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Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.Subscribe to Fresh Air Plus! You'll enjoy bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening - all while you support NPR's mission. Learn more at plus.npr.org/freshair
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Mel Brooks' Cinematic Parodies All Come From A Place Of Love (Fresh Air+)
Emmy- Grammy - Oscar- and Tony-Award-winning director, comedian, actor and songwriter Mel Brooks is best known for his cinematic parodies, some of which he cast himself in. That comes from a childhood love of cinema — and his desire to be a suave leading man himself. Hear his full 1991 interview: https://n.pr/44885br | Hear his 2001 interview: https://n.pr/4d5f09x | Hear his 2013 interview: https://n.pr/4aHWzpP | Hear his 2021 interview: https://n.pr/3JvoqgQ. 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.
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Best Of: Brittney Griner / Discovering Plant Intelligence
WNBA star Brittney Griner talks about the physical and emotional hell of her nearly 300 days in Russian prisons. Russian authorities apprehended Griner at the Moscow Airport when she was found carrying a tiny amount of medically prescribed cannabis — then charged her with drug smuggling. Her memoir is Coming Home.
Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviews a 1959 Sonny Rollins reissue.
And we'll talk about plant intelligence with climate journalist Zoë Schlanger. Her book is The Light Eaters.
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'The Sympathizer' Author Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer has been adapted into a series on HBO/MAX. It's set in Vietnam during the last days of the war, and in LA, just after. The narrator becomes a consultant to a Hollywood film about the war. The novel is written from a Vietnamese perspective. "It's my revenge on Francis Ford Coppola, my revenge on Hollywood, to try to get Americans to understand that Vietnam is a country and not a war," he told Terry Gross in 2016. Nguyen's family fled their village in South Vietnam in 1975, when it was taken over by the North.
Also, David Bianculli reviews Let It Be, the Beatles film restored and rereleased after being shelved for more than 50 years.
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Remembering Minimalist Painter Frank Stella
We remember painter and sculptor Frank Stella, whose early work was considered revolutionary. He died last week at age 87. Stella became famous and controversial in the 1950s for his "black paintings," which were a stark contrast to the abstract expressionism of the time, and made him one of the fathers of minimalism.
Later, we'll feature an interview with one of the most influential early rock and roll guitarists, Duane Eddy. He also died last week.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Long Island, Colm Tóibín's new sequel to his bestselling novel Brooklyn.
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A People's History Of Black Twitter
#BlackLivesMatter. #OscarsSoWhite. #ICantBreathe. Filmmaker Prentice Penny's docuseries about Black Twitter celebrates the voices and movements that impacted politics and culture. Penny was also the showrunner of the HBO series Insecure.
Also, John Powers reviews the four-part series Shardlake, based on C.J. Sansom's first novel in a series about a crime-solving lawyer in 16th-century England.
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WNBA Star Brittney Griner Imprisonment & Release
Griner spent nearly 300 days incarcerated in Russia after authorities at the Moscow airport found two nearly empty cartridges of cannabis in her luggage. The WNBA star spoke with Terry Gross about the dehumanizing prison conditions, her release, and return to the court. Griner, who is 6'9", says she felt like a zoo animal in prison. "The guards would literally come open up the little peep hole, look in, and then I would hear them laughing." Her new memoir is Coming Home.
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Customer Reviews
Love Fresh Air
To those who hate the adds, just push the forward button and you can skip past them easily.
Great show, but poorly edited as podcast
I was very excited to have access to Fresh Air as a podcast since I'm usually working when the show airs. The interviews are great, but the editing has been disappointing. Segment changes are choppy and episodes often end mid-sentence. The Ken Burns segment of March 15 was a particular disappointment, ending less than 10 minutes into the episode. I love the show! I just hope the editing improves.
Best Interviewer on Planet Earth
How does Terri Gross know so much about so much? No matter the topic, her questions take the conversation to the next level.