Fresh Air
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Fresh Air Weekend: Soderbergh, Sarah Vaughan, Julianne...
The acclaimed director examines the five-year relationship between Liberace and his young lover. A new box set of Vaughan's music shows her range. In What Maisie Knew, Moore plays a troubled rock star who might initially seem like a rotten person, but Moore's performance humanizes the character.
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Remembering Ray Manzarek: Tonight on Fresh Air
Fresh Air looks back on the life of keyboardist and Door's co-founder Ray Manzarek, who died this week after a battle with cancer.
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Two New Stories With A New-Wave Vibe
The Truffaut borrowings are explicit in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, while Richard Linklater's Before Midnight takes its cues from Eric Rohmer's gentle but expansive talkfests. In both films, conversation is a centerpiece as characters navigate relationships.
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Remembering Ray Manzarek, Keyboardist For The Doors
The mythology surrounding The Doors generally centers on its lead singer, Jim Morrison. Morrison is still considered one of rock's tortured poets, but The Doors' sound was based largely on Ray Manzarek's keyboard playing. His are the riffs immortalized in songs like "Riders on the Storm."
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Marcus Samuelsson: On Becoming A Top Chef
The James Beard award-winning chef was the youngest ever to receive a three-star review from The New York Times. His memoir, Yes, Chef, explains what it takes to be a master chef — and describes his journey from Ethiopia to Sweden to some of America's finest restaurants.
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Julianne Moore Talks Sex Scenes, Parenting and What She...
Julianne Moore talks about playing an out-of-control rock star and mother in the new present-day adaptation of What Maisie Knew.
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Julianne Moore, Relishing Complicated Characters
In What Maisie Knew, Moore plays a troubled rock star who might initially seem like a rotten person. But Moore's performance humanizes the character, highlighting her human frailties — something Moore has done in many parts.
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Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'
Steven Soderbergh's latest film is a showbiz story about Vegas icon Liberace and his secret lover — played, respectively, by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, both terrific in their roles. It premieres Sunday on HBO.
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Novelist Jennifer Gilmore: On Adoption
Jennifer Gilmore talks about her new semi-autobiographical novel The Mothers and about the obstacles faced by couples trying to adopt.
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Fictional 'Mothers' Reveal Facts Of A Painful Adoption...
After years trying to conceive, novelist Jennifer Gilmore and her husband decided to adopt. What they thought would be a relatively simple process was instead a long and painful one. In her latest novel, Gilmore channels these autobiographical experiences into fiction.
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Daft Punk: Accessing Electronic Music's Humanity
Random Access Memories finds the French duo changing its music-making process in an effort to make its songs sound more human. To that end, Daft Punk enlists guest stars such as Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers.
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Soderbergh's Liberace, 'Behind The Candelabra'
In his new HBO film, the acclaimed director examines the five-year relationship between the flamboyant entertainer and Scott Thorson, who was 40 years Liberace's junior and still a teenager when they met. Michael Douglas plays Liberace and Matt Damon plays Thorson.
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Mel Brooks: PBS American Masters
Writer, Film-maker and comedy legend Mel Brooks joins Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Hear him talk about the his new PBS American Masters documentary, tell stories about the Producers and wonder if he'll ever get an Honorary Woman of the Year Award.
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Brooks: "I'm An EGOT; I Don't Need Any More"
The legendary screenwriter, producer, director and entertainer whose name has become synonymous with American comedy, talks about his penchant for spoofs and his decades-long friendship with Carl Reiner. Brooks is the subject of a new American Masters documentary that premieres May 20 on PBS.
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Sarah Vaughan: A New Box Set Revels In Glorious...
Divine: The Jazz Albums, 1954-1958 packs four CDs with Vaughan's music, recorded live or in the studio with bands big and small. Two live albums from Chicago nightclubs are standouts, partly when a performance threatens to slide off the rails.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Gerwig, Baumbach, Dawes And Polley
In Frances Ha, a 27-year-old (Greta Gerwig) navigates New York City — and the transition from prolonged adolescence to proper adulthood. Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script. Dawes has a new album, Stories Don't End. In a documentary, Sarah Polley turns the camera on her own family.
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Jerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It
In 1958, Lewis suffered a precipitous decline in popularity when people learned that his new wife was not only 13, but also his cousin. Nobody would touch his records. Then, in 1963, he signed a deal with Smash and it looked like things were getting better.
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Bill Hader On Sketch Comedy, Classic Hollywood
This weekend will be Hader's final romp on Saturday Night Live. He joined the cast in 2005 and has been nominated for an Emmy for his character Stefon, an obsessive clubgoer. Hader talks about not understanding how people do standup and about watching old films, which sparked his interest in Hollywood.
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The Tricky Business Of Retirement: Hidden 401(K) Fees
You could end up with a lot less savings at 65 than you ever anticipated because of fees charged by the financial institutions managing your retirement accounts. Robert Hiltonsmith, who researches retirement security, says those fees were disclosed to 401(k) plan participants until only recently.
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100 Years Of Woody Herman: The Early Bloomer Who Kept...
In a career that ran from the 1930s into the 1980s, and included work in big bands and rock 'n' roll, the clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader changed to reflect the times. Herman would have turned 100 on May 16.
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'Into Darkness,' Boldly And With A Few Twists
The 12th film based on Gene Roddenberry's '60s sci-fi TV show is the second to star a new group of actors as Kirk, Spock and their crew. J.J. Abrams returns as director, and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch plays the memorable villain.
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Coming To 'Americanah': Two Tales Of Immigrant Experience
The new book from Nigerian writer Chimananda Ngozi Adichie is a knockout of a novel about immigration that transcends genre. It's everything from a coming-of-age novel to a romance to a comic novel of social manners to an up-to-the-minute meditation on race.
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A Polley Family Secret, Pieced Deftly Together
In a striking documentary, Sarah Polley turns the camera on her own family. The director and actress, known for films such as Away from Her and The Sweet Hereafter, was teased growing up about not looking like her actor father. At 27, she discovered that it wasn't a joke.
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Gerwig, Baumbach Poke At Post-College Pangs
In Frances Ha, a 27-year-old (Greta Gerwig) navigates New York City — and the transition from prolonged adolescence to proper adulthood. Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script; they join Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about the project.
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Dawes Knows Where It's Been And Where It's Headed
Dawes has just released its third album, Stories Don't End. The band has cited Neil Young and Crosby, Stills & Nash among its influences, but channels them with good humor and confidence that its own distinctiveness will shine through.
