Fresh Air on Xtra HD

'The Watchers' Have Had Their Eyes On Us For Years

editor — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:17:00 +0000

The revelations about secret National Security Agency programs, leaked by Edward Snowden earlier this month, have stirred great controversy, but this type of surveillance is not entirely new, according to journalist Shane Harris.

In his 2010 book, The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State, Harris traced the evolution of these surveillance programs in the U.S.

He says that as the digital age advanced, the NSA reached a crossroads and realized that analog tactics like phone tapping were quickly becoming obsolete: There was a whole new world of digital information to be

The Art Of Life: Claes Oldenburg At MOMA

Lloyd Schwartz — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:40:00 +0000

The sculptor Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm but grew up in Chicago, went to Yale and came to New York in 1956, where he became a key player in the pop art movement — the major counter-reaction to the abstract expressionism that dominated the 1950s. So much for art history.

Although Oldenburg is a serious artist, probably no artist in history ever created works that were more fun.

Samberg, Taccone And Schaffer: Three's Not A Lonely Island

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:26:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKQ6nINAeq8

Cécile McLorin Salvant: Making Old Songs New Again

Kevin Whitehead — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:43:00 +0000

Singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was born in Miami to French and Haitian parents, and started singing jazz while living in Paris. Back in the U.S., she won the Thelonious Monk vocal competition in 2010. The 23-year-old's first album, WomanChild, is now out — and few jazz debuts by singers or instrumentalists make this big a splash.

Salvant's unusual material sets her apart as much as her chops do. The most recent non-original tune on her nervily accomplished debut is by Fats Waller.

WWII 'Deserters': Stories Of Men Who Left The Front Lines

editor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:24:00 +0000

Few citizens are more honored than military veterans, and there's particular reverence for those who defeated the Nazis in World War II. Like any war, however, World War II was complicated and traumatic for those on the ground, and not a few deserted from the front lines.

In a new book, The Deserters, journalist Charles Glass tells the stories of three very different men whose lives dramatize how the strain of war can push a soldier to the breaking point — and how the line between courage and cowardice is never simple.

In 'TransAtlantic,' The Flight Is Almost Too Smooth

Maureen Corrigan — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:42:00 +0000

Here we go into the wild blue yonder again with Colum McCann. In his 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin, McCann swooped readers up into the air with the French aerialist Philippe Petit, who staged an illegal high-wire stunt walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Strictly speaking, Let the Great World Spin was not a Sept. 11 novel, and yet almost everyone rightly read it as one, since McCann's tale commemorated the towers at the literal zenith of their history.

Fresh Air Weekend: Rogen, Goldberg, '20 Feet From Stardom' And 'Much Ado'

editor — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 13:03:00 +0000

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Mantel Takes Up Betrayal, Beheadings In 'Bodies'

editor — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:26:00 +0000

This interview was originally broadcast on Nov. 26, 2012.

This year, Hilary Mantel made history when she won a Man Booker Prize for her novel Bring Up the Bodies, which is out now in paperback.

Whedon's Touch Finds A Match With 'Much Ado'

David Edelstein — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:03:00 +0000

One word sums up my reaction to Joss Whedon's film of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing: Huzzah!

Here is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer — and the director of The Avengers — working with American TV actors who have little or no training in verse-speaking. Who could have predicted such a team would produce the best of all filmed Shakespeare comedies?

No, not the best filmed Shakespeare; there are plenty of more exciting Hamlets and Henry Vs and Richard IIIs.

John Oliver: Topical Comedy With A Crisp Accent

editor — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:36:00 +0000

This interview was originally broadcast on Jan. 5, 2010.

With Daily Show host Jon Stewart on leave for the summer, comedian John Oliver has stepped in to host the show that's become his television home base.

Oliver relocated from the U.K. in 2006 to become the "Senior British Correspondent" on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

Israeli Writer Yoram Kaniuk, 83, On Pain And Peace

editor — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:25:00 +0000

Born in Israel in 1930, Yoram Kaniuk wrote novels and articles that explored war, the Holocaust, Israel, and the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians. He was an outspoken proponent of the need for Israelis and Palestinians to understand that both groups of people deserve sovereignty.

