Fresh Air
Weekdays at 7:00pm
Opening the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics.
A woman invented the rape kit. So why was a man given credit for it?
Rape kits were widely known as "Vitullo Kits" after a Chicago police sergeant. But a new book tells the story of Marty Goddard, a community activist who worked with runaway teenagers in the 1970s.
How the abortion underground is prepping for a post-Roe v. Wade world
by Terry Gross
Nomadland author and Atlantic journalist Jessica Bruder explains how health advocates and activists are preparing ways to provide abortions if Roe is either overturned or weakened by the SCOTUS.
Reissue traces jazz giant Ornette Coleman's 'Genesis of Genius'
by Kevin Whitehead
Coleman's first LPs from the late 1950s are newly available. They showcase Coleman's sound before he began making the records with his own bands that made him a controversial jazz star.
Poet Ocean Vuong sifts through the aftershock of grief in 'Time Is a Mother'
by Tonya Mosley
Vuong's new collection of poetry was inspired by his mother's death from breast cancer. His 2019 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, followed a boy who, like Vuong, is an immigrant from Vietnam.
'Wet Leg' hooks you with their prickly, raunchy way of looking at the world
by Ken Tucker
Last year, a catchy song called "Chaise Longue" became a breakout hit for a duo of 20-something women from the Isle of Wight. Wet Leg's new self titled album is full of more clever entertainment.
Conductor Marin Alsop talks about the joys and challenges of leading an orchestra
by Terry Gross
Alsop talks about the rejection she faced on the way to becoming the first woman to lead a major American orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony. She's now the subject of a new documentary, The Conductor.
A naturalist traces the astounding flyways of migratory birds
by Dave Davies
Scott Weidensaul has spent decades studying bird migration. "There is a tremendous solace in watching these natural rhythms play out again and again," he says. Originally broadcast March 29, 2021.
Ukraine is inventing a new way to fight on the digital battlefield
by Dave Davies
Time magazine's Vera Bergengruen says Ukraine's citizen IT force, led by a 31-year-old minister of digital transformation, is blunting Russian disinformation and galvanizing international support.