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In 'Passage', Caro Mines LBJ's Changing Political Roles
The fourth volume in Robert Caro's monumental biography of Lyndon Johnson is The Passage of Power, and it explores the period between 1958 and 1964 during which Johnson went from being the powerful Senate Majority Leader to a powerless vice president to — suddenly — President of the United States.
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Bing Crosby: From The Vaults, Surprising Breadth
Four albums of reissues and archival recordings from Crosby's own vaults are getting a high-profile release; they demonstrate that his influence on modern singing is so huge, we barely notice it anymore. He could sing anything from Latin to Hawaiian to The Great American Songbook.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Messud, Volk And Scorsese
In her new novel, Claire Messud explores the complicated relationship between two women. After reading the memoir of Elsa Schiaparelli, Patricia Volk found a new understanding of beauty. In a talk called "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema," the director spoke about film history.
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The 'Real Life' Of Actor Steve Carell
The comedian, also known for his work on The Daily Show and in films such as The 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Little Miss Sunshine, played paper company Dunder Mifflin boss Michael Scott on the hit NBC comedy series The Office for five years. He left the show in 2011.
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Ricky Gervais On The Original 'Office'
Actor Ricky Gervais starred in, wrote and directed the hit BBC sitcom, The Office, on which the hit NBC series was based. The BBC series premiered in 2001 and ran for two seasons. The NBC Office premiered in 2005 and its series finale will air on May 16.
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Jenna Fischer: Keeping It Real At 'The Office'
Jenna Fischer's character on The Office Pam began the show in 2005 with the last name Beesly. Nine years later, having married her coworker Jim Halpert (played by John Krasinsk) Pam Beesly is Pam Halpert. The love affair between Pam and Jim has been one of the show's defining plot-lines.
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Rainn Wilson: 'The Office' Drone Outside Of Work
Since the very beginning of the hit NBC television series, Wilson has played beet-farming, archery-loving middle-management kook Dwight Schrute. The series concludes its nine-year run on May 16.
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Kaling And Daniels: Writing 'The Office'
Greg Daniels and Mindy Kaling, wrote a number of classic episodes for NBC's The Office, including "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." Kaling, who played Kelly on the show, now stars in her own comedy series, The Mindy Project. Daniels has worked on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons.
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Luhrmann's 'Gatsby': Bracingly Novel
The movie is loud and obvious, but it's not a desecration of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 masterpiece. Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of The Great Gatsby is more like a cartoony Broadway musical version of Gatsby in which no one, alas, sings.
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'The Woman Upstairs': A Saga Of Anger And Thwarted...
In her new novel, Emperor's Children author Claire Messud explores the complicated relationship between two women: Nora, who longed to be an artist and have a family but failed, and the woman Nora befriends, who puts her art first and built a family as well.
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In A Cluster Of New Sitcoms, 'Family Tree' Stands Tall
Christopher Guest's new HBO comedy series, Family Tree, follows a down-on-his-luck guy looking into his family genealogy. Guest, who pioneered the mockumentary style in cult classics like This Is Spinal Tap and Waiting For Guffman co-created the show with Jim Piddock and stars Chris O'Dowd.
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Remembering Monster-Maker Ray Harryhausen
The legendary Hollywood FX man died Tuesday at age 92. Known for creating the monsters in such films as Mighty Joe Young and Jason and the Argonauts, Harryhausen spoke with Fresh Air in 2003 about studying animals in nature to create the monsters of our imaginations.
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Nearly Three Years After Dodd-Frank, Reforms Happen...
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was a sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another financial collapse. Journalist Gary Rivlin says passing the bill was just a first step in a long road to real reform, and the financial system is as vulnerable to disaster it was in 2008.
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Natalie Maines: A Country-Music Rebel Rocks On Her Own
On Mother, Maines' first solo record, the singer moves beyond the music that propelled her to fame as a member of the Dixie Chicks. It features an assortment of pop and rock covers, including a reworking of the Pink Floyd song that lends the album its title.
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'Shocked': A Memoir About Beauty And Its Beholders
Even as a child, Patricia Volk knew she would never measure up to her strikingly beautiful mother. But after reading the memoir of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Volk found a new understanding of beauty that had more to do with personality than a pretty face.
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Scorsese Talks 'The Language of Cinema'
In a talk he titled "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema," the famed director spoke passionately about the history of cinema and the films that stoked his love for the medium.
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Linney Mines 'The Big C' For Serious Laughs
On Showtime's dark comedy series, Laura Linney plays a terminally ill cancer patient. The actress's own father died from lung cancer while the series was being made; her mother was a cancer nurse when Linney was young. These experiences, she says, inform her performance.
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Godwin's 'Flora': A Tale Of Remorse That Creeps Under...
The latest novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin takes inspiration from Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Both stories take place in isolated old houses, and both revolve around mental contests between a governess character and her young charge.
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Caitlin Rose: A Singer Grounded In The Details Of...
Dubbed a country singer by virtue of her Nashville base, Rose sounds more like a pop vocalist on The Stand-In. Drawing inspiration from Roy Orbison, Carlene Carter and countless others, Rose knows it takes an assured performer to sell the notion of vulnerability over the long haul.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Maron, Violent Minds And A Classic...
The comedian turned his life around when he started "WTF with Marc Maron" out of his garage in 2009. In The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine argues that violent behavior has a biological basis just like depression. In her classic '60s documentary, Shirley Clarke profiles a 33-year-old gay hustler.
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'Iron Man 3': Tony Stark As Homebrew Hero
Director and co-writer Shane Black kicks Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr., out of his comfort zone — a choice that has Stark functioning as a lone gumshoe, thinking like a garage mechanic and — when necessary — straight-up MacGyvering a fix.
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Bradley Cooper Finds 'Silver Linings' Everywhere
The actor, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in David O. Russell's film which is out now on DVD, talks about watching movies with his father as a kid in Philadelphia. He currently stars in The Place Beyond The Pines with Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes.
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Ethical Fashion: Is The Tragedy In Bangladesh A Final...
Since a garment factory collapsed last month in Dhaka, killing more than 400 people, ethical fashion has been in the spotlight. Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion, explains the economy that created this tragedy and what we can do to fix it.
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Peeling Away The Layers In A 'Portrait Of Jason'
In her classic '60s documentary, Shirley Clarke profiles a loquacious 33-year-old gay hustler who dreams of having a nightclub act. Her subject could hardly be more complex — and in examining him, she raises important questions about the relationship between fact and fiction.
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Two Indie Directors Go Confidently Mainstream
Jeff Nichols and Ramin Bahrani made names with small, low-budget movies: Nichols with Take Shelter and Bahrani with Man Push Cart. Both have now directed big-budget films with big stars: Nichols' Mud features Matthew McConaughey, and Bahrani's At Any Price stars Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron.
