Fresh Air Weekend: Novelist Amy Tan; 'Death In The Air'; Director Noah Baumbach

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:

'I Am Full Of Contradictions': Novelist Amy Tan On Fate And Family: In Where the Past Begins, Tan connects her experience with spirituality to that of her parents and grandmother. "I don't consider myself any religion," she says. " ... I have an amalgam of beliefs."

'Death In The Air' Revisits 5 Days When London Was Choked By Poisonous Smog: Kate Winkler Dawson's new book chronicles The Great Smog of 1952, when moist air from the Gulf Stream stalled for days over London, mixing with poisonous gases and causing more than 12,000 deaths.

Noah Baumbach Explores Love, Resentment And Anger In 'The Meyerowitz Stories': Baumbach's new film mixes comedy with deep emotional pain. It revolves around three adult siblings whose father is a self-absorbed sculptor. Baumbach's previous films include The Squid and the Whale.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

'I Am Full Of Contradictions': Novelist Amy Tan On Fate And Family

'Death In The Air' Revisits 5 Days When London Was Choked By Poisonous Smog

Noah Baumbach Explores Love, Resentment And Anger In 'The Meyerowitz Stories'

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