Episodes

  • Best Of: Amanda Knox / 'Adolescence' Co-Creator & Actor Stephen Graham

    Best Of: Amanda Knox / 'Adolescence' Co-Creator & Actor Stephen Graham
    Apr 5 2025
    Amanda Knox was convicted — and ultimately exonerated — for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy. Now in a new memoir, Knox explains why getting out of prison was not the end of her saga.

    Also, we hear from British actor Stephen Graham. He stars in the Netflix miniseries Adolescence as the father of a 13-year-old boy arrested for murdering a girl from his school. He also co-created the series and talks about the ambitious style in which it was shot — in one long take.

    Ken Tucker reviews new albums by Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis.

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    49 mins
  • Celebrating 20 Years Of 'The Office'

    Celebrating 20 Years Of 'The Office'
    Apr 4 2025
    It's been 20 years since the debut of NBC's hit mockumentary sitcom The Office. To celebrate the anniversary, we're listening back to Terry Gross' archival interviews with some of the key players: Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling and executive producer Greg Daniels. We'll also hear from Ricky Gervais, who co-created and starred the original British version.

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    47 mins
  • Jason Isbell On Love, Heartbreak & Songwriting

    Jason Isbell On Love, Heartbreak & Songwriting
    Apr 3 2025
    Isbell sings about his split from musician Amanda Shires on his latest album, Foxes in the Snow. "What I was attempting to do is document a very specific time where I was going through a lot of changes," he says.

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    44 mins
  • ICE Campus Arrests & The 'Struggle For The Soul' Of America

    ICE Campus Arrests & The 'Struggle For The Soul' Of America
    Apr 2 2025
    As ICE agents arrest international students at campuses across the U.S., immigration law professor Daniel Kanstroom discusses the human cost. He says the round-ups are designed to "send a message... to scare people, and it's working."

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    45 mins
  • Writer, Critic & Curator Hilton Als Looks For The Silences

    Writer, Critic & Curator Hilton Als Looks For The Silences
    Apr 1 2025
    As a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, Hilton Als's essays and profiles of figures like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Richard Pryor have redefined cultural criticism, blending autobiography with literary and social commentary. Als is also a curator. His latest gallery exhibition is The Writing's on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts, at the Hill Art Foundation in New York. The exhibit brings together the works of 32 artists across a range of media to examine how artists embrace silence. The show asked a powerful question: What do words — and their absence — look like? The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer spoke with Tonya Mosley.

    Also, Ken Tucker reviews new music from Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis.

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    44 mins
  • 'Adolescence' Co-Creator/Actor Asks Not Whodunnit, But Why

    'Adolescence' Co-Creator/Actor Asks Not Whodunnit, But Why
    Mar 31 2025
    The Netflix miniseries follows a 13-year-old accused of murdering a girl from his school. Co-creator and star Stephen Graham says he read about similar crimes and wanted to know: "Why is this happening?" Graham spoke with Sam Briger about the crime that inspired the show, fatherhood, and the unusual way the show was shot — in one single take. Graham also stars as a bare-knuckle boxer in the period drama series A Thousand Blows.

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    45 mins
  • Best Of: A Writer Grapples With A Life-Changing Accident / The Post WWII 'Red Scare'

    Best Of: A Writer Grapples With A Life-Changing Accident / The Post WWII 'Red Scare'
    Mar 29 2025
    Hanif Kureishi began his new memoir just days after a fall left him paralyzed. He describes being completely dependent on others — and the sense of purpose he's gained from writing. The memoir is called Shattered.

    David Bianculli reviews the British series Ludwig.

    Writer Clay Risen describes a political movement which destroyed the careers of thousands of teachers, civil servants and artists whose beliefs or associations were deemed un-American. His book, Red Scare, is about post-World War II America, but he says there's a throughline connecting that era to our current political moment.


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    48 mins
  • After A Friend's Suicide, A Writer Inherits His Grieving Dog

    After A Friend's Suicide, A Writer Inherits His Grieving Dog
    Mar 28 2025
    Sigrid Nunez's 2018 novel The Friend won the National Book Award. It's now a film, starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, about a woman who inherits a dog after her friend's suicide. She spoke with Terry Gross about the book in 2019.

    Also, Justin Chang reviews the new French film thriller Misericordia.

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    45 mins