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Criminologist Believes Violent Behavior Is Biological
In a new book, The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine argues that violent behavior has a biological basis just like depression or schizophrenia. This raises questions about treatment, accountability and punishment, including the death penalty.
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C.J. Chivers: On The Ground In Syria
The New York Times reporter talks about spending much of the past year with rebels in Syria. Chivers is also the author of The Gun, about how the AK-47 has defined modern warfare.
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Marc Maron: A Life Fueled By 'Panic And Dread'
The comedian turned his life around when he started "WTF with Marc Maron" out of his garage in 2009. He has parlayed the popularity of the podcast into a new relevance for his comedy career, as well as a new memoir and a television show based on his life, Maron, on the IFC Channel.
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Fresh Air Weekend: David Sedaris And Matthew Weiner
The best-selling author's diaries have been his jumping-off point for the personal essays in his collections, including his latest, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls. The creator of the acclaimed AMC series talks about Don Draper as an aging existentialist looking for meaning in a chaotic world.
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'Guilt Trip': Streisand On Songs, Film And Family
Singer, actor, writer, director and producer Barbra Streisand plays a well-meaning if overbearing Jewish mom in The Guilt Trip. The star says her own mother both encouraged her talents and was jealous of them.
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A Conversation With Country Superstar George Jones
The country singer, known for "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and many other hits, died Friday at age 81. Fresh Air remembers Jones with excerpts from a 1996 conversation with Terry Gross about his autobiography, his addictions and his perspective on his celebrated but troubled marriage to Tammy Wynette.
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'Horrific' And 'Surreal': The Words We Use To Bear...
After more than a week of gruesome media coverage, linguist Geoff Nunberg takes a close look at the words we use to describe events that mesmerize and horrify, that sensitize and desensitize, that transfix and repel us at the same time.
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Matthew Weiner On 'Mad Men' And Meaning
The creator of the acclaimed AMC series talks about his protagonist — Don Draper — as an aging existentialist looking for meaning in a chaotic world. He says the show's sixth season, set in 1968, is situated in that historical moment for a reason: to reflect a traumatic passage in Don's life.
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'Let's Explore': David Sedaris On His Public Private Life
The best-selling author and humorist has kept journals for 36 years. Those diaries have been the jumping-off point for the personal essays that appear in his collections, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and now Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls.
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'Equilaterial': Martians, Oil And A Hole In The Desert
Ken Kalfus' new novel about an astronomer obsessed with attracting the attention of Martians appears at first to be an homage to the scientific romances of H.G. Wells and the lost-world sagas of H. Rider Haggard. As the novel develops, however, its unique social commentaries emerge.
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Matthew McConaughey, Getting Serious Again
The leading man known for his good looks and lighthearted charm has made a comfortable career for himself in romantic comedies. Lately, however, he has been taking on more serious roles in films such as Bernie, Magic Mike and most recently Jeff Nichols' Mud.
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'Rectify': An Ex-Con Navigates The World Outside
A new six-episode drama for the Sundance Channel follows a man who, after 19 years in prison, is exonerated by DNA evidence and returns to his family. Critic David Bianculli says it's a unique show, and a memorable one.
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Tom Cruise's Latest Headed For 'Oblivion'
Joseph Kosinski's sci-fi adventure, starring Tom Cruise, is the most incoherent piece of storytelling since John Travolta's Battlefield Earth. It had critic David Edelstein crying, "What? What?" over the din of the explosions.
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'Zoobiquity': What Humans Can Learn From Animal Illness
Animals and humans have a lot in common, including some of the health problems that plague them. In her book Zoobiquity, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz explores how studying animal illness — from cancer to sexual dysfunction — can help us better understand human health.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Junger, Paisley And A Serial-Killing...
Junger explores the life of his friend, photographer Tim Hetherington. "Accidental Racist" launched an Internet firestorm but shouldn't overshadow everything else on Wheelhouse. In 2003, a nurse named Charlie Cullen was arrested under suspicion of injecting patients with lethal doses of medications.
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David Bianculli On Media Coverage Of The Marathon...
Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli talks with Terry Gross about the media coverage surrounding the explosions at the Boston Marathon.
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For Boston: A Dave McKenna Concert
Fresh Air pays tribute to Boston with a 1988 performance by the late jazz pianist Dave McKenna. From 1981 to 1991, McKenna had a standing gig at Boston's Grand Dame Copley Plaza Hotel. He was also a loyal Red Sox fan. He died in 2008.
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Dennis Lehane On 'Messing With The Wrong City'
Author Dennis Lehane talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about his New York Times op-ed, "Messing with the Wrong City," which expressed his love for his hometown.
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Journalists Charles Sennott And Seth Mnookin Discuss...
Charles Sennott, vice president, executive editor and co-founder of GlobalPost, talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the ongoing manhunt in Boston. Seth Mnookin, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, describes live-tweeting the events at MIT.
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Sebastian Junger: 'Which Way' To Turn After...
In a new documentary premiering on HBO, the journalist explores the life of his friend, the war photographer Tim Hetherington. The two collaborated on the 2010 documentary Restrepo, and Junger was profoundly changed after Hetherington was killed by shrapnel in Libya in 2011.
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Brad Paisley's 'Wheelhouse' Of Good Songs — And...
"Accidental Racist" launched an Internet firestorm and threatened to overshadow everything else on the country singer's fine new album, Wheelhouse. Even in that polarizing song, Paisley's biggest sin is that he's well-meaning in a way that topples too easily into sentimentality.
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Marathoner Amby Burfoot: 'Every Mile Out There Is A Gift'
Marathoner and Runner's World contributor Amby Burfoot talks about the vulnerability of running 26.2 miles of public space, the Boston Marathon as a holy grail and the importance of being cheered on. Burfoot won the Boston Marathon in 1968 and has run every five years since. He was there Monday.
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'The Hell Of American Day Care': Expensive And 'Mediocre'
In a cover story for The New Republic, journalist Jonathan Cohn examines the conundrum of day care in the United States. "On the one hand," he says, "improving the quality of child care ... is going to take more money. On the other hand, it already costs more than many families can pay."
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'Central Park Five': Rape, Race And Blame Explored
A documentary airing tonight on PBS tells the story of the five young black and Latino men wrongly convicted of the 1989 assault and rape of a white female jogger in Manhattan's Central Park. Ken Burns made the film with his eldest daughter, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon.
