Fresh Air

Weekdays at 7:00pm

Opening the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics.

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Fresh Air Weekend: Tilda Swinton; Adrien Brody

5:00am January 11, 2025

Swinton plays a woman dying of cancer in The Room Next Door. Justin Chang reviews Hard Truths. Brody drew on his family's immigration story for his role in The Brutalist.

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Arts

New Season Of 'Orange Is The New Black' Has A Strong, Unsettling Start

Netflix's women-in-prison series, based on a memoir by Piper Kerman, returns Friday. Fresh Air listens back to interviews with Kerman and series creator Jenji Kohan.

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Dave (left) and Phil Alvin.

Music & Culture

In Big Bill Broonzy's Blues, Brothers Find A Way To Sing Together

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Books
Arts

John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, And Lives To Write About It

The 68-year-old film director hitchhiked from Baltimore to San Francisco for his book Carsick. He says hitchhiking is "the worst beauty regimen ever" and admits he always kept his luggage with him.

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Ansel Elgort (Augustus) and Shailene Woodley (Hazel) star in The Fault in Our Stars, the film adaptation of John Green's bestselling young adult novel about two teens with cancer.

Arts

Beautiful Acting Aside, It Isn't Hard To Find Fault In 'Our Stars'

by David Edelstein

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Old books on a shelf.

Books
Arts

'Rise And Fall' Carries On Vagabond Adventure Tale Tradition

by Maureen Corrigan

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In Supermensch, talent agent Shep Gordon recalls arriving in Los Angeles in 1968, dropping acid and getting slugged by a woman who later identified herself as Janis Joplin.

Arts

Invisible 'Supermensch' Avoided The Spotlight While Making Others Famous

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Denzel Washington plays Walter Lee, the role played by Sidney Poitier in the 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun. Sophie Okonedo, known for her Academy Award nomination for Hotel Rwanda, plays Ruth Younger in her New York stage debut.

Fresh Air Weekend: 'Raisin In The Sun,' 'Orange Is The New Black,' China's 'Ambition'

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Allan Jones plays debonair leading man Gaylord Ravenal and Irene Dunne is the enchanting Magnolia in the 1936 film version of Show Boat, which has just been released on DVD.

Arts

1936 'Show Boat': A Multiracial, Musical Melodrama, Now Out On DVD

by Lloyd Schwartz

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Brothers rides down the front stretch before the 88th Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 18, 2012, in Baltimore.

For Jockey Donna Barton Brothers, Horse Racing Runs In The Family

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Burning Down the House

'Burning Down The House' Makes The Case Against Juvenile Incarceration

by NPR Staff

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An office phone

Have We Reached The End Of The Line For The Conference Call?

by Alexis Madrigal

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Music & Culture

Miranda Lambert's 'Platinum' Has Backyard Swagger

by Ken Tucker

Platinum continues Miranda Lambert's ongoing project to create songs about women who are complex, fun-loving, and assertive.

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