Fresh Air
Weekdays at 7:00pm
Opening the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics.
The first 'Jinx' ended with a hot mic murder admission. 'Part Two' shocks as well
by David Bianculli
The Jinx ended with Robert Durst, a wealthy man suspected of multiple murders, making self-incriminating statements on a hot mic. Part Two picks up where the original left off: arrest and conviction.
'This Is A Congress That's Really Doing Nothing,' Says NYT Reporter
Congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman gives his take on the 113th Congress, including how House Speaker John Boehner has little sway, and business in the Senate has virtually ground to a halt.
In The Irish Film 'Calvary,' A Priest's Crisis Of Faith Is Weirdly Jokey
by David Edelstein
John Michael McDonagh's new movie stars Brendan Gleeson as a priest who must eventually face off against a killer. It's excruciatingly obvious and inept, but Gleeson brings it alive.
At 74, Outlaw Billy Joe Shaver Is Still An Outlier
by Ken Tucker
Billie Joe Shaver has just released his first new studio album in six years, called Long in the Tooth.
Jaki Byard, A Post-Bebop Pianist Who Was A Master Of Stride Piano
by Kevin Whitehead
On The Late Show, a set of previously unheard solo music from 1979, the jazz pianist employs techniques like suspenseful dropouts. He had a rare ability to sound archaic — and way ahead of his time.
For Novelist Jonathan Lethem, Radicalism Runs In The Family
His new book, Dissident Gardens, follows three generations of an activist family. The book is fiction, but its characters were inspired by Lethem's own story. Originally broadcast Sept. 9, 2013.
A Label Paramount To Early Blues And Jazz
by Ed Ward
Between 1917 and 1932, the label released thousands of records. Jack White's Third Man Records has joined with the reissue label Revenant to release the first of two packages documenting Paramount.
A Lost Piece Of Soul History Appears
by Milo Miles
In the early 1960s when soul star Sam Cooke had his own record label, SAR, he recorded songs by his younger brother, L.C. Cooke. Fifty years years, the complete set's finally issued.