"Both sides are right, and both sides are so strong about the rightness," he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in August 1988.

Florida-Grown Fiction: Hiaasen Satirizes The Sunshine State

editor — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:25:00 +0000

As a columnist for the Miami Herald and a prolific novelist of books such as Strip Tease, Lucky You and Star Island, Carl Hiaasen has a subject: Florida. Hiaasen grew up in the state during the 1950s and has lived and worked there his entire life, watching it morph from a rural backwater with abundant natural beauty and resources to one struggling with the effects of development and tourism.

Florida's population has more than quintupled since Hiaasen was a boy.

Slaid Cleaves: 'Still Fighting' With Smart Lyrics And Stories

Ken Tucker — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:03:00 +0000

Raised in South Berwick, Maine, and residing in Austin, Texas, Slaid Cleaves is no one's idea of a music-industry insider. He writes and sings songs primarily about working-class people and romantics both hopeful and hopeless. That said, it's also not difficult to hear another element of the fortysomething Cleaves' past: He was an English and philosophy major at Tufts, and his lyrics are underpinned by both a fine sense of meter and moral perspicacity.

Fame Studios And The Road To Nashville Songwriting Glory

Ed Ward — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:35:00 +0000

Wallace Daniel Pennington grew up singing. His father played guitar and his mother played piano, and by the age of 9, the young man had a guitar of his own. The family attended church on Sunday and Wednesday each week, and to this day, Dan Penn says he remembers the entire Methodist congregation belting out hymns.

As his family's only boy, Penn got his own room, and in it was a little green radio he used to smuggle beneath the sheets at night so he could listen to WLAC from Chicago.

'20 Feet From' The Spotlight, There's Singing Worthy Of One

editor — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:28:00 +0000

The documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, which explores the world of rock 'n' roll's backup singers, opens to the soundtrack of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side." Reed sings half the refrain — "And the colored girls go, doo do doo do doo" — until a chorus of backup singers pick up the "Do doo" line.

Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg: Friends Til 'The End'

editor — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:45:00 +0000

In This Is the End, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride and Jay Baruchel — all playing themselves — are at a party at Franco's L.A. home when an earthquake hits.

At least, they think it's an earthquake.

Flying High And Low In 'Full Upright And Locked Position'

editor — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:23:00 +0000

No, you aren't imagining it: There is indeed less leg room on some airplanes than there used to be.

"Back in the old days, probably 20 years ago, the tendency was to have about 34 inches," says Mark Gerchick, a former chief counsel for the Federal Aviation Administration. "Now the standard is about 31 inches in the United States. ... Some of the low-cost airlines have tightened that up to about 28 inches, which is now approaching the limits of anatomical possibility."

This is clearly not ideal.

Arctic Records: Drafting A Blueprint For The Philly Sound

Ed Ward — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:06:00 +0000

Arctic Records opened for business late in 1964. The label was the brainchild of Jimmy Bishop, the program director of WDAS — at the time Philadelphia's No. 1 black radio station. If that sounds like a conflict of interest, you don't know much about the music business in Philadelphia back then. Besides, it didn't help Arctic's first single, "Happiest Girl in the World" by the Tiffanys, three local teenagers who sang backup in various studios.

Fresh Air Weekend: Mitch Hurwitz, Jason Isbell And 'Before Midnight'

editor — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:03:00 +0000

'Beside Ourselves' Explores Human-Animal Connections

Maureen Corrigan — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Note: The audio and text of this review describe a major plot point that is not revealed until partway into the book.

If you know Karen Joy Fowler's writing only from her clever, 2004 best-seller, The Jane Austen Book Club, you're in for a shock.

'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs In Iraq

editor — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:16:00 +0000

This interview was originally broadcast on July 8, 2012.

Brian Castner arguably had one of the most nerve-wracking jobs in the U.S. military.

