Society & Culture

Paul Polak, founder of the nonprofit International Development Enterprises, has spent 25 years working to eradicate poverty. In Out of Poverty, he says simple technologies and a willingness to listen are key — and that government subsidies can do more harm than good.

Brothers David and Anton Treuer are members of the Ojibwe nation from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. Both professors, they work to preserve the Ojibwe language, one of the few Native American languages in active use.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the phrase "under the bus," which has been used throughout the heated presidential primaries.

Three years ago, journalist Steve Lopez met a homeless musician on skid row in Los Angeles. He soon learned that the man, Nathaniel Ayers, had once been a promising violinist, and that he had left the Juilliard School because of his struggle with mental illness. Ayers is the subject of Lopez's new book, The Soloist.

It's been four years since Gene Robinson was consecrated bishop of a rural Episcopal diocese in New Hampshire. He's faced challenges and controversies as that denomination's first openly gay bishop — and he's written about them in a new memoir, In the Eye of the Storm.

It's one of the most common words in English, and one of the most maligned. But it has been doing useful work for centuries, and lately it's acquired a new, hip meaning. Fresh Air linguist Geoff Nunberg gives us his thoughts on the little word, "um."

Analysts wondered if Barack Obama's speech on race in Philadelphia last month was the beginning of a "national conversation" on the subject. Meanwhile, Fresh Air's contributing linguist Geoff Nunberg is wondering what, exactly, a "national conversation" is — and when we started talking about them.

Theologian Dwight Hopkins provides a historical perspective on black liberation theology. Hopkins is an ordained Baptist minister and a professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

The Rev. James H. Cone founded black liberation theology, which has roots in 1960s civil-rights activism. In an interview with Terry Gross, he explains the movement — and comments on controversial sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's longtime minister and a black liberation theology proponent.

The DVD set Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 consists of five pre-Hays Code movies: The Divorcee, A Free Soul, Night Nurse, Three on a Match, and Female.

In Meg Wolitzer's new novel, a group of smart, successful women choose full-time motherhood over promising professional careers — and come to terms with the effects of that decision a decade later.

Writer, director and Oscar winner Anthony Minghella died of a brain hemorrhage Tuesday at age 54. Minghella's screen credits include The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.

Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli previews season two of the FX series The Riches, staring Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard.

Fresh Air's contributing linguist remembers a rhetorician whose larger-than-life language helped shape a movement and a nation.

In Michael Haneke's new film, a wealthy American family opens the door of their secluded vacation home to two strangers — who proceed to torture them in a series of sadistic games. David Edelstein has a review.

Was America meant to be a Christian nation? Steven Waldman, founder of Beliefnet.com, debunks myths about religion in the lives the Founding Fathers, and in the early history of America in his new book, Founding Faith.

When a Portland teenager accidentally kills a security guard at the local skate park, he pulls into himself rather than talking to the police. Gus Van Sant's film explores the teen's thoughts and actions in a free-form style that critic David Edelstein calls "a raging success."

Novelist and screenwriter Richard Price discusses his new novel, Lush Life, about the repercussions of a shooting on the Lower East side. Price has written extensively about the realities of inner city life; he is a writer for HBO's The Wire which ends a five-year run on Sunday.

The actor won an Academy Award for his performance in Spike Jonze's Adaptation. His latest project is Married Life, about a 1940s philanderer who still loves his wife — enough, in fact, to kill her rather than divorce and disappoint her.

William F. Buckley, Jr., died Wednesday. He was 82. Fresh Air remembers the founder and longtime editor of the National Review with excerpts from a 1989 interview.