Arts & Life

We won't give away any of the details about his personal life, but we can say that the two-hour season premiere of Mad Men shows Don Draper (Jon Hamm, right, with John Slattery's Roger Sterling) as his silver tongue fails him.

Arts

This Spring, Rejoice At Rebirth Of 'Mad Men'

1:04pm April 03, 2013

by David Bianculli

It used to be that TV's biggest annual event was the arrival of the fall season, but these days excellent shows premiere year-round. This spring, the return of AMC's stylish drama is the best reason to celebrate the season: The two-hour premiere delivers on the show's highest ambitions.

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The rape and eventual death of a young woman in New Delhi has spurred a large protest movement calling for greater attention to violence against women. (Pictured: A protest held one month after the woman's rape.)

Books
Arts

Tina Brown's Must Reads: Women Vs. The World

9:39am April 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

The editor in chief of Newsweek and the Daily Beast joins NPR's Steve Inskeep to talk about women taking on big cultural challenges, and the stories of how they got there.

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When anthropologists tallied the use of emotional words through a century of literature, they included many books without clear emotional content — technical manuals, for example, and automotive repair guides.

Mining Books To Map Emotions Through A Century

10:18am April 02, 2013

by Alix Spiegel

Anthropologists find that the use of "emotional" words in all sorts of books has soared and dipped across the past century, roughly mirroring each era's social and economic upheavals. And psychologists say this new form of language analysis may offer a more objective view into our culture.

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Listening Back To An Interview With Phil Ramone

10:15am April 02, 2013

Ramone started out as a sound engineer for Lesley Gore, and went on to work with Simon and Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra. He died Saturday at the age of 79. Fresh Air remembers him by listening back to a 1995 interview. He talks about losing old demos and being mistaken for a member of The Ramones.

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The 20/20 Experience is Justin Timberlake's first album since 2006.

Justin Timberlake Returns To Music With Enthusiasm And 'Experience'

10:03am April 02, 2013

by Ken Tucker

On his first album since 2006, The 20/20 Experience, Justin Timberlake explores his range, from soul-man groove to falsetto croon, taking inspiration from neo-soul and the expansiveness of '60s and '70s rock song formats.

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Nora Ephron's final play, Lucky Guy, tells the story of controversial New York columnist Mike McAlary, played by Tom Hanks. (Also pictured: Peter Gerety as John Cotter).

Arts

Nora Ephron's 'Lucky Guy' And Tom Hanks Make Their Broadway Debuts

8:57pm April 01, 2013

by Jeff Lunden

Lucky Guy is one of the spring theater season's most highly anticipated plays. It stars Hanks, in his first Broadway performance, as tabloid journalist Mike McAlary. Director George Wolfe calls Ephron's last play "a love poem to journalism."

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Books
Arts

In Digestion: Mary Roach Explains What Happens To The Food We Eat

1:54pm April 01, 2013

With books like Stiff and Spook, Roach has built a reputation for making unpalatable subjects entertaining. In her new book, Gulp, she tackles the human digestive system, from the mouth on down. Along the way, she gets a sedation-free colonoscopy and goes on location for a fecal transplant.

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Director Cristian Mungiu on the set of his new film, Beyond the Hills. As in his earlier 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the filmmaker focuses on two young women adrift in the post-Soviet wilderness of Romania.

Arts

Cristian Mungiu: Metaphor Or Not, 'Hills' Has Eyes For Romania's Past

6:28pm March 31, 2013

by Howie Movshovitz

Already the poster child for his country's so-called New Wave of filmmakers, the director takes another realistic dive into the post-Communist Eastern Bloc with Beyond the Hills. Though he hesitates to call it a straight metaphor, the symbolism of the film is uncanny.

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Arts

A Fossilized Confection Baked For Easter 1807

10:34am March 30, 2013

A British couple believes they've come across a hot cross bun that was baked more than 200 years ago. Host Scott Simon explains.

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Science
Arts

Gripping Science Tales Need Not Be Science Fiction

9:19am March 30, 2013

When does a story about science become science fiction? Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and theoretical physicist Brian Greene discuss how to spin a yarn about string theory or the Big Bang, without hyping the science. And novelist Ian McEwan, whose books touch on neurosurgery and quantum field theory, talks about what science offers to fiction.

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