Interviews

Carol Kirsch and her daughter, Rebecca Posamentier, visited StoryCorps in 2008. Posamentier visited again recently.

Preserving The Motherhood Advice And Memories Of A Mom

8:10am May 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

When Rebecca Posamentier was pregnant with her first child, she visited StoryCorps with her mother, Carol Kirsch. The soon-to-be mother tried to glean all she could about parenting from her own mother, before it was too late.

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There's no better deal than getting polio cases down to zero, philanthropist Bill Gates says.

Why Bill Gates Thinks Ending Polio Is Worth It

4:28pm May 09, 2013

by Michaeleen Doucleff

The Microsoft founder and philanthropist is putting his money and time where his passion is: eradicating polio. Gates talks with NPR's Robert Siegel about why it makes sense to spend an estimated $5.5 billion to wipe out the disease once and for all.

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Nearly Three Years After Dodd-Frank, Reforms Happen Slowly

3:06pm May 08, 2013

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was a sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another financial collapse. Journalist Gary Rivlin says passing the bill was just a first step in a long road to real reform, and the financial system is as vulnerable to disaster it was in 2008.

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Laura Linney and Alan Alda star in The Big C, now in its fourth season on Showtime. Linney took on the role not long before her own father died of cancer.

Arts

Linney Mines 'The Big C' For Serious Laughs

3:20pm May 06, 2013

On Showtime's dark comedy series, Laura Linney plays a terminally ill cancer patient. The actress's own father died from lung cancer while the series was being made; her mother was a cancer nurse when Linney was young. These experiences, she says, inform her performance.

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Marc Maron, whose latest book is Attempting Normal, is also the author of The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life As a Reluctant Messiah.

Fresh Air Weekend: Maron, Violent Minds And A Classic Documentary

12:44pm May 04, 2013

The comedian turned his life around when he started "WTF with Marc Maron" out of his garage in 2009. In The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine argues that violent behavior has a biological basis just like depression. In her classic '60s documentary, Shirley Clarke profiles a 33-year-old gay hustler.

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Alexis Martinez (left) worried that coming out to daughter Lesley as transgender would mean giving up any relationship with her grandchildren. But she needn't have worried.

After Years Of Hiding, 'Walking In Love' As Transgender

12:37pm May 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

For decades, Alexis Martinez, born Arthur, had to mask her transgender identity by "being as macho as I could be." But in a visit to StoryCorps, she tells her daughter how, with her family's acceptance, she's finally been able to live as a woman full-time.

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C.J Chivers covers Syria for The New York Times. He is also the author of The Gun.

C.J. Chivers: On The Ground In Syria

7:48pm May 01, 2013

The New York Times reporter talks about spending much of the past year with rebels in Syria. Chivers is also the author of The Gun, about how the AK-47 has defined modern warfare.

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Mad Men's sixth season, which premiered April 7, revolves around (from left) Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley), Bobby Draper (Mason Vale Cotton), Betty Francis (January Jones), Gene Draper (Evan and Ryder Londo), Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka), Megan Dra

Fresh Air Weekend: David Sedaris And Matthew Weiner

12:21pm April 27, 2013

The best-selling author's diaries have been his jumping-off point for the personal essays in his collections, including his latest, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls. The creator of the acclaimed AMC series talks about Don Draper as an aging existentialist looking for meaning in a chaotic world.

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A Fish and Wildlife Service team caught and killed an alligator after the animal attacked a 6-year-old boy Friday. The boy survived with only incidental wounds.

National

Father Saves Boy From Alligator Attack, With A Stranger's Help

3:05pm April 23, 2013

by Bill Chappell

A 6-year-old boy's day off from school Friday left him with a vivid story to tell his classmates, after he was seized — and eventually released — by an alligator in South Florida. The attack occurred at a wildlife refuge where the boy's father had taken his son for a canoe ride.

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Photographer Tim Hetherington during an assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine at the Restrepo outpost.

Fresh Air Weekend: Junger, Paisley And A Serial-Killing Nurse

11:41am April 20, 2013

Junger explores the life of his friend, photographer Tim Hetherington. "Accidental Racist" launched an Internet firestorm but shouldn't overshadow everything else on Wheelhouse. In 2003, a nurse named Charlie Cullen was arrested under suspicion of injecting patients with lethal doses of medications.

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