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Boston Globe Columnist: 'A Little Bit Of Freedom Taken...
Sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about Monday's events at the Boston Marathon, the place the marathon holds in the life of the city, its importance in the international world of running, and the history of attacks at sporting events.
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How Evangelical Christians Are Preaching The New Gospel...
In The Child Catchers, Kathryn Joyce explores the outsized influence of evangelical Christian groups on the overseas adoption industry. The adoption movement has orchestrated a boom-and-bust market that can exploit poor families in countries where regulations are weak and "orphans" may not actually be orphans.
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Pretending To Be A 'Good Nurse,' Serial Killer Targeted...
In 2003, a hospital nurse named Charlie Cullen was arrested under suspicion of injecting patients with lethal doses of a variety of medications. He is now considered one of the nation's most prolific serial killers. Journalist Charles Graeber explains how the hospital system failed to stop Cullen.
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The Doctor Trying To Solve The Mystery Of Food Allergies
Nearly 15 million Americans have a moderate to severe food allergy. In kids, the rate is one in 13. Kari Nadeau, who studies food allergies at Stanford, is currently testing a technique to desensitize children who have multiple severe allergies to foods like nuts, soy, milk, wheat and shellfish.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Mormon 'Elders', Johnny Cash And...
Ryan McIlvain's debut novel, Elders, tells the story of two young Mormons carrying out their missions. For his latest album, Bischoff departs from an indie rock sound and focuses on orchestral arrangements. Cash recorded more than 50 singles and 60 albums for Columbia Records over 28 years.
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Lemony Snicket Dons A Trenchcoat
In Who Could That Be at This Hour?, a prequel to A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler satirizes pulp mysteries and uncovers the parallels between detective fiction and childhood. In both, he says, an outsider is trying to make his way in a mysteriously corrupt world.
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Earl Hines: Big Bands And Beyond On A New Box Set
Mosaic Records has released Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928-1945, a seven-disc showcase for the jazz pianist and bandleader. Hines' right hand played lines in bright, clear octaves — and his left hand had a mind of its own.
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'The Way Of The Knife': Soldiers, Spies And Shadow Wars
The CIA has morphed from a traditional espionage service concerned with stealing the secrets of foreign governments into an organization consumed with hunting down its enemies. New York Times journalist Mark Mazzetti chronicles this transformation in a new book, The Way of the Knife.
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Johnny Cash's Columbia Catalog Out Now — As A 63-Disc...
Cash spent half a century in the limelight as a country singer turned American icon. Between 1958, when he first recorded for Columbia, until 1986, when it didn't renew his contract, he recorded more than 50 singles and 60 albums for the label.
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Remembering Annette Funicello, America's Mouseketeer
Handpicked by Walt Disney to be one of the original Mouseketeers, Annette Funicello was America's girl next door. She spoke to Fresh Air in 1994 about Mickey Mouse ears and why she went public with her multiple sclerosis diagnosis. She died Monday at age 70 from complications of the disease.
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Jherek Bischoff Crafts A Symphonic Sound On 'Composed'
The musician, songwriter, composer and producer has made a name for himself by playing with the likes of Amanda Palmer. For his latest album, however, he found himself departing from a rock sound as he began writing his own orchestral arrangements.
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Going 'Mental' And Enjoying The Ride
P.J. Hogan's new movie is madder than madcap, a zany, nonconformist boundary-pusher whose offbeat manner makes for a rich and grounded film. Toni Collette plays the part of a modern-day Maria von Trapp as if she has nothing to lose — and Anthony LaPaglia shows his true Aussie accent.
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Remembering David Kuo: Refocusing Religious Groups On...
As Deputy Director of President George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Kuo hoped to be a force inside the White House advocating for the poor. He left after two years, disillusioned and believing he had been used solely to recruit evangelical voters. Kuo, who died Friday at 44, talked to Fresh Air in 2006.
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The 'Alchemists' Who Control The Purse Strings Of The...
In a new book, Washington Post economics writer Neil Irwin looks at an elite group of policymakers from around the world who manage the money supply, and explains how money can come from — and disappear into — thin air based on the decisions of these influential men and women.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Mary Roach, 'Mad Men,' Ty Burr And...
Roach's new book explores the human digestive system. Critic David Bianculli praises the season premiere of AMC's hit show. Linguist Geoff Nunberg describes why and how dictionaries are "redefining" marriage. Burr, Boston Globe film critic, looks at the relationship between stars and their fans.
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Roger Ebert In Review: A 'Fresh Air' Survey
Fresh Air remembers film critic Roger Ebert, who died Thursday, with a roundup of interviews from our archive — one with Ebert alone, one with him and his late partner Gene Siskel, and two in which Ebert interviews iconic directors. Plus, critic-at-large John Powers discusses Ebert's 2011 memoir Life Itself.
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Even Dictionaries Grapple With Getting 'Marriage' Right
Lexicographers know they're in the hot seat as they confront the changing use of the word "marriage." Linguist Geoff Nunberg says the key to getting the new definition right is to crisply describe everything that's in the category and nothing that isn't.
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Former Mormon Missionary Describes The Experience Of...
As a Mormon missionary, Ryan McIlvain spent two years ringing strangers' doorbells, even as he experienced doubts about his own faith. He left the church in his mid-20s. McIlvain's debut novel, Elders, tells the story of two young Mormons carrying out their missions.
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Kacey Musgraves: Country's Blunt And Poetic New Voice
The talented young singer-songwriter has as much in common with John Prine as she does with Kenny Chesney. With any luck, Same Trailer, Different Park is the start of a long career that will make both Musgraves' core audience and other open-minded listeners sit up and take notice.
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Hisham Matar: A 'Return' To Libya In Search Of His Father
The writer's family was living in Egypt, in exile from Libya, when Matar's father, a prominent opponent of the Qaddafi regime, was kidnapped, taken back to Libya, and imprisoned. That was in March 1990, and it was the last time Matar saw his father. After the revolution in March 2012, Matar returned to look for his father or at least try to find out what became of him.
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Listening Back To An Interview With Phil Ramone
Ramone started out as a sound engineer for Lesley Gore, and went on to work with Simon and Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra. He died Saturday at the age of 79. Fresh Air remembers him by listening back to a 1995 interview. He talks about losing old demos and being mistaken for a member of The Ramones.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Chris...
Harris and Crowell always wanted to make an album together, but they never got around to it until now. After hosting a Sunday morning show on MSNBC, Hayes is making the move to weeknights. Obsessive fans of Kubrick's The Shining search for clues as to what the film is really about.
