORRIGAN recommends three new novels: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, American Fantasy by Emma Straub, and Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel.

Enter Me

Writer, actor, and comedian RICHARD GADD. His Netflix series Baby Reindeer became a phenomenon in 2024, a story about a struggling comedian, a stalker who wouldn't let go, and a sexual assault he'd kept hidden for years. The show won six Emmys. His new HBO series called Half Man, about two boys who become brothers when their mothers fall in love, and who spend the next thirty years trying to survive each other. (INTERVIEW BY TONYA MOSLEY)
(THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert says EPA chief Lee Zeldin has rescinded regulations, cut or eliminated departments and terminated the jobs of many scientists. Trump calls Zeldin "our secret weapon."

Terry Gross interviews singer songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist ST. VINCENT, also known as Annie Clark. (REBROADCAST)

Tonya Mosley interviews Harvard professor NAMWALI SERPELL. Her new book, On Morrison, is a close reading of Toni Morrison's entire body of work, eleven novels, the criticism, plays, and poetry

Critic at large JOHN POWERS reviews the new Netflix series Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole. It's based on a character who is the hero of a series of international bestsellers by the Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo (Yo NES-buh) Harry Hole (HAR-eh ho-leh) is a tortured Oslo police detective.

Terry Gross interviews actor Amanda Peet.

Tonya Mosley interviews actor OSCAR ISAAC. He's the star of the second season of the Netflix series Beef; he plays Josh , a country club manager whose polished exterior is hiding a crumbling marriage and a financial secret. ISAAC also is known for his role as Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new limited series, “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.”

Tonya mosley interviews two men deeply impacted by the violence on either side of the Israeli Palestinian conflict who still believe peace is possible. MAOZ INON (mah-OHZ EE-nohn) is an Israeli entrepreneur whose parents were among the 12-hundred killed by Hamas in October of 2023, the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust. AZIZ ABU SARAH (ah-ZEEZ ah-BOO SAH-rah) is a Palestinian peacebuilder. When AZIZ was only 9, his brother was arrested and tortured in an Israeli military prison and subsequently died from his injuries.

Terry Gross interviews humorist, memoirist and actress ANNABELLE GURWITCH about her new memoir called The End of My Life is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker. It is a national bestseller.

Jazz historian KEVIN WHITEHEAD reviews two new jazz biographies: Speakeasies to Symphonies: The Jazz Genius of James P. Johnson by Scott E. Brown; and Cosmic: Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane by Andy Beta.