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Music & Culture

Pete Seeger's 'Fresh Air' interview

5:00am December 25, 2024

by Terry Gross

The folk singer, who died in 2014, was famous for his songs about working people, unions and social justice. In this 1984 interview, Seeger cited Woody Guthrie as one his most important influences.

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Historian David Nasaw's new biography of Joseph P. Kennedy unpacks the patriarch's full story.

Books
Arts

Joseph Kennedy, 'Patriarch' Of An American Dynasty

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Jazz great Charles Mingus performs at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September 1964.

Music & Culture

Bass Note: Mingus And The Jazz Workshop Concerts

by Kevin Whitehead

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These gas masks were reconditioned at the Edgewood Arsenal for civilian defense use during World War II. Later, in the 1950s and '60s, the arsenal near the Chesapeake Bay was used for secret chemical weapons testing run by the U.S. Army.

National

'Operation Delirium:' Psychochemicals And Cold War

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Books
Arts

Lemony Snicket Dons A Trenchcoat

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Five years after Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their roles as married couple Pete and Debbie. Now years into their marriage with two kids (played by Iris and Maude Apatow), Pete and Debbie approach 40 less than gracefully.

Fresh Air Weekend: Judd Apatow, Colm Toibin

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"Were going to blink and be 90," Debbie tells Paul. "We have to make a choice to make things different."

Arts

In 'This Is 40,' Family Life In All Its Glory

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Music & Culture

Forgotten Gems From The Dave Brubeck Quartet

by Kevin Whitehead

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In a 1999 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, Dave Brubeck talked about his decades in the music industry and his first love: rodeo roping.

Music & Culture

Celebrating The Life Of Jazz Pianist Dave Brubeck

by NPR Staff

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Jeff Bridges as John L. Bridges, Isabelle Huppert as Ella Watson and Kris Kristofferson as James Averill in the 1980 Western Heaven's Gate, a director's cut of which was released in November.

Arts

Revisiting, Reappraising Cimino's 'Heaven's Gate'

by John Powers

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In her series for The New York Times, reporter Louise Story says that the manufacturing sector — automakers, in particular — benefit the most from incentive packages.

Economy

A Thin Line: Economic Development Or Corporate Welfare?

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Books
Arts

'Inventing Wine': The History Of A Very Vintage Beverage

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The new five-DVD, one-CD box set The Incredible Mel Brooks is crammed full with comedy gold — and includes Brooks and Carl Reiner (above) doing their iconic skit "The 2,000-Year-Old Man."

Arts

Boxes Of TV Fun, Old And New, For The Holidays

by David Bianculli

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