John Powers says Mick Herron's novels "boast an irresistible premise. They follow the adventures of a group of maladroit MI5 agents who've somehow blown it — you know, left a disk marked "Top Secret" on the Underground, or slept with an ambassador's spouse."
The film One Night in Miami imagines a night in 1964 where Cooke, Clay, Malcolm X and Jim Brown meet. We listen back to interviews with biographers Peter Guralnick, Jonathan Eig and Alex Haley.
Though Andra Day plays the jazz legend with conviction, The United States vs. Billie Holiday fictionalizes the particulars of Holiday's life, where the real story is dramatic enough.
New Yorker writer Luke Mogelson says many of the insurrectionists he filmed at the Capitol "had no inkling that what they were doing was wrong or suspicion that it could result in any consequences."
What sets Ellen McGarrahan's just-published true crime book, Two Truths and a Lie, above so many others I've read is the moral gravity of her presence on the page and the hollow-voiced lyricism of her writing style.
In his new book, The Ten Year War, Jonathan Cohn looks at the intense debate surrounding the Affordable Care Act, the compromises of the law itself, and the ongoing fight for universal health care.
The travails of immigrant life take a quietly beguiling form in Minari, a semi-autobiographical film by Lee Isaac Chung that brims with humor, humanity and hope.
Sacha Baron Cohen talks about reviving his signature character Borat a dimwitted, anti-Semitic, sexist TV journalist from Kazakhstan and playing Abbie Hoffman in the real-life activist in the film The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Corea, who died Feb. 9, had a strong melodic sense and a crisp, distinctive touch at the keyboard. Looking back, it's easy to hear why he was among the most beloved of modern improvising composers.
Trotter was a Black newspaper editor in the early 20th century who advocated for civil rights by organizing mass protests. Historian Kerri Greenidge tells his story. Originally broadcast January 2021.
Film critic Justin Chang says "Nomadland takes its time sinking in, but sink in it does. When I watched the movie a third time recently, I found it emotionally overpowering in ways that I'm still trying to get a handle on."
The COVID-19 pandemic has left many American families without child care and in-person schooling. Those new household burdens have largely landed on the shoulders of women, says Journalist Claire Cain Miller. She has been working from home, reporting on how the pandemic has affected the lives of mothers, in a New York Times series called "The Primal Scream."
Author Heather McGhee draws on a wealth of economic data to make the case that discriminatory laws and practices that target African Americans also negatively impact society at large.
The emergence of AIDS provides the impetus for It's a Sin, a hit British series about five young people who share a London apartment over the years from 1981 to '91.
Law professor and human rights activist Rosa Brooks wanted to better understand police violence and the racial disparities in America's criminal justice system, so she decided to join the police force as a volunteer.
Leachman, who died Jan. 27, won an Oscar for her performance in the 1971 film, The Last Picture Show, as well as eight primetime Emmy awards for her work on television. Originally broadcast in 2009.
Spike Lee talks about making his film 'Da 5 Bloods,' why awards aren't the true measure of a film's value, and working with the late Chadwick Boseman on the film.
Best known for his role as Capt. von Trapp, Plummer, who died Feb. 5, appeared in scores of films, won two Tony Awards and performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Originally broadcast in 2007.
Justin Chang says the film directed by Shaka King from a script he wrote with Will Berson, already feels like something of a cinematic breakthrough. That it's smart, powerful and well acted almost feels like a bonus.
