Taking a break from the family-friendly Shrek series, the comic actor stars in the bawdy summer comedy The Love Guru. It's an irreverent — some say too irreverent — romp about a self-help specialist from the subcontinent.
Peanuts and corn dogs may spell summer for some, but for others, they mean allergy misery. Dr. Hugh Sampson, president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, talks to Terry Gross about foods to avoid.
Actor Liev Schreiber had what he thought was a good idea: He'd reach out to a Baghdad film student, offering him an internship on a shoot. But as Nina Davenport's documentary proves, good intentions don't always end in good outcomes. Critic-at-large John Powers has a review.
Rapper, producer, fashion designer, restaurateur, grass-roots organizer and Broadway actor? Sean "Diddy" Combs might be the hardest-working man in hip-hop. He talks to Terry Gross about his career — and the "characters" behind his ever-changing names.
Singer and actress Kelli O'Hara has received three Tony nominations in as many years. She currently stars in the crowd-pleasing revival of South Pacific.
Digital media — including MP3 players, peer-to-peer networks and music websites — are changing how we discover, listen to and share music. Wired.com journalist Eliot Van Buskirk joins Fresh Air to discuss the new, digital landscape of music, and the resulting changes in the music industry.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Evil Urges, the new album by the Kentucky indie-rock band My Morning Jacket. The band moves away from their Southern influences, instead using Manhattan as their muse for the album.
McSweeney's contributor Dan Kennedy found what he thought was a dream job in the music industry: Director of Creative Development at Atlantic Records. Rock on: an Office Power Ballad is the tale of his time at the label — where he arrived just in time for what he describes as the collapse of the music business.
Fresh Air's film critic reviews three epically intimate new films — an Antarctica documentary from Werner Herzog, a Guy Maddin meditation on home and self, and the heartfelt biography Chris & Don.
Operatic tenor Wayne Conner was an classical-music radio personality as well as a teacher at The Curtis Institute of Music, The Academy of Vocal Arts and the Peabody Institute. For 30 years, he also produced and hosted WHYY's "Singer's World" and "Collector's Corner." Connor died May 9 of liver cancer at the age of 79.
When Hank Williams died on New Year's day in 1953, he left behind a legacy of honky tonk hits as well an extended family who would continue making music for decades to come. Milo Miles reviews "Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy," an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. "
Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger are nontraditional tourists who explore missile silos, test sites, and bomb shelters. The two just published A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry, a chronicle of their travels to nuclear landmarks across ten states and fives countries.
Her father was Louis Armstrong's music director and a noted bandleader in his own right; her mother was a member of the iconic International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Critic Nat Hentoff says that pedigree — and her own unmistakable chops — make Cat Russell "the real thing" in a crowd of jazz wannabes "who couldn't lasted through a chorus in a contest with Ella Fitzgerald or Betty Carter."
Novelist Ron Hansen is best known for his tales of Western bandits and whiskey runners, but he claims his inspiration for these unsavory characters is divine. The author of Exiles discusses writing, faith and his status as a Catholic deacon in a secular literary world.
Before Boogie Nights, before Far From Heaven, before Short Cuts, she appeared as identical half-sisters — one of them evil — on the soap opera As the World Turns. She won a Daytime Emmy in 1988; for her film work, she's earned four Oscar nominations.
In her new book, The Wisdom of Whores, epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani interviews sex workers, drug users, health officials and bureaucrats in an effort to determine why 40 million people are living with HIV — and what can be done to curb the epidemic.
Acclaimed 2007 film — based on the life of post-punk musician Ian Curtis, who killed himself in 1980 at age 23 — won a trio of prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and took home a range of other international awards. It's out now on DVD.
Whether he's lancing boils, getting crabs from thrift-store trousers or sitting in a hospital waiting room dressed only in his underwear, one thing is clear: David Sedaris is not shy about sharing embarrassing, cringe-worthy moments.
