How Louis Armstrong became the first Black pop star
Author Ricky Riccardi says Armstrong's innovations as a trumpeter and vocalist helped set the entire soundtrack of the 20th century. His new book about Armstrong's early life is Stomp Off, Let's Go.
U.S. Withdrawal From Syria Leaves A 'Tangled Mess,' Journalist Says
Washington Post Beirut Bureau Chief Liz Sly has covered the Syrian civil war since it began in '11. "There is an inevitability that Russia is going to emerge as the dominant power in Syria," she says.
Despite Helen Mirren's Star Turn, 'Catherine The Great' Is Just OK
HBO's new series has plenty of court intrigue, scandals and betrayals, but the script amounts to little more than a historical greatest hits, bouncing from well-known event to event.
Remembering 'Jackie Brown' Actor Robert Forster
The Oscar-nominated actor, who died Oct. 11, often played police officers and private eyes. "These guys are straight shooters," he said in 2003. "I take the mantle of that and pretend it's me."
Satirical Nazi Film 'Jojo Rabbit' Treats The Viewer Like A Child
For all its good intentions, Jojo Rabbit comes across painfully one-note as comedy, bogus and manipulative as drama and with an archly whimsical visual style that feels like imitation Wes Anderson.
'Fresh Air' Marks The Centenary Of The Birth Of Jazz Singer Anita O'Day
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead offers an appreciation of the singer, who died in 2006, then we listen back to a 1987 interview. O'Day first became known in 1941 when she joined Gene Krupa's band.
Energetic And Ambitious, 'Watchmen' Taps Into A Slew Of Today's Anxieties
Rather than rehash the 1980s superhero comic, series creator Damon Lindelof preserves the original's mood, themes and tricky structure — but uses them to tell an engrossing, totally new story on HBO.
'Geography of Risk' Calculates Who Pays When A Storm Comes To Shore
Journalist Gilbert Gaul says federal subsidies encourage developers to keep building on the coasts — despite accelerating and increasing risks from climate change.
Filmmaker Taika Waititi On Satirizing Nazis In 'Jojo Rabbit'
Jojo Rabbit centers on a 10-year-old boy who joins the Hitler Youth. Writer and director Waititi, who is from New Zealand, is half-Jewish and half-Maori. He plays the boy's imaginary friend, Hitler.
In 'Heaven, My Home' Attica Locke Shows A Part Of Texas We Don't Usually See
Locke says her new novel "was about place before it was about a character." The story follows a black ranger who patrols East Texas searching for the missing son of an Aryan Brotherhood leader.