Fresh Air

ProPublica reporter David McSwane tells the story of people and businesses that profited from the COVID-19 pandemic. He found the government awarded lucrative contracts to many people with a history of fraudulent business practices documented in public records, if anyone had bothered to check. His new book is Pandemic, Inc.

When Molly Shannon started finding success on Saturday Night Live, she remembers feeling depressed. "I realized that really the only person I wanted to say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so, so proud of you, Molly' was my mom," she says. But Shannon's mother, along with her younger sister and a cousin, had died decades earlier in a car crash. Shannon's new memoir Hello, Molly! recounts the tragic as well as the wonderful turning points in her life...

In 2007, Alsop became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony. But on the way to great success, she faced plenty of rejection. "Girls can't do that," Alsop recalls her violin teacher told her at age nine, of becoming a conductor. "I'd never heard a phrase like that," Alsop says. "You know, it never occurred to me that there was something that girls couldn't do." Alsop was mentored by Leonard Bernstein, and has conducted major orchestras around the world...

The Nobel Prize-winning novelist's latest book, Klara and the Sun, is set in the future and has an artificially intelligent narrator. "I wanted some of that childlike freshness and openness and naivety to survive all the way through the text in her," he says. We talk about his writing process, hitchhiking in the '60s, and his family history in Nagasaki.

Also, David Bianculli reviews 61st Street, a new AMC series about crime, the police, and the courts.

Activists are mobilizing in preparation for the weakening or end of Roe v. Wade. That's the subject of Jessica Bruder's new cover story for The Atlantic. "There are lots of people who want to keep abortion accessible for everybody who might want access to abortion, regardless of what the Supreme Court does," she says. Bruder is also author of the book Nomadland, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film.

Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews Sea of Tranquility the new novel by Emily St...

Scott is known for TV comedies like Parks and Recreation and Party Down, the drama series Big Little Lies, and the film Step Brothers. Now Scott stars in the Apple TV+ series Severance, which gives a sci-fi take on work-life balance. He plays a man who's chosen to have a chip implanted in his brain to separate his work life from his home life. "I now have no real separation, nor have I ever," he says of his own work as an actor...

Vuong is author of the acclaimed novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. It was published in 2019, the same year he won a MacArthur "genius" grant. It was also the same year his mother died. "Ever since I lost her, I've felt that my life has been lived in only two days," Vuong tells Tonya Mosley. "There's the today where she is not here, and then the vast and endless yesterday where she was...

In 2007, Alsop became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony. But on the way to great success, she faced plenty of rejection. "Girls can't do that," Alsop recalls her violin teacher telling her at age nine, of becoming a conductor. "I'd never heard a phrase like that," Alsop says. "You know, it never occurred to me that there was something that girls couldn't do." Alsop was mentored by Leonard Bernstein, and has conducted major orchestras around the world.

Waterston joined the cast of Law & Order in 1994 on a one-year contract. He wound up staying 16 years, until the series wrapped in 2010. Now the show's back — and so is he. We talk about working into his 80s, Grace and Frankie, and how the 1984 film The Killing Fields changed his life and career.

Also, David Bianculli reviews Julia, a new HBO series about Julia Child.

And White Lies author A.J...

Author Scott Weidensaul talks about the millions of birds flying unseen over our heads in the night sky, how the bar-tailed godwit can fly more than a week over water without stopping, and how new tracking technology may help with strategies to keep them alive. His book is A World on the Wing.

Also, Justin Chang reviews Nitram, the new film about events leading up to a mass shooting in Australia.