Martin Short established himself as a comedic actor on SCTV and Saturday Night Live. He's famous for his physical humor, celebrity impressions, and the memorable characters he invented, like Ed Grimley. Short has since graduated to the silver screen, starring in movies like Innerspace and Three Amigos. His new movie is called Three Fugitives.
Estleman's gritty, Detroit-based mysteries feature the detective Amos Walker. Estleman was a crime reporter before he became a fiction writer. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his hardboiled influences, inside jokes in his books, and getting knocked unconscious.
Kevin Whitehead says that some listeners place too much emphasis on Tom Harrell's schizophrenia, which often makes him appear withdrawn while performing. Whitehead thinks they should pay more attention to how the jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player can make fresh music out of familiar ideas.
Television critic David Bianculli says that viewers have lost their taste for westerns and miniseries. But he recommends the star-studded show Lonesome Dove, which is both. The story follows the lives of three sheriffs in the untamed west.
Wilson received a lifetime appointment from Ronald Reagan to head the National Archives. The agency became an independent entity after being part of the General Services Administration.
Heinemann served for one year in Vietnam. The experience was so intense that he has built a literary career about it. His book, Paco's Story, won the National Book Award. After releasing two novels, he's working on a nonfiction book about post-traumatic stress disorder.
Fresh Air broadcasts a portion of Dmae Roberts's upcoming radio documentary, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, produced for the Soundprint program. The feature includes interviews with teenagers about their attitudes toward school, relationships, drugs, and sex.
The pop star has a new direct-to-video collection of short films featuring songs from throughout his career. Rock critic Ken Tucker says its artistic value is almost nil, but it's worth watching at least once to marvel at the spectacle of it all.
Benet worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco until gentrification and automation rendered his labor unnecessary. He says he mourns the workers' culture more than the job itself. Benet later went to graduate school and became a novelist and poet. His newest book is called A Short Dance in the Sun.
Rock critic Ken Tucker says that few comeback albums from aging rock stars in the 1980s have been good. The late Roy Orbison's Mystery Girl is an exception.
Director Michael Crichton's latest, a cop thriller called Physical Evidence, stars Burt Reynolds and Theresa Russell, who fail to breathe life into the film's clumsy script. Critic Stephen Schiff wonders if Crichton was having an out-of-body experience when he directed the movie.
Writer and theologian Harvey Cox says the current rise of religious fundamentalism stems in part from a disillusionment with modern technology. He has also witnessed the increasing politicization of religious messages. Cox joins Fresh Air to discuss the current state of interfaith relations in the United States and abroad.
Despite some recent, low-level controversy around the Indiana nickname, linguist Geoff Nunberg says that "hoosier," like several other regional nicknames, has lost its offensive bite. The term connotes location more than a particular cultural identity.
Writer Eva Hoffman moved with her family from Poland to the Canada when she was thirteen. Her new book about assimilating into the culture of her new country is called Lost in Translation. Hoffman is also an editor for the New York Times Book Review.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says he actively seeks out performances and recordings of the orchestra, which has been revitalized by conductor Christoph von Dohnányi. Schwartz reviews two new CDs Dohnányi helmed, featuring symphonies by Mendelssohn and Schumann.
Freberg created several humorous and memorable ad campaigns for television and radio, and continues to work in the trade today. His new memoir, the first of two volumes, is called It Only Hurts When I Laugh.
Rock historian Ed Ward says the 1960s Mod movement started in working-class London, and was rooted more in fashion than rock music. But the amphetimine-fueled subculture was short-lived, and many Mods became hippies. The re-emergence of Mods in the 1970s didn't last long, either.
As a reporter, Ward Just covered the Vietnam War and, later, Washington politics. Now, he devotes himself to fiction writing. While his novels often draw on his knowledge of D.C. culture, Just is careful to invent his own characters, rather than use fictionalized versions of real politicians.
Book critic John Leonard reviews the new detective novel Ratking, by Michael Dibdin. Leonard says the narrative, set in Italy, keeps the mystery genre alive by confronting bourgeois life and corrupt politics.
