Arts & Life

Books
Arts

In 'Maid,' a single mother struggles to make it on minimum wage

1:34pm October 15, 2021

by Terry Gross

While raising her young daughter, Stephanie Land cleaned houses to scrape by. It was back-aching work for low pay. Her memoir inspired the Netflix series, Maid. Originally broadcast Jan. 29, 2019.

Queue Listen Now

Julianna Margulies, who plays Laura, makes this episode look a lot more fun than it is.

Arts

'The Morning Show' recap, Season 2, Episode 5: What happens in Vegas

8:27am October 15, 2021

by Linda Holmes

Alex has pain and is a pain, Bradley works her way through her new relationship, Cory experiences a very late conversion to having a conscience, and Mitch wears cozy clothes in quarantine.

Books
Arts

Grover's iconic Sesame Street children's book turns 50

5:09am October 15, 2021

For NPR's 50th anniversary we look at an influential children's book that is turning 50. It features Sesame Street's Grover trying desperately to avoid "The Monster at the End of this Book."

Yolanda López died on Sept. 3 of complications liver cancer. Her first museum solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego was delayed by a year due, in part, to the pandemic.

Arts

Yolanda López's first museum show opens Saturday, just weeks after the artist's death

5:00am October 15, 2021

by Vanessa Romo

The exhibit at San Diego's Museum of Contemporary Art will include 50 of the artist's pieces, including the Virgen de Guadalupe triptych which remains one of López's best known works.

Why We Fly, by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal

Books
Arts

'Why We Fly' flips dusty old cheerleader stereotypes upside down

5:00am October 15, 2021

by Alethea Kontis

In their new YA novel, Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal tell the story of a cheerleading squad whose white captain convinces them to take a knee to protest injustice — and the backlash that follows.

Books
Arts

Beloved children's author and wilderness enthusiast Gary Paulsen has died at 82

5:43pm October 14, 2021

by Samantha Balaban

Gary Paulsen — whose wilderness adventure Hatchet taught generations of kids to survive in the forest — worked as a farmhand, truck driver and satellite technician before turning to writing.

Fans await the K-pop boy band BTS visit to the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City last year.

Arts

Oxford English Dictionary rides the K-wave with a big Korean update

5:23pm October 14, 2021

by Tien Le

The influence of Korean culture has reached the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary: 26 new words related to Korean culture were added and 11 words were revised.

Urban Outfitters, Philadelphia. Julie Bargmann's studio finds ways to reuse salvaged materials in redeveloping industrial sites, such as the decommissioned Navy Yard that became the headquarters of retailer Urban Outfitters.

Arts

She reclaims toxic waste dumps, and she just won a major landscape architecture award

5:16pm October 14, 2021

by Neda Ulaby

Julie Bargmann, the first recipient of the Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, redesigns waste dumps, landfills, Superfund sites — places she calls "the gnarliest."

Banksy's "Love is in the Bin" (2018) is installed at Sotheby's on September 03, 2021 in London, England.

A half-shredded Banksy piece is auctioned for $25.4 million, a record for the artist

5:06pm October 14, 2021

by Sharon Pruitt-Young

"Love is in the Bin" made history when it was created during a 2018 auction. The crowd back then was shocked when a shredder activated as soon as the sale was complete, partly shredding the piece.

Artist Stan Herd's portrait of NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson on display in Atlanta is 70 feet by 90 feet.

Arts

Landscape artist unveils a giant portrait of NASA pioneer Stephanie Wilson

4:31pm October 14, 2021

by Nina Kravinsky

Earthworks artist Stan Herd has unveiled an enormous portrait of NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson in Woodruff Park in Atlanta. It is etched into the ground.