In her most popular novel, the 1979 "Kindred," she put a searing spin on the time travel story, shuttling her heroine back and forth between 1970s la and a pre-Civil War plantation. The book has now been turned into an ambitious new FX series by another MacArthur fellow, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who gives Butler's tale a twirl of his own.
Butler's 1979 book, Kindred, is now a series for FX on Hulu. In 1993, the pioneering author, who died in 2006, told Fresh Air she made up her own stories so that she could see herself in them.
There was a lot of great television this year, but the winning moment came from HBO's special, The Howard Stern Interview: Bruce Springsteen, an extended two-plus hour conversation between two icons.
When Jamal's trios visited Penthouse jazz club in Seattle in the '60s, they came to play. Now 92, the pianist has signed off on the release of a new series of live recordings from back in the day.
Author Adam Hochschild says Wilson used the first World War as an excuse to spy on Americans, censor the press and plan for the mass deportation of immigrants. His new book is American Midnight.
In his 2019 film Knives Out, director Rian Johnson crafted an Agatha Christie-style whodunit that also spoke volumes about class inequality and privilege in America. Now he's back, and this time he's taking aim at the tech billionaires.
Jane Smiley's latest novel, A Dangerous Business, is a mash-up of a Western, a serial killer mystery and a feminist erotic romp. Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, stars a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus.
Two new movies are based on well-known children's stories. One is "Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical," adapted from the popular stage show. The other is "Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio," a stop-motion animation version of the classic fairy tale. Our film critic Justin Chang recommends them both.
Clooney was among the recipients of the 45th Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday. He appeared on Fresh Air in 2005, after he directed, co-wrote and co-starred in Good Night, and Good Luck.
The scenes in the new documentary Harvest Time show footage taken when Young was making the album Harvest. We listen back to two Fresh Air interviews with Young, from 1992 and 2004.
Tech journalist Casey Newton says Elon Musk did not inherit a company in crisis — but after massive layoffs and upheaval the social media giant is losing money and Musk is warning of bankruptcy.
Kumail Nanjiani is starring in the series Welcome to Chippendales, as the founder of the first club to feature male strippers dancing for audiences of women. Nanjiani co-starred in the comedy series Silicon Valley, co-wrote and starred in the film The Big Sick, and was the first South Asian to play a Marvel superhero.
Michael Cecchi-Azzolina talks about what it's like to be a Maitre D' at the fanciest restaurants in New York City. He has worked in the business for three decades telling wealthy diners, celebrities and even the mafia whether or not they can have the table by the window. His memoir is called Your Table is Ready.
After a decade, Caitlin Rose is "Getting It Right." Weyes Blood's "It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody" is an ethereal ballad. And Carly Rae Jepsen and Rufus Wainwright duet in "The Loneliest Time."
Season two of Mike White's Emmy Award Winning HBO series 'The White Lotus' is about wealthy Americans vacationing in a luxurious hotel in Sicily and how they manage to mess up their lives
In How the Word Is Passed, author Clint Smith explored U.S. sites that deal with the legacy of slavery. Now, in The Atlantic, he writes about German memorials to the Holocaust.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist faced criminal charges in the Philippines after her news site's reporting angered government officials. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is her new memoir.
Some years, my best books list falls into a pattern: like a year that's dominated by dystopian fiction or stand-out memoirs. But, as perhaps befits this hectic year, the best books I read in 2022 sprawl all over the place in subject and form. Here are 10 superb titles from 2022:
Journalist Luke Harding began reporting from Ukraine in December 2021 and was in the country's capital of Kyiv on Feb. 23, the night before the Russian invasion began. He's been reporting from the war for the British newspaper The Guardian ever since.
