Growing up as a first-generation Chinese-American in Northern California, novelist Amy Tan found herself pulled by two different notions of fate: Her mother was guided by beliefs in curses and luck, while her father, a Baptist minister, was guided by Christian faith.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average of eight hours of sleep per night for adults, but sleep scientist Matthew Walker says that too many people are falling short of the mark.
The odd couple travels around France in the new documentary, photographing strangers and making murals out of their portraits. Critic David Edelstein calls it an "entirely down to earth" art film.
Writer-director Noah Baumbach's new film is a collection of loosely connected episodes that offer a revealing glimpse into the heart of a lively and fractious New York Jewish family.
Jimmy Fallon talks about hosting The Tonight Show and lots of other things including his new children's book, and a bizarre injury to his finger that landed him in the ICU for ten days.
Baumbach's new film mixes comedy with deep emotional pain. It revolves around three adult siblings whose father is a self-absorbed sculptor. Baumbach's previous films include The Squid and the Whale.
Film historian Noah Isenberg revisits the making of the classic Hollywood film in his new book, We'll Always Have Casablanca. "Seventy-five years after its premiere, its still very timely," he says.
The jazz legend would have turned 100 today. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Monk's music is "universally beloved, by jazz musicians across the stylistic spectrum who might agree about little else."
New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins says Sec. of State Rex Tillerson is a diplomat in an administration that doesn't value diplomacy: "Rex is a sober, steady guy, and the president is anything but that."
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum explains how Stalin killed millions in the '30s by orchestrating a famine to suppress the nationalist movement and strengthen Russian influence in Ukraine.
Fifteen writers riff on various wild conspiracy theories generated about President Obama over the years. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the sly short stories in The Obama Inheritance pack a punch.
He produced the new documentary Truth, War and Consequences (on most PBS stations Thursday, Oct. 9 at 9 p.m.) It's about the infighting between the Pentagon, State Department and White House, before the Iraq war, over the intelligence information about weapons of mass destruction.
The 24-year-old Polley has acted professionally since the age of 6. She starred in the Atom Egoyan films Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. She's currently starring in the film My Life Without Me, based on a story by Nanci Kincaid called Pretending the Bed is a Raft. It's about a young, working single mother who learns she's going to die but keeps it a secret. The changes she makes to her life give her a new sense of liberation. Polley also will appear in the upcoming film The I Inside and a remake of the cult horror film Dawn of the Dead.
Director Sean Baker's new film centers on a six-year-old girl living in a dumpy motel complex outside of Orlando. Critic Justin Chang says The Florida Project "packs an emotional wallop."
Thirty-five years after the first Blade Runner premiered, Ryan Gosling stars in its sequel. Critic David Edelstein says the new film, though absorbing, is ultimately "just OK."
Journalist Mike Spies says the NRA's push to allow guns on college campuses, daycare centers and bars is part of an effort to "normalize gun carrying as much as possible in American public life."
Aiko created some of the music on Trip as a response to losing her brother to cancer. Critic Ken Tucker says the album features sorrow and grief — as well as an attempt to escape from sadness.
Decades before NFL player Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police treatment of African-Americans, boxer Muhammad Ali roiled white America with his 1967 resistance to the Vietnam War draft.