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Hunting For Secrets In 'The Shining's' Room 237
A new documentary looks at obsessive fans of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. These fanatics look for hidden meanings in the movie, and while some of their theories sound outrageous, it's too simple to call such thinking deranged.
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Frank Langella: A Career 'Like A Chekhov Play'
In the movie Robot & Frank, the actor plays an aging ex-burglar who learns to take advantage of his robot caretaker. Langella, 74, tells Fresh Air why he was drawn to the role, and discusses the ups and downs of his long career.
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Emmylou Harris And Rodney Crowell: Harmonizing To That...
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have been friends and collaborators since they first met in 1974. While they always wanted to make an album together, they never got around to it until now. Old Yellow Moon includes songs by Crowell, Patti Scialfa, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson among others.
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The Apathy In 'A Thousand Pardons' Is Hard To Forgive
The rich and good-looking get a taste of life among the 99 percent in Jonathan Dee's novels. In A Thousand Pardons, his protagonist, Helen Armstead, finds a secret talent for getting powerful men to apologize after her marriage falls apart and she is forced to enter the working world.
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Chris Hayes: From 'Up' In The Morning To 'All In' At...
After hosting his Sunday morning show on MSNBC for the past year and a half, Hayes is making the move to a weeknight news show that premieres April 1. At 34, Hayes will be the youngest prime-time anchor on any of the major cable news channels.
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'Angry Days' Shows An America Torn Over Entering World...
World War II is often thought of as a good and just war — a war the U.S. had to fight. But it wasn't that simple. Public debate was heated between interventionism, which President Roosevelt supported, and isolationism, which aviator Charles Lindbergh became an unofficial spokesman for.
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Fresh Air Remembers Journalist Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis, the New York Times columnist and reporter who covered the Supreme Court in the late 1950s and early 1960s, died Monday. Fresh Air remembers him by listening back to a 1991 interview in which Lewis talks about the responsibilities of a columnist and the importance of a correctly-spelled name.
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How And Why The Hollywood Star Machine Made 'Gods Like...
In a new book about movie stardom and fame, Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr looks at the evolving history of the relationship between movie stars and the people who love them, and at how changing technology influences the kinds of stars the public wants.
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Remembering Chinua Achebe And The Importance Of Struggle
To remember Chinua Achebe who died last Thursday, Fresh Air listens back to an interview with the great African writer that originally aired on May 10, 1988. In it, Achebe talks about the literary trope of the white explorer or missionary living amongst the savages, and the importance of struggle.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Emily Rapp, Phil Spector, Philip Roth...
In The Still Point of the Turning World Rapp writes about caring for a terminally ill child. Phil Spector is based on the music producer, but it's fiction. Philip Roth is the subject of a PBS documentary. Tom Waits, Patti Smith and others appear on a new compilation of sea songs from Hal Willner.
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Nathan Englander: Stories Of Faith, Family And The...
In What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Nathan Englander writes about his own faith — and what it means to be Jewish — in stories that explore religious tension, Israeli-American relations and the Holocaust.
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Timberlake On 'N Sync, Acting And Bringing Sexy Back
Justin Timberlake rocketed to stardom as a teen heartthrob in the band 'N Sync. He has gone on to be a successful solo artist — and expanded his career into both comedic and dramatic roles on-screen. He discusses his long career in showbiz, his SNL digital shorts and his transition to film.
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With Vengeance And Violence, 'Olympus Has Fallen' Flat
This macho action film starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman is a vigilante fantasy about terrorists and turncoats invading the United States. It's a popular genre, but critic David Edelstein says he's tired of the American addiction to these tropes.
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'Temperature Rising': Will Climate Change Bring More...
In a series for The New York Times, environmental reporter Justin Gillis has been exploring whether harsh weather events are connected to global warming or if they are simply the random violence nature visits upon us.
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Rock Icons Sing Pirate Songs On 'Son Of Rogues Gallery'
Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Marc Almond, Marianne Faithfull, Shane MacGowan and others appear on a new two-disc compilation of pirate ballads and sea songs called Son of Rogues Gallery. Here, Terry Gross talks with Hal Willner, the project's producer, about some of the stories behind the project.
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You Can't Trust HBO's 'Phil Spector,' But You Can Enjoy...
David Mamet, the writer and director of the new HBO movie Phil Spector starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren, includes a disclaimer at the beginning of the film: While the movie might be based on the controversial music producer, "This is a work of fiction. It's not 'based on a true story.' "
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Barry Altschul: The Jazz Drummer Makes A Comeback
On his new album, The 3dom Factor, Altschul is great at mixing opposites: abstract melodic concepts with parade beats, open improvising and percolating swing. The album is the sort of comeback that reminds you how much good music the artist made the first time around.
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'Sex And The Citadel' Peeks Inside Private Lives In The...
Shereen El Feki spent five years traveling across the Arab region asking people about sex: what they do, what they don't, what they think and why. Her ambition was to learn about the intimate lives of people in the Middle East, and how the sexual aspects of their lives reflect larger shifts.
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Justin Timberlake Returns To Music With Enthusiasm and...
On his first album since 2006, The 20/20 Experience, Justin Timberlake explores his range, from soul-man groove to falsetto croon, taking inspiration from neo-soul and the expansiveness of '60s and '70s rock song formats.
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A Measured Look At Roth As The Writer Turns 80
The celebration of Philip Roth's career reaches its peak in a new documentary — Philip Roth Unmasked — that will screen on PBS next week as part of the American Masters series. There's no doubt that Roth is a master, and not just an American one, but the film tiptoes around the novelist's dark ferocity.
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Two New TV Dramas Look Below The Surface
Jane Campion directs a new Sundance Channel miniseries, Top of the Lake, about a young New Zealand detective played by Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss. Meanwhile, producers from Lost and Friday Night Lights team up to create a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, called Bates Motel.
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'Still Point': A Meditation On Mothering A Dying Child
In 2011, Emily Rapp's baby was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic, degenerative condition with no cure. He died just shy of his third birthday. In her new memoir, The Still Point of the Turning World, Rapp writes about what it's like to care for a terminally ill child.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Adrian Younge, 'Frankenstein's Cat'...
Spaghetti Westerns, opera and the Wu-Tang Clan come together in the music of Adrian Younge. Emily Anthes talks about how scientists are working to create pigs that can grow organs for human transplant. Tegan and Sara depart from their indie singer-songwriter roots with their latest album.
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Three New Films Examine What It Means When Girls Act Out
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa and Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills are wildly different films, yet they share a common impulse: to demonstrate indelibly how for girls, behaving outrageously is still a political act.
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Paul Thomas Anderson, The Man Behind 'The Master'
The director of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about The Master, a tense drama with indelible performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams.
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Two Awards In One Day For 'Battleborn' Author Claire...
On Wednesday, it was announced that the 28-year-old fiction writer had won the Story Prize as well as the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her debut story collection explores the landscape, people and history of the American West.
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Jake Tapper Takes A Host Chair At CNN
The veteran reporter has recently moved from ABC News to CNN where he now hosts his own show and serves as Chief Washington Correspondent. In Part II of this interview, Tapper talks about fact-checking the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and blow back from the White House after asking tough questions.
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A Young Man Gets 'Filthy Rich' Boiling, Bottling Tap...
Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia explores life in the modern megalopolis and the growing scarcity of clean water. In search of his fortune, Hamid's protagonist lands on a scam to boil and sell tap water as bottled mineral water in a novel that takes inspiration from self-help books.
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The Moving Sidewalks: Where The British Invasion Met...
Before he became the guitarist for ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons was in a band called the Moving Sidewalks that just missed its shot at stardom. The album the Moving Sidewalks never released in the late 1960s was released in late 2012 and is very much a period piece, albeit a very well-made one.
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Adrian Younge: Looking Back To Move Hip-Hop Forward
Spaghetti Westerns, Philadelphia soul, opera and the Wu-Tang Clan all come together in the music of Adrian Younge. He has produced and composed two new albums — one with William Hart, the lead singer of The Delfonics, and another with rapper Ghostface Killah.
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'Lean In': Not Much Of A Manifesto, But Still A Win For...
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has drawn a lot of attention with her "sort of a feminist manifesto" Lean In. Critic Maureen Corrigan finds that much of the book is bland, but toward the end, Sandberg's intellectual charisma breaks through.
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Tegan And Sara Reach Out To New Audiences With...
The twin sisters from Canada depart from their indie singer-songwriter roots with their latest album. The music on Heartthrob is often loaded with a carefully articulated sense of doubt that Tegan and Sara suggest needs to be shaken off through a triumph of the pop-music will.
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'Frankenstein's Cat': Bioengineering The Animals Of The...
Science journalist Emily Anthes talks about how scientists are engineering mice with tumors and working to create pigs that can grow organs for human transplant and insects that could serve as drones for the military.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Mike White, Mike Piazza And David...
Enlightened's writer, Mike White, says the show's whistle-blowing plot line was inspired, in part, by his own father's experience. In a new memoir, the catcher opens up about feuding with Roger Clemens and retiring from the game. Bowie's new album plays like a collection of discreet singles.
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The History Of The FBI's Secret 'Enemies' List
As J. Edgar Hoover became increasingly worried about communist threats against America, he instructed the bureau to conduct secret intelligence operations against anyone deemed "subversive." Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner is now out in paperback.
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'Oz': Neither Great Nor Powerful
There are three reasons to see this prequel to the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz: the trio of witches played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams. But James Franco, who stars as the wizard-in-the-making, disappoints — and the film as a whole is a bit snoozy.
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Making It In The Big Leagues Was A 'Long Shot' For...
In a new memoir, the Major League Baseball catcher opens up about getting drafted in the 62nd round, his feud with Roger Clemens and what it's like to go into retirement. Leaving the game, he says, was "like a small death."
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David Bowie Awakens To 'The Next Day' Of His Career
The icon's new album plays like a collection of discreet singles, with each performed in a different style, genre and mood. In this way, the album isn't a return to form, in part because David Bowie never took one form to begin with.
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Supreme Court's 'Heavyweight'
In a profile of Ginsburg for this week's New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin describes how the incremental philosophy of litigation that helped her win many precedent-setting women's rights cases as a lawyer is reflected in her career as a Supreme Court justice.
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A Fiendish Fly Recalls Kafka In 'Jacob's Folly'
The main character in Rebecca Miller's new novel is a pest with a past, and his gnat-like status offers him one great advantage: Those convex eyes allow him to see fully into the hearts of humans, specifically two other characters whose paths intersect with his.
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'Out Of Order' At The Court: O'Connor On Being The First...
Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, discusses her new book about the history of the court, and why she doesn't like the term "swing vote." O'Connor served for 24 years, retiring in 2006 to care for her ailing husband.
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Ashley Monroe Is 'Like A Rose,' Briars And All
Recruiting the likes of Guy Clark and Vince Gill, the country singer and member of The Pistol Annies works within a tradition that extends back well beyond her twentysomething years. Monroe avoids the pitfalls of cliche, with sentiments on her new album that are nothing if not nicely ambivalent.
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Cinerama Brought The Power Of Peripheral Vision To The...
In the 1950s, as movie directors were trying to offer TV watchers something they couldn't get on a small screen, Cinerama films threw three simultaneous images onto a curved screen to create peripheral vision. Two classic Cinerama films — This Is Cinerama and Windjammer — are now out on DVD.
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Mike White On Creating HBO's 'Enlightened' Whistle-Blower
On the HBO series Enlightened, a naive corporate executive played by Laura Dern wants to change the world. The series' creator and writer, Mike White, says the show's whistle-blowing plot line was inspired, in part, by his own father's experience.
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Fresh Air Weekend: 'Whitey Bulger,' 'Salt Sugar Fat' And...
Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy have a new book about the Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new book goes inside the world of processed, packaged goods. Geoff Nunberg says a historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription.
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Fresh Air Weekend: 'Whitey Bulger,' 'Salt Sugar Fat' And...
Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy have a new book about the Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new book goes inside the world of processed, packaged goods. Geoff Nunberg says a historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription.
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'Flight' Takes On Questions Of Accountability
The Robert Zemeckis film, out now on DVD, stars Denzel Washington as a pilot with a secret substance-abuse problem who successfully crash-lands an airplane while high on drugs and alcohol. He must then ask himself tough questions about whether his heroism is undermined by his addiction.
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Denzel Washington Remembers 'Malcom X' And 'The Wizard...
In highlights from a 2008 interview, the Oscar-winner talks with Terry Gross about reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which he calls "one of the greatest books I've ever read," and his love for the songs from The Wizard of Oz. He even sings a bar or two of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."
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A Disappointing Thriller Channels Hitchcock And Bram...
The film is ripe with a creepy-crawly feel that would be affecting if the tone weren't so arch. Directed by Park Chan-wook, written by Wentworth Miller and starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode, Stoker is a vile little chamber horror, says critic David Edelstein.
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'The Gatekeepers' Offer Candid Assessment Of Israel's...
Director Dror Moreh interviews six former heads of the Israel's Shin Bet security service in his Oscar-nominated documentary. The men look back on their work and conclude that continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinians will not resolve the conflict.
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Ben Goldberg's Variations: Two New Albums From A San...
Known for his work in New Klezmer Trio, clarinetist Ben Goldberg has just released two new albums for different quintets: Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues and Unfold Ordinary Mind.
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Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' Inspires The Story Of...
Marisa Silver's new novel imagines the meeting of a Depression-era photographer and her now-iconic subject. Giving the characters different names but similar stories to their real-life counterparts, Silver tackles big questions about the morality of art.
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We're living in an age obsessed with authenticity, says linguist Geoff Nunberg, but we often choose to nitpick the wrong details. Whether it's Downton Abbey, Mad Men, Lincoln or Argo, Nunberg argues, a historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription.
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Blanco, who read his poem One Today at Obama's second inauguration, is the first immigrant, Latino and openly gay poet chosen to read at an inauguration. Emily Bazelon explores teen bullying and how the rise of the Internet and social media make the experience more challenging.
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Today's Bullied Teens Subject To 'Sticks And Stones'...
In her new book, Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon explores teen bullying, what it is and what it isn't, and how the rise of the Internet and social media make the experience more challenging. It really can make bullying feel like it's 24/7, she says.
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Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco: 'I Finally Felt Like I...
Blanco, who read his poem One Today at Obama's second inauguration, is the first immigrant, Latino and openly gay poet chosen to read at an inauguration. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that while he was on the podium, I really embraced America up there like I never had before.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Detroit, Anat Cohen And Richard...
Journalist Charlie LeDuff discusses his new book, Detroit: An American Autopsy. Clarinetist Anat Cohen explores influences that range from Louis Armstrong to her native Israel. And in a new album, Richard Thompson is still coming to terms with the sources of his frustrations.
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Wes Anderson, Creating A Singluar 'Kingdom'
The filmmaker's latest project, Moonrise Kingdom, is up for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It's the story of a 12-year-old girl and boy who fall in love and then make a pact to run off into the woods together.
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Kushner's 'Lincoln' Is Strange, But Also Savvy
Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for the film Lincoln, which focuses on the 16th president's tumultuous final months in office. Kushner read more than 20 books before writing about Lincoln, a man who had an enormous capacity for grief that didn't deprive him of the ability to act.
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Richard Thompson's New Album Examines 'Electric' Love
The singer-songwriter often writes songs about his complex relationships with women. On his new Electric, Thompson is still coming to terms with the sources of his frustrations, which ought to give him material for many years to come.
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'Klansville, U.S.A.' Chronicles The Rise And Fall Of The...
Author and sociologist David Cunningham speaks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the origins of cross burnings and white hoods, and why North Carolina had more Klan members during the height of the civil rights movement than all other Southern states combined.
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Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bicultural Jazz, Ever Shifting
The saxophonist and his quartet cross-pollinate Indian classical music and vintage Captain Beefheart to create complicated rhythms and solos reminiscent of jazz-rock fusion.
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'Dead Sea Scrolls' Live On In Debate And Discovery
In a new book, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, religious scholar and author John J. Collins tells the history of the scrolls and the controversies they have prompted, and explores the questions they ask and answer about Judeo-Christian history.
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A Soured Student-Teacher Friendship Threatens...
In a new memoir, James Lasdun describes how a former-student-turned-friend stalked and slandered him online. Give Me Everything You Have is a meditation on what it means to control your reputation on the Internet — and the book is Lasdun's attempt to fight back.
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The Sticky Questions Surrounding Drones And Kill Lists
Scott Shane, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, speaks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the drone-related stories he has helped break, including the revelation that President Obama personally approves targeted strikes against suspected terrorists.
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An 'Autopsy' Of Detroit Finds Resilience In A Struggling...
To some, Detroit may be a symbol of urban decay; but to journalist Charlie LeDuff, it's home. In Detroit: An American Autopsy, he says the city's heart beats on. We're still here trying to reconstruct the great thing we once had, he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Bradley Cooper, Michael Apted
Bradley Cooper talks about watching movies with his father as a kid in Philadelphia and being up against Daniel Day Lewis for an Oscar. Every seven years since 1964, Michael Apted has caught us up on the lives of 14 everyday people in his acclaimed 7 Up series.
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'Caesar' Comes Alive In An Italian Prison
In Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's new film, Caesar Must Die, a group of prisoners put on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It's barely an hour and a quarter, and it's physically small-scale, but it's so compressed it wears you out — in a good way.
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Tyler Perry Transforms: From Madea To Family Man
Best known for being the man behind Madea, Perry recently starred in the action thriller Alex Cross which is now out on DVD. We listen back to an October interview, in which he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross that his Madea character is a cross between his mom, his aunt and Eddie Murphy.
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Bradley Cooper Finds 'Silver Linings' Everywhere
The actor, nominated for an Academy Award for his role in David O. Russell's film, talks about watching movies with his father as a kid in Philadelphia, his childhood fascination with soldiers and being up against Daniel Day Lewis for an Oscar.
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A Mystery That Explores 'The Rage' Of New Ireland
Reporter-turned-novelist Gene Kerrigan sets his story in Ireland after the 2008 financial crisis. The Rage is a boundlessly readable portrait of a country in which ordinary citizens have been hit the hardest and all the old certainties have vanished.
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Anat Cohen: Bringing The Clarinet To The World
On her latest album, Claroscuro, the jazz clarinetist explores influences that range from Louis Armstrong to Brazilian music to that of her native Israel. It's this desire to adapt the instrument to so many musical traditions that has earned Cohen such acclaim.
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Rebecca Luker Has 'Got Love' For Jerome Kern
The Broadway star has a new album, I Got Love: Songs of Jerome Kern, which features songs by the great Broadway composer. The collection came out of a live show Luker performed at the Manhattan club 54 Below.
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Michael Apted, Aging With The '7 Up' Crew
Every seven years since 1964, the director has caught us up on the lives of 14 everyday people in his acclaimed 7 Up series. Apted was 22 when the series began, and the subjects were 7. In the latest episode — 56 Up — the subjects are well into middle age.
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Yo La Tengo: Decades In And Far From Fading
The indie-rock favorite's new album, Fade, demonstrates that the group is all grown up but not at all stuffy. The album's music and words add up to pure affirmation of life and living.
