Fresh Air
Weekdays at 7:00pm
Opening the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics.
Plants can communicate and respond to touch. Does that mean they're intelligent?
by Tonya Mosley
Climate journalist Zoë Schlanger says research suggests that plants are indeed "intelligent" in complex ways that challenge our understanding of agency and consciousness. Her book is The Light Eaters.
Trombonist Roswell Rudd Packs A Lot Of Wisdom Into Every Note Of 'Embrace'
by Kevin Whitehead
Rudd started out playing dixieland before graduating to free jazz. Now he's collaborating with singer Fay Victor on his latest album. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Embrace has a "valedictory air."
'Better Call Saul' Tops Critic David Bianculli's Picks For The Best TV Of 2017
by David Bianculli
Fresh Air's TV critic spends a lot of time watching television — in part because there are so many great shows to watch. Godless, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Fargo are also among his favorites.
NPR's Robert Siegel Reflects On What It Was Like To 'Grow Up On The Air'
The longtime host of All Things Considered will retire in January. NPR had only been on the air for five years when Siegel started in 1976. "So we really could make it up as we went along," he says.
A Filmmaker's 'Quest' For A Quiet Family Portrait Is Pierced By Unforeseen Trauma
Jonathan Olshefski spent 10 years filming Christopher Rainey and his family, who run a recording studio in a working-class African-American section of North Philadelphia. Then their daughter was shot.
'The Post' Is A Crackling Newsroom Thriller With Electrifying Relevance
by Justin Chang
Steven Spielberg's new drama revisits The Washington Post's 1971 decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in defiance of the Nixon administration. Justin Chang calls it "terrifically entertaining."
How Battles Over Sex, Gender And Sexual Orientation 'Fractured American Politics'
Moral Combat author R. Marie Griffith says the fight for women's suffrage and legal birth control in the early 20th century helped create a political divide in the U.S. that still exists today.
A Look Back At 4 Jazz Luminaries Who Died In 2017
by Kevin Whitehead
Kevin Whitehead remembers alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, pianist Geri Allen, guitarist John Abercrombie and singer Jon Hendricks. Each "helped shape jazz after the upheavals of the 1960s," he says.
A Writer Remembers The Quake That Rocked Mexico City, And Brought Its People Together
by Dagoberto Gilb
Dagoberto Gilb was fulfilling a dream to be in Mexico City for an extended stay when an earthquake struck on Sept. 19, 2017. Amidst the destruction, he says, there was a feeling of collective resolve.
In A Year Of Heartbreak And Reckoning, 12 Films Remind Us Of Cinema's Greatness
by Justin Chang
Film critic Justin Chang picks his top 12 movies of the year, pairing them thematically, from Call Me By Your Name and The Florida Project, to War For The Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk.
For Novelist Jennifer Egan, 'The Joy Of Writing Is Being Delivered Out Of My Life'
by Sam Briger
"I don't use my life as inspiration," says the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. Her new book, Manhattan Beach, imagines the lives of the women who worked on the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II.
'American Seafood' Author Recommends Putting 'Underloved' Fish On the Plate
Chef and sustainable seafood advocate Barton Seaver works to get people excited about fish. He says there are lots of species that are not endangered that we should be eating, like Hake.