Society & Culture

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.

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.

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 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.

Director Brett Morgen joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss his new film, Chicago 10. The film mixes trial footage and animation to tell the story of the "Chicago 8" — protesters held accountable for violence that erupted with police outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968.

Drug addiction doesn't just affect the addict, it changes the whole family. Journalist David Sheff and his son Nic join Fresh Air to talk about Nic's addiction to methamphetamine and the separate memoirs they've written about the experience.

Pop-rock singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow joins Terry Gross in the Fresh Air studios for an interview and live performance. Detours, her new album, is the most politically and personally outspoken record of her career.

A bomb explodes in the campus office next door, and Lee, a math professor, becomes the primary suspect. Is he being targeted for revenge by someone in his past? Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews A Person of Interest, a new novel by Susan Choi.

Can there be a middle ground in the debate about the separation of church and state? John DiIulio, Jr, a Democrat who spent seven months as the White House "faith czar" under George W. Bush, believes so.

Movie-theater owner Ben Tanaka is having relationship issues; his girlfriend, Miko, suspects he's secretly attracted to white women. (She's right, but he won't admit it.) In Shortcomings, Asian-American graphic novelist Adrian Tomine (Scrapbook, Summer Blonde) has finally done what many fans and critics have suggested he should: addressed race in his work.