The cease-fire that's kept Shiite militias in check for months is in danger of unraveling. And some U.S.-backed Sunni militias are growing restless. Patrick Cockburn, author and Iraq correspondent for The Independent in London, offers observations on war in Iraq.
Repression in Vladimir Putin's Russia, journalist Edward Lucas writes, is matched by a new aggression abroad. It amounts to what Lucas calls "a new Cold War" fought with cash, natural resources, diplomacy and propaganda.
That guilty feeling after a big meal? It might be about more than calories and cholesterol. New Yorker science writer Michael Specter explains how carbon emissions released during food production are having an impact on the environment.
Fresh Air's classical music critic reviews an 80-disc set of recordings by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. The collection, issued 25 years after Gould's death replicates the look of the original LPs.
Religious studies professor Bart D. Ehrman joins Fresh Air to discuss human suffering as it is addressed in the Bible. If there is an all-powerful and loving God, he asks, why do human beings suffer?
Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews The Irrational Numbers, the new album from improvisation-oriented bassist Drew Gress. In truth, he says, the numbers the band plays are less "irrational" than pleasantly unpredictable.
Americans consume more bananas than apples and oranges combined. Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, gives us a primer on the expansive history — and the endangered future — of the seedless, sexless fruit.
Fresh Air's film critic reviews the sci-fi action-adventure Jumper. The film stars Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels); it's directed by Doug Liman, whose other films include The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
The Showtime series Dexter, which tells the story of a criminologist who moonlights as a serial killer, will air (edited for content) on CBS. Fresh Air's TV critic David Bianculli talks about Dexter's move from cable to network.
Most Americans have a vague notion about the national debt, but how many of us really understand the repercussions of a $9 trillion debt? In their new book, Where Does the Money Go?, authors Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson examine the way a looming federal budget crisis threatens to affect personal savings, retirement and mortgages.
For all of us who have ever wandered into a room only to freeze, wondering blankly, "Why did I come in here, again?," Martha Weinman Lear has an answer. Lear, the author of Where Did I Leave My Glasses?, discusses the twin issues of memory loss and aging — what degree of forgetfulness is normal, and what can be done about it?
Gretchen Morgenson, financial reporter and business columnist for The New York Times, talks about continuing fallout from the subprime lending crisis and how it's affecting consumers.
Fresh Air's classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new DVD release of a lesser-known Kurt Weill opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny.
If there's one thing the presidential primary candidates agree on, it's that the American health-care system could use some treatment — if not a complete overhaul. Political scientist Jonathan Oberlander diagnoses the ailments and examines the remedies offered by each candidate.
Canadian actor and comedian Mark McKinney joins Terry Gross to discuss his career, including Slings and Arrows, the critically acclaimed miniseries about a Shakespearean theater troupe. It's out now in a DVD box.
Fresh Air's TV critic David Bianculli discusses the long-term effects of the four-month-long writers' strike, and--more immediately--when we can expect new episodes of our favorite shows to return to the air.
With Mitt Romney out and John McCain looking like the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, the GOP's conservative base is rethinking its options. The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick analyzes reaction on the right.
Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, which sounds like a horror film — and in some ways, Edelstein says, actually is. It's been nominated for an Academy Award.
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, a new film about a young woman's illegal abortion in Ceausescu's Romania, won the top prize at Cannes and has just opened in the U.S. It's a fierce and unsentimental film; Terry Gross talks to Mungiu about growing up in a totalitarian state, and why he wanted to make the movie.
The introduction of sound to movies left audiences hungry for "talkies" and paved the way for the early operettas of German-born Jewish film director Ernst Lubitsch. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new DVD collection of Lubitsch's early works.
