Health & Medicine

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.

Psychedelic science began much earlier than you may think - back in the 1920s and '30s. At the center of that research was Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, and her third husband, Gregory Bateson, one of the most controversial anthropologists of his time. That early history is covered in the new book by my guest, Benjamin Breen. The book is called "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, The Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science".

Russell talks and sings about the physical and sexual abuse she endured from her racist adoptive father — and about how she learned she was worthy of being loved. Originally broadcast Sept. 27, 2023.

Christian Wiman's new book is called "Zero At The Bone: 50 Entries Against Despair." He teaches at Yale Divinity School and the Yale School of Sacred Music.

Actor Courtney B. Vance and psychologist Dr. Robin Smith co-authored the book "The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain And Reclaiming Their Power."

Perry, who died in Oct. 28, played the sarcastic but lovable Chandler Bing on Friends. He spoke to Terry Gross in 2007. Plus, we listen back to our 2003 interview with Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe.

A new tribute album offers musical interpretations of Ginsberg's poems. The poet and countercultural activist spoke to Terry Gross in 1994 about his poem "Howl," which was inspired by his mother.

Bamford has been part of five different 12-step programs, including groups for overeaters and sex and love addicts. In her new memoir, she jokes about anxiety, depression and the desire to fit in.

Joining us today to talk about the life and legacy of the Notorious B.I.G. is journalist Justin Tinsley. He's the author of the book "It Was All A Dream: Biggie And The World That Made Him." In the book, Tinsley explores Biggie's life in the context of not only rap, but the wider cultural and political forces that shaped him, including immigration, Reagan-era politics, the war on drugs and mass incarceration.

In an Atlantic article, "The Ones We Sent Away," Jennifer Senior tells the story of her aunt, who was institutionalized at age 21 months because of her intellectual and developmental disability.

Richard E. Grant is an award-winning actor and author of "A Pocketful Of Happiness."

Jay Wellons has operated on kids' brains and spinal cords. He writes about the anguish of losing a patient and the exhilaration of saving a life in All That Moves Us. Originally broadcast July 2022.

His new book is called "When Crack Was King: A People's History Of A Misunderstood Era." Donovan X. Ramsey is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, GQ, Ebony and Essence. He's been a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, NewsOne and TheGrio and has served as an editor at The Marshall Project and Complex.

ALICIA ROTH WEIGEL, one of three intersex people profiled in the new documentary “Every Body.” Also, JULIE COHEN, the director of the documentary.

Diamond's life and music are the subject of a new Broadway show, A Beautiful Noise. In 2005, Diamond spoke to Terry Gross about his guilty-pleasure hits, include "Sweet Caroline" and "Cherry Cherry."

Elliot Page is an Academy Award-nominated actor, director and producer. He's written a new book about his life and coming out as a trans man titled "Pageboy."

The title of Irby's new memoir in essays, Quietly Hostile, was inspired by her own public persona, which she describes as a "a constant low-grade frustration with everything" wrapped in "an outer shield of Midwestern politeness and charm."

James Jackson is a recognized expert on the cognitive and mental health impacts of long COVID, which he says are quite common. He writes in a new book about people who are happy standouts in their jobs who, after getting COVID, are chronically affected by fatigue, cognitive impairment and depression or more serious symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.

Clancy Martin lives with two incompatible ideas in his head: "I wish I were dead – and I'm glad my suicides failed." He says he wrote his book especially for people struggling with suicidal thoughts.

Public Health researcher Arline Geronimus makes the case that marginalized people suffer nearly constant stress from living with poverty and discrimination, which damages their bodies at the cellular level and leads to increasingly serious health problems over time. Her term for it is "weathering."