archive
Commentary
Historical Vocab: When We Get It Wrong, Does It Matter?
February 26, 2013 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.
The Salt
How The Food Industry Manipulates Taste Buds With 'Salt Sugar Fat'
February 26, 2013 From food scientists who study the human palate to maximize consumer bliss, to marketing campaigns that target teens to hook them for life on a brand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new book goes inside the world of processed, packaged goods.
Author Interviews
Whitey Bulger Bio Profiles Boston's Most Notorious Gangster
February 25, 2013 Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, who covered Bulger for years for The Boston Globe, have a new book out about the career criminal. Bulger was wanted for 19 murders when he was captured by the FBI in 2011. He faces trial in June.
Music Reviews
Guards: Anthems With Gravitas
February 25, 2013 The debut album from the New York trio Guards is big on atmospherics, but also features a grandness of intent that connects the group to acts as varied as U2, Arcade Fire and The Beach Boys.
Fresh Air Weekend
Fresh Air Weekend: Blanco And Bazelon
February 23, 2013 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.
Movie Interviews
Affleck On 'Argo' And The 1979 Hostage Crisis
February 22, 2013 Ben Affleck's Argo won Golden Globes for best director and best motion picture/drama. The film now has Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Affleck talks about his approach to the story of six diplomats who managed to escape a hostile Iran in 1979.
Movie Interviews
Bradley Cooper Finds 'Silver Linings' Everywhere
February 22, 2013 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.
Book Reviews
Karen Russell's 'Vampires' Deserve The Raves
February 21, 2013 The author of Swamplandia! has a new collection of short stories called Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the stories are daring and devastating, and with them Russell establishes herself as one of the great American writers of our young century.
Author Interviews
'Erasing Death' Explores The Science Of Resuscitation
February 21, 2013 Dr. Sam Parnia researches the experiences of cardiac arrest patients in the time between when their hearts stop and when they are brought back to life. Parnia thinks of these experiences as actual-death experiences as opposed to near-death experiences.
Movie Reviews
Voting Pinochet Out Was More Than Just A Yes Or 'No'
February 20, 2013 In the Chilean film No, which is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, a young ad man devises a campaign to vote the dictator Augusto Pinochet out of office using rainbows and catchy theme songs.
Author Interviews
Jake Tapper: 'The Outpost' That Never Should Have Been
February 20, 2013 In a new book, the CNN anchor tells the story of Combat Outpost Keating. The ill-fated American military base was in a remote Afghan valley, and on Oct. 3, 2009, it became the site of one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in the history of the war in Afghanistan.
Author Interviews
Today's Bullied Teens Subject To 'Sticks And Stones' Online, Too
February 19, 2013 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.
Poetry
Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco: 'I Finally Felt Like I Was Home'
February 18, 2013 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."
Fresh Air Weekend
Fresh Air Weekend: Detroit, Anat Cohen And Richard Thompson
February 16, 2013 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.
Movie Interviews
Kushner's 'Lincoln' Is Strange, But Also Savvy
February 15, 2013 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."
