Fresh Air

Latest Episodes:

How Trump increased China's global power May 14, 2026

Show notes

Former national security official Rush Doshi says President Trump’s 2025 sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods sparked a clash in which China prevailed. Doshi spoke with Dave Davies about the current state of U.S.-China relations and President Trump’s meeting with President Xi in Beijing.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Boots Riley wants to 'compel and repel' you May 13, 2026

Show notes

Boots Riley’s new film is called ‘I Love Boosters,’ and it stars Keke Palmer as the leader of a crew of women shoplifters in the Bay Area who steal from luxury stores and sell the goods cheap to people who can't afford retail. 20 years before the movie, Riley wrote a song by the same name with his hip-hop group The Coup. The song is a love letter to shoplifters, or boosters, as they're called. Riley talks with Tonya Mosley about why his music, shows, and films -- including the 2018 movie ‘Sorry To Bother You’ -- continue to explore the contradictions that capitalism produces. Riley was a labor organizer in his teens.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Inside a journalist’s year of using AI for (almost) everything May 12, 2026

Show notes

Tech writer Joanna Stern used AI to read medical results, respond to texts and serve as her therapist. She says her emotional connection to it was unsettling. Her new book is ‘I Am Not a Robot.’ She spoke with Terry Gross.
Also, TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new PBS special marking David Attenborough’s 100th birthday.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Will Sharpe imagines Mozart's day-to-day in 'Amadeus' May 11, 2026

Show notes

Sharpe played a newly rich tech bro on vacation in Italy the second season of ‘The White Lotus.’ Now he's starring as Mozart, a musical genius who struggles to "read the room" in the new STARZ limited TV series ‘Amadeus.’ He spoke with Fresh Air producer Ann Marie Baldonado about studying piano, acting opposite Kieran Culkin in ‘A Real Pain,’ and feeling like an outsider as a kid.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Best Of: Novelist Douglas Stuart / ‘Half Man’ Actor Richard Gadd May 09, 2026

Show notes

Like the main character in his Booker Prize-winning novel 'Shuggie Bain,' writer Douglas Stuart grew up in Glasgow, working class, queer, and with a mother addicted to alcohol. His first career was in fashion, designing underwear for Calvin Klein. “Sometimes when I’m in an audience now and I feel a little nervous, I have a joke to myself and think, how many people in this audience have worn the underwear that you designed?” He spoke with Terry Gross about his new novel, ‘John of John.’
Later, Richard Gadd, creator and star of the Netflix show ‘Baby Reindeer' talks with Tonya Mosley about his new series, ‘Half Man.' It's about two boys who become brothers when their mothers fall in love. They spend the next 30 years trying to survive each other.
David Bianculli reviews the latest adaptation of ‘Lord of the Flies.’
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, from ‘RENT’ to ‘Hamilton’ May 08, 2026

Show notes

Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller played a key role in the production of RENT, Hamilton, In the Heights, Avenue Q, and the revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd that starred Josh Groban. His memoir traced his path from ‘Theater Kid’ to producer of Broadway mega-hits.
Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews ‘Silent Friend.’
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Nathan Lane is being tested (and he loves it) May 07, 2026

Show notes

Nathan Lane just received a Tony nomination for his starring role as Willy Loman in ‘Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.’ He’s a veteran of the stage – often in comedic and musical roles. But in the role of Loman, which he does eight times a week, he’s noticed something different in the audience. “There’s an old joke – my job is just to keep 1600 people from coughing. It's kind of true, but when you hear what we hear during ‘Salesman,’ you hear people weeping in the dark.” At the age of 70, Lane says this production of ‘Salesman’ is the thing he’s most proud of. He spoke with ‘Fresh Air’ guest interviewer Sam Fragoso, host of the podcast ‘Talk Easy.’
Later, Ken Tucker reviews new songs by Ella Langley, Robyn, and Allison Russell.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

How Silicon Valley has profited by aligning with MAGA May 06, 2026

Show notes

Atlantic writer George Packer discusses how tech venture capitalists, who are heavily invested in AI and cryptocurrency, aligned with Trump and influenced policies related to their own investments.
Also, David Bianculli reviews the new Netflix/BBC miniseries adaptation of ‘Lord of the Flies.’
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s path from ‘Backtalker’ to legal scholar May 05, 2026

Show notes

Crenshaw named two of the most contested ideas in American politics: intersectionality and critical race theory. Her new book is called ‘Backtalker: An American Memoir.’ It takes us to her childhood in Canton, Ohio, and along her path through Cornell, Harvard Law, and the University of Wisconsin, where, in 1988, as a graduate student, she sketched a diagram of an intersection to explain how race, class, and gender overlap. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about these moments in her career, and how she’s thinking about America’s 250th anniversary.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Scottish novelist Douglas Stuart on the isolation of secret-keeping May 04, 2026

Show notes

Like a number of his characters, Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart grew up working class and queer in Glasgow. He went on to have a career in fashion, which plays into his latest novel, John of John. “It's hard to tell people about grief. It’s hard to talk to people about poverty... and so I’d got very used to the silence in my own life, and my writing is the only thing that allows me to connect with myself,” Stuart told Terry Gross.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected