Fresh Air Weekend: 'Veep' Executive Producer; 'Hourglass'; MLB's Rick Ankiel

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

'Veep' Executive Producer On Making A Show About The 'Craven Desire For Power': The HBO series is now in its sixth season. Producer Frank Rich also writes a column for New York magazine about the intersection of politics and popular culture.

'Hourglass' Exposes The Fissures That Develop In A Long-Term Marriage: Dani Shapiro's new memoir dramatizes the dizzying ways a lifetime passes, loops around, speeds up and sometimes seems to stand still. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls it an incisive and charged work.

For Baseball's Rick Ankiel, Losing His Pitching Ability Led To An Unusual Comeback: Ankiel entered the major leagues in 1999 as a gifted pitcher, but one day suddenly lost that gift. He talks about his pitching demons, his troubled childhood and his way back to baseball.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

'Veep' Executive Producer On Making A Show About The 'Craven Desire For Power'

'Hourglass' Exposes The Fissures That Develop In A Long-Term Marriage

For Baseball's Rick Ankiel, Losing His Pitching Ability Led To An Unusual Comeback

Copyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.