A Sickness Spreads, A Parent Dies, And A Mystery Unfolds In 'For Your Own Good'
Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with author Samantha Downing about her latest novel, "For Your Own Good." It's a mystery set at an elite private school.
Books
A Monk And A Robot Meet In A Forest ... And Talk Philosophy In This New Novel
Becky Chambers comes down to earth for her new series, about a world where humans and robots diverged so long ago that now each group is just a myth to the other, and robots propagate themselves.
Rachel Johnson Talks New Memoir Detailing 'Political Mid-life Crisis'
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Rachel Johnson, sister of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, about her memoir, Rake's Progress: The Madcap True Tale of My Political Midlife Crisis.
Three Women Wait Every Day For Their Unknown Husbands In The 'China Room'
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with novelist Sunjeev Sahota about his new book, "China Room."
'Bring Your Baggage And Don't Pack Light' Collects Hilarious Essays On Midlife
Scott Simon speaks with author Helen Ellis about her new collection of essays about midlife, "Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light."
Why Crash Weight Loss Programs Don't Work: Clues From Hunter-Gatherer Societies
Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer shares why some of the most physically active people in the world don't burn more calories than office workers. And what that means for your fitness goals.
Anthony Bourdain: The 'Fresh Air' Interview
We listen back to our 2016 interview with the late food writer and TV host, who killed himself in 2018 while in France to film Parts Unknown. Bourdain is the subject of a new documentary, Roadrunner.
How It Went Down: Authors Go Deep Into Doomed 2020 Trump White House
By haranguing all who will listen, in interviews or rally rants, Donald Trump even now is demonstrating his abiding and preternatural confidence in his own persuasiveness.
'Women Of Brewster Place' Reissue Brims With Inventiveness — And Relevance
Now newly reissued, Gloria Naylor's 1982 novel-in-stories painted a group portrait of seven Black women living on a dingy street in an unnamed city, and the systematic racism they faced.
Re-Revising 'The History Of Jazz'
Ted Gioia first published his History of Jazz in 1997, updating it for the first time in 2011. This year he did so again, after a very important decade for the genre.