Fresh Air

Award-winning ProPublica reporter Topher Sanders has spent the last two years investigating America's aging freight train system. He says the Federal Railroad Administration monitors "less than 1% of what's happening on the rails." Sanders talks about the toxic East Palestine, OH derailment, the prevalence of blocked railroad crossings, and why railway safety legislation is yet to be passed. Also, rock critic Ken Tucker shares three new songs. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The civil rights leader Medgar Evers is maybe more known for his assassination in 1963 than the work he did to fight for voting rights and desegregation. MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid tells the story of Medgar and his wife Myrlie in a new book. Evers was the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, a state that lynched more Black people than any other. The risks of the job created a lot of tension in their marriage — and after Medgar's death, Myrlie's fury drove her to be an activist herself.

When Mark Daley and his husband, Jason, became foster parents to two brothers, they fell in love with the children right away. But Daley and his husband also know that their family could change at any moment. Eventually, the boys were reunified with their biological parents. Daley's memoir is Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family. Daley talks about the foster care system at large, as well as the joy and pain he and Jason experienced as foster parents.Also, TV critic David Bianculli reflects on Curb Your Enthusiasm, as it enters its 12th and final season.

Journalist Michele Norris has spent the last 14 years collecting what she calls "an archive of the human experience." She wanted to see how Americans really talk and think about race, so she asked people to share their thoughts in six words. The results were overwhelming. Eventually, the project moved online and got more than half a million entries from over 100 countries. Norris turned the project into a new book called Our Hidden Conversations. Also, John Powers reviews a biography of Frantz Fanon, by Adam Shatz.

Emma Stone is nominated for an Oscar for her starring role in Poor Things. She spoke with Terry Gross about the film and her relationship to her anxiety. David Bianculli reviews Ryan Murphy's FX anthology series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. Also, Benjamin Breen talks about his book, Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science. It's about the pioneering work anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson did on the use of psychedelics as a way to expand consciousness, and how that later connected to government research on the use of psychedelics as a weapon.

Oppenheimer and Barbie have been nominated for 13 and 8 Oscars, respectively. We feature our interview with Christopher Nolan, who wrote and directed Oppenheimer, about the making of the atomic bomb. Also, we hear from prolific music producer Mark Ronson about the soundtrack and score of Barbie. He co-wrote one of the songs that's been nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy, "I'm Just Ken."David Bianculli reviews the latest installment of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology series Feud, this time about Truman Capote.

Kai Wright's WNYC podcast, Blindspot, revisits the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, focusing in particular on populations that are frequently overlooked — including the pediatric patients at Harlem Hospital.

Stone has two Oscar nominations for Poor Things: One for best actress and one for best picture, as a producer. She spoke with Terry Gross about working with an intimacy coordinator, why she sees her anxiety as a superpower, and how Superbad changed her life.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from Central America, arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border every year. What to do with these migrants is one of the most divisive issues in Washington. New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer says the crisis is partially the result of decades of American policy. Blitzer's new book is called Everyone Who is Gone is Here. He also recounts the stories of those attempting to cross the border.

NBC journalist Antonia Hylton spent more than a decade piecing together the history of Maryland's first segregated asylum, where Black patients were forced into manual labor. Her new book is Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum. Also, Ken Tucker reviews the new album The Interrogator from The Paranoid Style.

Tracee Ellis Ross co-stars in the new movie American Fiction, which is nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture. For eight seasons, she starred in the ABC comedy series Black-ish. Ross played the mother, Bow, and she worked with the writers to make sure her character wasn't just what she calls "wife wallpaper." She spoke with Tonya Mosley about those roles. Also, Dr. Uché Blackstock talks about her new book, Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism In Medicine. Maureen Corrigan reviews the debut novel Martyr! from Iranian American poet Kaveh Akbar.

We remember composer and classical music satirist Peter Schickele, whose alter ego was "P.D.Q. Bach." His comic music arrangements were funny, but the level of musicianship was no joke. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1985. Also, we remember Mary Weiss, lead singer of the Shangri-Las, the girl group whose biggest hit was "Leader of the Pack." From working-class Queens, they acquired a tough girl image, in contrast to the glamor girl groups of the era. Weiss was on Fresh Air in 2007 when she released a solo album. Also, TV critic David Bianculli reviews Masters of the Air, the new World War II series from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on Apple TV+.

New York Times correspondent David Sanger says that Iran and its proxies are posing new challenges: "We're seeing outbreaks of low-level but highly damaging conflict all over the region."Also, John Powers reviews the new Mexican film Tótem.

Tracee Ellis Ross co-stars in the Oscar-nominated movie American Fiction. For eight seasons, she starred in the ABC comedy series Black-ish. We talk about her new projects, her superstar mother, Diana Ross, and forging her own path outside of her mother's success. We also talk about how she's come to embrace, at 51, never having children or being married.Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews the new Vietnamese drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell and book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Kahveh Akbar's debut novel Martyr!

Time correspondent Simon Shuster has been interviewing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since 2019, when Zelenskyy was still a famous entertainer and satirist. Shuster talks about Zelenskyy's rise to power, the infamous call with Trump that led to Trump's first impeachment, and how the war with Russia has changed him. Shuster's new book is The Showman.

Dr. Uché Blackstock was one of the first doctors to raise the alarm that COVID-19 was disproportionately impacting Black people. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about how medical schools contribute to inequities in health care, and what we can do about it. Her book is Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine.

Ava DuVernay's new film Origin explores a new way to consider the historical subjugation of Black people in America: as the adverse result of a caste system. The film is inspired by Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In the movie, Wilkerson embarks on a journey to learn about caste, traveling to Germany and India to get to the root of the Black experience in America.Also, we'll talk about how algorithms flatten culture with journalist Kyle Chayka. He says algorithms affect every aspect of our lives — from what we watch on Netflix, what songs are at the top of the charts, to what our local coffee shop looks like. His book is Filterworld.

HBO's Succession swept at the Emmys, winning six awards for its fourth and final season. We compiled interviews with show creator/head writer Jesse Armstrong and actors Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen. Also, David Bianculli reflects on the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos.

Home schooling is now America's fastest growing form of education, but Washington Post reporter Peter Jamison tells Dave Davies, "It's remarkable how little oversight there is of home-schooled children." Also, we remember TV critic Tom Shales.

Filterworld author Kyle Chayka examines the algorithms that dictate what we watch, read and listen to. He argues that machine-guided curation makes us docile consumers. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews You Only Call When You're in Trouble, a new novel from Stephen McCauley.