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We remember comic and actor Bob Newhart, who died last week at the age of 94. In his stand-up comedy and hit TV series, some of the laughs came from his an awkward, stammering way of speaking. "It isn't an affectation. It's the way I speak," he told Terry Gross in 1998.

Also, Justin Chang reviews Deadpool & Wolverine.

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Hezbollah, the militant group based in Lebanon, shares Hamas' goal of destroying the state of Israel. We'll talk with New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins, about his reporting trip to both sides of the Lebanese/Israeli border. Israel and Hezbollah have escalated their shelling and bombing attacks on each other. Filkins says that's leading to fears of an all-out war that would devastate both sides, and could draw in Iran and the U.S.

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Chu takes his inspiration from his dad, a Chinese immigrant who worked both the front room and the kitchen of their family-run restaurant: "The guy that in the back of the kitchen, that was my hero." The director of Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights talks with Terry Gross about growing up in Silicon Valley, seeing Wicked for the first time, and learning to be adaptable.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Dinaw Mengestu's new novel, Someone Like Us.

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Autocracy, Inc. author Anne Applebaum says today's dictators — including Putin and Xi — are working together in a global fight to dismantle democracy, and Trump is borrowing from their playbook: "We're going to have to defend and protect our political system if we want to keep it."

Also, David Bianculli reviews the Apple TV series Time Bandits.

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Filmmaker and stunt coordinator David Leitch says it's easier to do stunts himself than direct his stunt performer friends. "You are responsible for their safety," he explains. "Your heart goes through your chest." His film The Fall Guy is about the unknown performers who put their lives on the line. He talks with Terry Gross about barrel rolling cars, being lit on fire, and doing another take when everything hurts.

Also, Ken Tucker marks the 50th anniversary of Roxy Music's Country Life.

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In these, the dog days of summer, it might be nice to pick up a new book. And we have just the author — the genre-bursting Anne Rice, who wrote more than 30 novels, including the wildly popular series, 'The Vampire Chronicles.' Rice appeared twice here on Fresh Air, and she shared what really frightened her outside of the vampires and witches that populate so many of her books. Listen to Anne Rice in 1986: https://n.pr/3zFltsw | Listen to Anne Rice in 1990: https://n.pr/3yciOpP. Listen to 40+ years of Fresh Air's archives at https://FreshAirArchive.org. Not a Fresh Air+ supporter yet? Find out more, and join for yourself, at https://plus.npr.org/freshair.