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.
The 'Racial Cleansing' That Drove 1,100 Black Residents Out Of Forsyth County, Ga.
In 1912, white mobs set fire to black churches and black-owned businesses. Author Patrick Phillips revisits the incident in his book, Blood at the Root. Originally broadcast Sept. 15, 2016.
'I, Tonya' Offers A Sympathetic Second Act To A Disgraced Figure Skater
by David Edelstein
In January 1994, skater Nancy Kerrigan was struck on the leg with a police-style baton by a man linked to skating rival Tonya Harding. A new dark comedy reconsiders the case against Harding.
Will The Mueller Investigation Unearth A Crime? Legal Reporter Says It's Complicated
"There is not going to be a neat ending," New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin says of the investigation into Russian meddling. A central issue is whether a sitting president can be criminally indicted.
Director Guillermo Del Toro Says 'Shape Of Water' Centers On 'Love Beyond Words'
by Sam Briger
"I wanted to make a completely honest, heart-on-sleeve, non-ironic melodrama," del Toro says. Set in 1962, his new film features a fairy tale romance between a creature and a mute woman.
'Cartoon County' Looks Back At The Golden Age Of Sunday Comics
Vanity Fair editor-at-large Cullen Murphy grew up the son of a cartoonist. His father, John Cullen Murphy, drew the popular Prince Valiant strip, which Murphy eventually wrote for 14 years.
'Nuclear War Planner' Reflects On The Cold War And Assesses The Current Threat
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in hopes they would help end the Vietnam War. He looks back on his early days as a national security analyst in The Doomsday Machine.