Amir “Questlove” Thompson plays us Christmas recordings – some favorites and some unusual ones. He’s perhaps the most popular DJ in America, in addition to being the co-founder of The Roots, the houseband for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” This year he won an Oscar for his documentary “Summer of Soul.”
Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide have risen in recent years. NY Times reporter Matt Richtel says we lack the therapists and treatment centers to care for teens who are suffering.
American Sirens author Kevin Hazzard tells the story Freedom House, a neighborhood nonprofit that, with the help of a pioneering physician, trained some of the nation's first paramedics.
Every year, John Powers looks back on the great features he never got around to talking about. This year's list includes White Lotus, The Menu, Nanny and Dark Winds — plus one vodka commercial.
Avatar: The Way of Water isn't one of the year's best movies, but it's undoubtedly one of the best movie-going experiences Justin Chang has had in a while.
Maddow's podcast uncovers the widespread anti-Semitic, pro-German sympathies active among major religious and political leaders in the U.S. in the lead-up to U.S. entering WWII.
Meaker wrote Spring Fire in 1952, and was surprised when it sold 1.5 million copies. She went on to write other lesbian-themed books under pen names. She died Nov. 21. Originally broadcast 2003.
In her most popular novel, the 1979 "Kindred," she put a searing spin on the time travel story, shuttling her heroine back and forth between 1970s la and a pre-Civil War plantation. The book has now been turned into an ambitious new FX series by another MacArthur fellow, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who gives Butler's tale a twirl of his own.
Butler's 1979 book, Kindred, is now a series for FX on Hulu. In 1993, the pioneering author, who died in 2006, told Fresh Air she made up her own stories so that she could see herself in them.
There was a lot of great television this year, but the winning moment came from HBO's special, The Howard Stern Interview: Bruce Springsteen, an extended two-plus hour conversation between two icons.
When Jamal's trios visited Penthouse jazz club in Seattle in the '60s, they came to play. Now 92, the pianist has signed off on the release of a new series of live recordings from back in the day.
Author Adam Hochschild says Wilson used the first World War as an excuse to spy on Americans, censor the press and plan for the mass deportation of immigrants. His new book is American Midnight.
In his 2019 film Knives Out, director Rian Johnson crafted an Agatha Christie-style whodunit that also spoke volumes about class inequality and privilege in America. Now he's back, and this time he's taking aim at the tech billionaires.
Jane Smiley's latest novel, A Dangerous Business, is a mash-up of a Western, a serial killer mystery and a feminist erotic romp. Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, stars a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus.
Two new movies are based on well-known children's stories. One is "Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical," adapted from the popular stage show. The other is "Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio," a stop-motion animation version of the classic fairy tale. Our film critic Justin Chang recommends them both.
Clooney was among the recipients of the 45th Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday. He appeared on Fresh Air in 2005, after he directed, co-wrote and co-starred in Good Night, and Good Luck.
The scenes in the new documentary Harvest Time show footage taken when Young was making the album Harvest. We listen back to two Fresh Air interviews with Young, from 1992 and 2004.
Tech journalist Casey Newton says Elon Musk did not inherit a company in crisis — but after massive layoffs and upheaval the social media giant is losing money and Musk is warning of bankruptcy.
Kumail Nanjiani is starring in the series Welcome to Chippendales, as the founder of the first club to feature male strippers dancing for audiences of women. Nanjiani co-starred in the comedy series Silicon Valley, co-wrote and starred in the film The Big Sick, and was the first South Asian to play a Marvel superhero.
