Fresh Air

Russell, who led the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA titles, died Sunday at the age of 88. He was also the first Black head coach in the NBA and a civil rights activist. He spoke with Terry Gross in 2001. Also, we remember a champion of traditional Irish music, Mick Moloney. He died last week at 77. He was a musician and a musicologist who revived forgotten Irish songs. His passion was finding connections between Irish, African and American roots music...

Journalist Ramita Navai went undercover in Afghanistan to film her new PBS Frontline documentary and found that girls and women are being arrested for violating the morality code. Also many girls are abducted and forced to marry Talibs.

Journalist Will Bunch says instead of opening the door to a better life, college leaves many students deep in debt and unable to find well-paying jobs. His new book is After the Ivory Tower Falls.

Podcast critic Nick Quah reviews two podcasts about counterculture, Mother Country Radicals and I Was Never There.

Also, we remember radio pioneer Larry Josephson.

It's estimated that more than 107,000 people in the United States died due to opioid overdoses in 2021. Washington Post journalist Scott Higham says it's "the equivalent of a 737 Boeing crashing and burning and killing everybody on board every single day...

Kirk Wallace Johnson tells the story of a bitter conflict that arose along the Gulf Coast of Texas when Vietnam War refugees began trawling for shrimp in the area. His book is The Fishermen and the Dragon.

Better Call Saul, the prequel and spin-off to Breaking Bad, has only a few episodes left. We talk with the show's star, Bob Odenkirk, and showrunner/co-creator Peter Gould. While filming Better Call Saul, one scene was interrupted for the worst imaginable reason: Odenkirk had a heart attack that was nearly fatal. He'll tell us about returning to life–and to that scene.

Cory Silverberg's new book, You Know, Sex, touches only briefly on reproduction...

The actor is Emmy nominated for his co-starring role in Scenes from a Marriage. We talk about his latest projects, grief and fatherhood, and his evangelical Christian upbringing. "We grew up with a very, very real sense of the impending doom of the apocalypse," he says.

Also, John Powers reviews Darren Star's new bingeable show starring Neil Patrick Harris, Uncoupled.

New York Times journalist Charles Homans says scores of groups at the state and local levels, with the help of right wing media figures and activists, are taking aim at the electoral system.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Tyshawn Sorey's album Mesmerism. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

After a traumatic brain injury left her in terrible pain and unable to work, the legendary goalkeeper had to pawn her Olympic gold medals. Scurry charts her pioneering soccer career and her road to recovery in My Greatest Save.

Cory Silverberg's new book, You Know, Sex, touches only briefly on reproduction. Instead, it centers on young people and the questions they might have about pleasure, power and identity.

Also, TV critic David Bianculli reflects on the Jan. 6 committee hearings as if they were a drama series.