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A Barbados Family Tree With 'Sugar In The Blood'
In her new book, Andrea Stuart explores the intersection of sugar, slavery, settlement, migration and survival in the Americas. Stuart's personal history was shaped by these forces — she is descended from a slave owner who had relations with an unknown slave.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Spacey, Fincher And Macy
Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey and Oscar-winning director David Fincher team up for an excellent new Netflix original series that premieres Friday. As the alcoholic paterfamilias Frank Gallagher on the Showtime series Shameless, William H. Macy enjoys portraying a man with a dark side.
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'Gatekeepers' Let Us Inside Israeli Security
The Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Dror Moreh is not a defense of Israeli security policy, but a critique. The six Shin Bet heads Moreh interviews may believe in the tactics they devised, but it's the overall strategy they think is flawed.
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How The Glock Became America's Weapon Of Choice
In his book Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, Paul Barrett traces how the sleek, high-capacity Austrian weapon found its way into Hollywood films and rap lyrics, not to mention two-thirds of all U.S. police departments.
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A 'Special Edition' Box Set Of Jack DeJohnette And Band
A new four-CD set highlighting the music of the jazz keyboardist and drummer contains two discs that are gems and another two that have their moments.
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Spacey And Fincher Make A 'House Of Cards'
Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey and Oscar-winning director David Fincher team up for a new Netflix original series that premieres Friday. House of Cards follows a Machiavellian politician as he schemes to take down the president of the United States.
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'House Of Cards' Is Built To Last
Two new dramas fueled by intrigue premiere this week: The Americans on FX and House of Cards on Netflix. While The Americans has its moments, House of Cards is the show that's going to make television history.
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Paloma Faith's 'Fall To Grace' Is A Keeper
A British singer with classic RB and pop influences, Faith draws comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Adele. If she keeps doing what she's doing, she's going to have lots of fans following her every musical and social cue.
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William H. Macy Is 'Shameless' On Showtime
As the alcoholic paterfamilias Frank Gallagher on the Showtime series Shameless, the actor enjoys portraying a man with a dark side. But he says it's Frank's better qualities that make him sustainable as a character.
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'The Insurgents': Petraeus And A New Kind Of War
In a new book about Gen. David Petraeus, author and journalist Fred Kaplan looks at how theories of counterinsurgency have shaped U.S. military policy in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Jane Austen's 'Pride And Prejudice' At 200
As the classic novel celebrates its bicentennial, Paula Byrne's The Real Jane Austen examines some of the key objects in Austen's life and how they reveal a much more cosmopolitan awareness of the world than is commonly credited to her.
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Remembering Journalist Stanley Karnow
The veteran journalist died on Sunday at age 87. He was famous for his reporting on the Vietnam War, and in 1989 he spoke with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about another war: The Spanish-American War and U.S. involvement in the Philippines.
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'Anything That Moves': Civilians And The Vietnam War
In a new book, Nick Turse says the pressure on U.S. forces to produce a body count during the Vietnam War led to mass civilian deaths. The idea, he says, was that the Vietnamese, they weren't really people.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Scientology And Jimmy Kimmel
Lawrence Wright's Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief looks at the world of the controversial church and the life of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. This month, Kimmel sets up camp in the 11:35 p.m. slot, which puts him head-to-head with Jay Leno and his idol, David Letterman.
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Tina Fey: '30 Rock' Star And Creator Moves On
The writer, actress and comedian has helmed the hit NBC show — which will have its series finale on January 31 — for seven seasons, during which time she's had two kids, been in a few movies and written a memoir called Bossypants.
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Tracy Morgan: '30 Rock' Let Him Be Himself
As the series prepares for its finale, the comedian talks about how Tina Fey created the character of Tracy Jordan specifically for Morgan and how she allowed him to fly over the cuckoo nest once a week.
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Alec Baldwin Bids Goodbye To Jack Donaghy
As 30 Rock wraps up its seven-season run on NBC, the star talks about why he chose to take on the role of Jack Donaghy in the first place and about looking to NBC bigwig Lorne Michaels for inspiration in creating the character.
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Tina Fey: Sarah Palin And 'Saturday Night' Satire
Fey's impersonation of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin helped draw record audiences to Saturday Night Live in the fall of 2008. The former head writer for SNL opens up about politics, satire and her Emmy Award-winning sitcom, 30 Rock, which will have its series finale on January 31.
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'Going Clear': A New Book Delves Into Scientology
Lawrence Wright's Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief looks at the world of the controversial church and the life of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986.
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Jimmy Kimmel: Making Late Night A Family Affair
This month, the late-night talk-show host sets up camp in the 11:35 p.m. slot, which puts him head-to-head with Jay Leno and Kimmel's idol, David Letterman. Kimmel has put a personal mark on his show by bringing in his family to help him make it happen.
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Involved For Life: Pregnancy Centers In Texas
Carolyn Cline, the executive director and CEO of Involved for Life (IFL), a ministry partner of First Baptist Dallas, helps run a pregnancy center that discourages women from getting abortions and offers help during unplanned pregnancies.
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'We Have No Choice': A Story Of The Texas Sonogram Law
Journalist Carolyn Jones wrote about her experience with the law for The Texas Observer after having an abortion last year. The state requires that a woman seeking an abortion receive a sonogram at least 24 hours before the procedure.
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Kevin Bacon, Seeking A TV 'Following'
The actor stars in a new Fox series about a former FBI agent asked to help apprehend a serial killer he once put behind bars. The series is well done, but the violence in it is alarming — especially for network television.
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'Double V': The Fight For Civil Rights In The U.S....
In his new book, The Double V, Rawn James Jr. argues that to understand race in America one must understand the history of African-Americans in the military. While the turning point came between the world wars, the struggle began with the American Revolution.
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Fresh Air Weekend: Ben Affleck And Dustin Hoffman
Fresh off the Golden Globes, where Ben Affleck won for best director and Argo won for best motion picture/drama, Affleck talks about his approach to the film. Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with a film about four aging opera singers who stage a concert at their retirement home.
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The Inquisition: A Model For Modern Interrogators
The Inquisition revolutionized record-keeping and surveillance techniques that are still used today, says Cullen Murphy. His book God's Jury draws parallels between some of the interrogation techniques used in previous centuries with the ones used today.
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How A 'Madwoman' Upended A Literary Boys Club
The National Book Critics Circle has announced that two feminist literary scholars, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, will receive a lifetime achievement award. Critic Maureen Corrigan says their groundbreaking 1979 book, The Madwoman in the Attic, changed the way we read.
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'Grayest Generation': Older Parenthood In The U.S.
In an article for The New Republic, Judith Shulevitz writes that as people have increasingly waited until their 30s to become parents, there has been a rise in developmental and neurocognitive disorders. Moreover, she says that the age of both parents affects the health of the child.
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