Episodes

  • Artist Mickalene Thomas Gives Black Women Their Flowers

    Artist Mickalene Thomas Gives Black Women Their Flowers
    Dec 3 2024
    In Mickalene Thomas' work, Black women are front and center. "We've been supportive characters for far too long," she says. "I would describe my art as radically shifting notions of beauty by claiming space." Her new exhibition of collages, paintings, and photographs is called All About Love. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about how she "draws with scissors," using her mother as a muse, and her reinterpretation of Manet.

    Also, David Bianculli reviews the new documentary Beatles '64.

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    45 mins
  • Folk Musician Jerron Paxton Transports Us To the '20s

    Folk Musician Jerron Paxton Transports Us To the '20s
    Dec 2 2024
    We're going to hear from a musician whose music is vibrant, exciting and new — even if it sounds like it could have been found on a scratchy record from the 1920s. His name is Jerron Paxton and he has a new album called Things Done Changed. He brought some of his instruments to the studio when he spoke with Fresh Air's Sam Briger.

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    46 mins
  • Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez

    Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez
    Nov 30 2024
    A new film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson play The Piano Lesson is now on Netflix. It's about a brother and sister battling over what to do with a family heirloom piano. Denzel Washington and his daughter Katia served as producers, and his sons John David and Malcolm starred in and directed it. The brothers talk about bringing the play to the screen.

    Also, we hear from Selena Gomez about the Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez. Gomez plays the wife of a brutal drug cartel leader who decides to undergo gender-affirmation surgery.

    Film critic Justin Chang reviews blockbusters Wicked and Gladiator II.

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    50 mins
  • Pharrell Thinks He Sounds Like Mickey Mouse

    Pharrell Thinks He Sounds Like Mickey Mouse
    Nov 29 2024
    The animated film Piece By Piece traces Pharrell Williams' early life as a boy growing up in Virginia Beach and follows his trajectory to a Grammy-winning songwriter, performer and producer. He spoke with Tonya Mosley about his synesthesia, the song Prince rejected, and disliking his own voice.

    Subscribe to Fresh Air's weekly newsletter and get highlights from the show, gems from the archive, and staff recommendations.

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    47 mins
  • A Yo-Yo Ma Thanksgiving

    A Yo-Yo Ma Thanksgiving
    Nov 28 2024
    About 25 years ago, the acclaimed cellist asked a high school student to help him name his instrument. Yo-Yo Ma brings his cello — aka "Petunia" — to his conversation with Terry Gross. He talks about being a child prodigy, his rebel years, and straddling three cultures: American, French, and Chinese.

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    46 mins
  • Canonical Lyricist Ira Gershwin Gets His Due

    Canonical Lyricist Ira Gershwin Gets His Due
    Nov 27 2024
    Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics for some of the most enduring songs in the Great American Songbook, including "I Got Rhythm," "S'Wonderful," "Embraceable You," "Love is Here to Stay," and "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." Biographer Michael Owen talks about Ira's collaboration with his brother George, his writing process, and the line he added to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

    Later, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead remembers drummer Roy Haynes.

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    48 mins
  • The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film

    The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film
    Nov 26 2024
    August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Piano Lesson is about a conflict in a Black family over whether to keep an exquisite heirloom piano — or to sell it to buy the land their family was enslaved on. Denzel Washington's son Malcolm directed the new film adaptation for Netflix, and his brother John David stars as Boy Willie. Tonya Mosley talks with the brothers about collaborating as a family on the project.

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    46 mins
  • A Marine's Portrait Of Her Body At Extremes

    A Marine's Portrait Of Her Body At Extremes
    Nov 25 2024
    During her years as a military linguist, Bailey Williams pushed her body to extremes. She later learned that eating disorders are more prevalent in the Marine Corps than in any other military branch. Her memoir is Hollow.

    John Powers reviews the Paramount+ series Landman.

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    46 mins