Society & Culture

Once disparaged as "spaghetti Westerns," Leone's films helped revive the genre, and ushered in a unique visual style. In 2005, cultural historian Christopher Frayling reflected on Leone's influence.

In this 2000 interview, Poitier talked about his disastrous first audition, why reading was a struggle and how he went on to become the most famous Black actor of his generation.

Author Frank Guridy. His new book is called "The Stadium: An American History Of Politics, Protest, And Play."

In The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, Ellis-Taylor plays the outspoken ringleader among three women whose friendship spans several decades. Her previous films include Origin and King Richard.

New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos sees evidence of a generational change — a central nerve running through American politics. He looks ahead to the DNC and how the race may take more somersaults.

The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel digs into the downfall of the Star Wars-themed resort in Orlando. Here’s how YouTube creator Jenny Nicholson gets right everything the hotel got wrong.

Joe Moore, a former Army sniper turned FBI informant, shares how he infiltrated the KKK and helped foil a plot to assassinate then Sen. Barack Obama. Moore explains how hate groups are growing.

One of the most influential writers to emerge during the civil rights era, Baldwin, who died in 1987, spoke to Terry Gross in 1986 about growing up in Harlem and his decision to move to France.

The daughter of singer Lena Horne, Buckley who chronicled her family's history from enslavement to becoming a part of the Black bourgeoisie. She died July 18. Originally broadcast in 1986.

Reagon, who died July 16, was one of the powerful singers who helped galvanize the civil rights movement in the 1960s as a member of the Freedom Singers quartet. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Nicholson says when strangers recognize her on the street, they're never quite sure how they know her: "They might think I sold them kittens, or I work in the ice cream shop."

Novelist and memoirist Jill Ciment. Her new memoir, "Consent," begins when she was 17 and fell in love and had a sexual relationship with her married art teacher. He was 47, 30 years older than her. Even though he epitomized her romantic archetype and she wanted the relationship, she now wonders if a 17-year-old is capable of consent and if in today's language, he would have been considered a predator.

Brodesser-Akner's novel centers on the kidnapping of a rich businessman, and the impact, decades later, on his grown children. Her previous book is Fleishman Is In Trouble.

The hugely popular Netflix reality show Love is Blind purports to be an experiment where contestants have a chance to fall in love -- sight unseen. But some members have accused the show's production company of exploitation, and two former cast members have formed a group to help connect reality show contestants to legal and mental health resources.

Stand-up comedian, actor and author Michelle Buteau. She stars in the new movie "Babes" alongside her real-life friend, Ilana Glazer. It's a comedy about friends who have grown up together and confide in each other as they take different paths toward motherhood. Michelle Buteau also stars in the semi-autobiographical series "Survival Of The Thickest," which has been picked up for a second season on Netflix.

The award-winning playwright talks about his provocative Slave Play, which earned 12 Tony nominations. A new HBO documentary chronicles the making of the production. Originally broadcast June 2023.

Von Furstenberg and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy teamed up to produce Woman in Charge, a Hulu documentary about the fashion designer's meteoric rise in the '70s.

Oyelowo plays a formerly enslaved man who went on to become one of the nation's first Black Deputy U.S. Marshals in the Paramount+ series Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Oyelowo also produced the series.

Journalist Alexia Fernández Campbell says some freed men and women were given titles to land following the Civil War — but after President Lincoln's death, the land was taken back.

In a new memoir, Dunne writes about growing up in a family of storytellers, his complicated relationship with fame and the trauma the family experienced after the 1982 murder of his sister, Dominique.