Fresh Air

Filmmaker Sam Pollard talks about his new documentary 'MLK/FBI,' based on newly declassified documents, which exposes the ways that the FBI attempted to discredit Martin Luther King Jr. Pollard talks about how the agency bugged his phones, surveilled hotel rooms, and even sent King a letter suggesting he kill himself.

Maureen Corrigan reviews 'Aftershocks' by Nadia Owusu.

The Netflix docuseries 'Pretend It's a City' features iconoclastic humorist Fran Lebowitz's conversations with Martin Scorsese. Lebowitz talks about why she loves living alone, driving a cab in the '70s, and her friendship with Toni Morrison.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the album 'Cloud Script' from Joshua Abrams' quartet...

We look back on the lives and careers of three people who have recently died. First, filmmaker Michael Apted, best-known for his documentary series, 'Up,' which followed the lives of a group of British citizens. He updated their stories with a new episode every seven years, from childhood through their 60s. Apted died last week. We also listen back to our interview with screenwriter William Link, who co-created many long-running TV series, including 'Columbo' and 'Murder She Wrote...

News of the World' is a Western set five years after the end of the Civil War. It stars Tom Hanks as a former Confederate captain who travels from one small poor Texas town to another, reading aloud from newspapers to townspeople who gather, paying ten cents apiece to be informed and entertained by these stories. We talk with director Paul Greengrass, who also directed Hanks in 'Captain Phillips...

Historian Kerri Greenidge tells the story of William Monroe Trotter, a Black newspaper editor who was a forceful crusader for civil rights in the early 20th century. He built a national following in his time as a fierce advocate for the full citizenship rights that had been promised to former enslaved people after the Civil War. Trotter organized mass protests, confronted presidents, and openly challenged leaders such as Booker T...

Adam Jentleson traces the history of the filibuster, which started as a tool of Southern senators upholding slavery and then later became a mechanism to block civil rights legislation. His book is 'Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and The Crippling of American Democracy.'

The Netflix docuseries 'Pretend It's a City' features Lebowitz's conversations with Martin Scorsese on many topics, Manhattan in particular. "If I dropped the Hope Diamond on the floor of a subway car, I'd leave it there," she says. Lebowitz also talks about getting expelled from school, working for Andy Warhol, and why she loves living alone.

Also, John Powers reviews the book 'The Liar's Dictionary' by Eley Williams.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks about how learning new skills can optimize brain health. His new book is 'Keep Sharp.'

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews 'Outlawed,' a novel by Anna North, which she describes as 'Handmaid's Tale' meets 'Butch Cassidy.'

Journalist Maria Ressa has faced criminal charges and death threats because of her coverage of the populist, authoritarian Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte...

We remember the award-winning writer Barry Lopez, who wrote evocatively about nature, and in turn shed light on truths about the human experience. He died Christmas day at the age of 75. Lopez lived among the Arctic's Inuit people for five years, and raised a wolf pup for his book about the relationship between wolves and men.

Also, Kevin Whitehead reviews the new album by Chicago bassist Joshua Abrams...

The U.S. has only 4% of the world's population — and yet it accounts for 20% of all COVID deaths. 'New Yorker' writer Lawrence Wright discusses America's "plague year." We'll talk about the mishandling of the outbreak and his novel 'The End of October,' about a deadly pandemic.