Society & Culture

Though more than one million Black Americans contributed to the war effort, historian Matthew Delmont says a military uniform offered no protection from racism. Originally broadcast Nov. 8, 2022.

Elliot Ackerman served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, during which time, he says, he witnessed the best and worst that human beings are capable of. Originally broadcast Nov. 11, 2021.

Sterling K. Brown co-stars in the new film "American Fiction."

Shields has worked as a model and an actor. A two-part Hulu documentary looks at her childhood roles and the toxic culture that perpetuates misogyny. Originally broadcast April 4, 2023.

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.

Roots cofounder Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson shares his Christmas playlist, which includes songs by DRAM, James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Originally broadcast Dec. 21, 2022.

Cord Jefferson's new film, "American Fiction." Jefferson is an award-winning screenwriter. He won an Emmy in 2020 for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series for "Watchmen," along with Damon Lindelof. He's also written for "Succession," "The Good Place," "Master Of None," and Larry Wilmore's former late night series "The Nightly Show."

Ari Berman says both the Supreme Court and the lower courts are working to dismantle the '65 law that's considered one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the U.S.

Larissa FastHorse is a playwright best known for her satirical play, "The Thanksgiving Play" which ran earlier this year on Broadway making FastHorse the first known Native American woman playwright to produce a Broadway production. Larissa FastHorse is of the Sicangu Lakota Nation. Her latest play, "For The People," ran earlier this month at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and centers around a Native community fighting for grant money to create a wellness center.

Stephanie Land's new memoir, Class, picks up where her 2019 memoir, Maid, left off. Maid, which inspired a 10-part Netflix series, chronicled Land's life as a young single mother living below the poverty line, struggling with housing insecurity and an abusive relationship, and cleaning houses to support herself and her daughter.

In Class, Land is in her mid-30s at the University of Montana, desperately trying to fulfill her dream of becoming a writer, while juggling classes, working to pay for childcare and rent, and experiencing the loneliness of being a single mother.

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.

Historian Tanisha Ford shares the untold story of Mollie Moon, known as one of the most influential women of the civil rights era in her new book "Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind The Civil Rights Movement".

David Grann's 2017 book chronicled how members of the Osage Indian Nation were murdered in the 1920s by white people who wanted to take control of their land. Originally broadcast April 17, 2017.

Lee is testing her comedic chops on The Morning Show, where she plays the first female president of UBA News. In the film Past Lives, she takes a more serious turn as Nora, a playwright living in New York, caught between her American husband and her childhood sweetheart from growing up in Korea.

In the new memoir, Worthy, Pinkett Smith writes about her marriage, her career in Hollywood, her upbringing in Baltimore and her friendship with the late rapper Tupac Shakur. She also chronicles her struggle with depression and her efforts to better understand and accept herself.

Maryam Keshavarz's new film is called The Persian Version. It’s a fiction film, inspired by Keshavarz’s life and her mother’s. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1969. Keshavarz grew up in New Jersey. Like the character in the film, Keshavarz identifies as bisexual, which her parents considered taboo and unacceptable. About half of the Persian Version is the story of Layla’s mother, growing up in an Iranian country village, and being forced to marry her husband at age 13.

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.

In the new memoir, Thicker than Water, Washington recounts her life as an only child in the Bronx, her acting career and activism, and her journey of self-discovery after learning the truth of her heritage. Growing up, she frequently sensed an "emotional distance" between her parents and herself.

Hardison, who started modeling in the late '60s, describes herself the first "Black, Black" model. She went on to own her own modeling agency. A new documentary tells her story.