Fresh Air Weekend: Mark Ronson, The Mountain Goats, Beau Willimon

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

The Story Behind Mark Ronson's Hit Song 'Uptown Funk': The producer says there was a moment when his co-writers thought, "Maybe this song wasn't meant to be." He also describes working with Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars.

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle Finds Refuge In The Ring: The Mountain Goats have a new album called Beat The Champ. It's unusual in that it is a concept album about professional wrestling, based on the interest in that sport band leader John Darnielle has had since he was a boy. Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker has this review.

Forget Right And Wrong: 'House Of Cards' Is About Pragmatism And Power: Kevin Spacey strangles a dog in the pilot, which creator Beau Willimon says producers balked at because they'd lose viewers. But "why not provide that litmus test right at the beginning?" he says.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

The Story Behind Mark Ronson's Hit Song 'Uptown Funk'

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle Finds Refuge In The Ring

Forget Right And Wrong: 'House Of Cards' Is About Pragmatism And Power

Copyright 2015 Fresh Air. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/.