The Patient Who Let Us Peek Inside A Brain In 'Present Tense'

editor — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:02:00 +0000

In 1953, 27-year-old Henry Gustave Molaison underwent an experimental brain surgery in an attempt to alleviate his severe epileptic seizures. The surgery left him with a form of amnesia; he could remember many things from the past, but was unable to form new memories.

"He could tell us about where he was born, [that] his father's family was from Thibodaux, La., his mother came from Ireland," says neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin. "He talked about the towns in Hartford where he lived and about his specific neighbors.

Jason Isbell: Literary, But Keeping An Edge On 'Southeastern'

Ken Tucker — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:01:00 +0000

When Jason Isbell was part of Drive-By Truckers, his guitar contributed to the band's sometimes magnificent squall of noise, while his songwriting contributed to the eloquence that raised the band high in the Southern rock pantheon. But the group was led by two other first-rate songwriters, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley.

'Arrested' No More: Hurwitz On Why The Bluths Are Back

editor — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:44:00 +0000

The Bluth family of the cult show Arrested Development can be oblivious, mean — to each other and anyone who enters their orbit — and eccentric. But that, says show creator Mitch Hurwitz, is in some ways the point.

"The goal with the show has always been that the Bluths are wrong," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "[They're] self-centered. They haven't had to develop.

In Syria, Conflict Has Spread Throughout The Region

editor — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:45:00 +0000

The civil war in Syria is attracting fighters from all over, increasing sectarian tensions in other Muslim countries, threatening the region's tenuous stability, bringing the threat of Russian missiles, and leaving the U.S with few good options.

More than 80,000 people have been killed so far in Syria's civil war, and 4 million of Syria's 20 million people have been displaced.

New 'Arrested Development' Gags Are Best Served In One Sitting

David Bianculli — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 19:03:00 +0000

When Mitch Hurwitz and his collaborators began making the Fox sitcom Arrested Development 10 years ago, it was loaded with jokes — in-jokes, recurring jokes and just plain bizarre jokes — that rewarded viewers who watched more than once. But even though it won the Emmy for best comedy series one year, not enough viewers bothered to watch it even once, so the show was canceled in 2006 after three seasons. And that would have been it, except for a loyal cult following that built up once the show was released on DVD and the Internet.

A Child Among San Francisco's Gay Men In 'Fairyland'

editor — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:10:00 +0000

While these days it's not uncommon to meet children with gay parents, in the 1970s it was. Alysia Abbott was one of those kids. When her parents met, her father — Steve Abbott — told her mother he was bisexual. But when Alysia was a toddler, her mother died in a car accident and Steve came out as gay. He moved with his daughter to San Francisco, just as the gay liberation movement was gaining strength.

While her father had not initially wanted a child, Abbott says he enjoyed spending time with her when she was a baby.

Fresh Air Weekend: Stephen King, Daft Punk And Cannes

editor — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:03:00 +0000

Stephen King On Growing Up, Believing In God And Getting Scared: "The more carny it got, the better I liked it," King says of his new thriller, Joyland. The book, set in a North Carolina amusement park in 1973, is part horror novel and part supernatural thriller.

Rediscover Your Inner Anarchist In The Anti-Corporate 'East'

David Edelstein — Fri, 31 May 2013 17:29:00 +0000

The second collaboration between writer-director Zal Batmanglij and actress and co-writer Brit Marling is called The East, which happens to be the name of the movie's anti-corporate terrorist cult. Marling plays Sarah, an agent who infiltrates the group. She doesn't work for the FBI. Her employer is a private security and intelligence firm run by the sleek, profit-oriented Sharon, played by Patricia Clarkson.

Whitey Bulger Bio Profiles Boston's Most Notorious Gangster

editor — Fri, 31 May 2013 14:47:00 +0000

This interview was originally broadcast on Feb. 25, 2013.

The remarkable story of gangster Whitey Bulger begins in the housing projects of South Boston and ends with his capture by the FBI in 2011 after his 16 years on the lam. By then, Bulger was wanted for 19 murders, extortion and loan sharking for leading a criminal enterprise in Boston from the 1970s until 1995.