Fresh Air

Quinta Brunson stars as a rookie second grade teacher in an under-resourced public elementary school in the mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary. Brunson says she conceived of the show with her mother — a teacher — in mind. "The beauty is someone being so resilient for a job that is so underpaid and so underappreciated because it makes them feel fulfilled," she says.

Also, David Bianculli reviews the new Law & Order reboot.

Though the main character in Julie Otsuka's new novel has lost much of her memory to dementia, she still remembers being sent to an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. We talk with the novelist about her family's history and writing The Swimmers.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Vladímír, a virtuoso debut novel by Julia May Jonas, and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new stash of personal recordings from Lennie Tristano.

Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel says that film studios increasingly rely upon Chinese audiences to break even — which can result in self-censorship. His new book is Red Carpet.

Comic and producer W. Kamau Bell talks about directing the Showtime series We Need to Talk About Cosby, which explores how Bill Cosby became "America's dad," and a hero in Black culture — and how that changed when he was accused and convicted as a rapist.

Podcast critic Nick Quah reviews The Trojan Horse Affair from Serial Productions.

Also, we hear from actor Matthew Macfadyen. He talks about playing Tom Wambsgans in HBO's Succession and Mr...

Penélope Cruz is nominated for Best Actress for her role in Parallel Mothers, the latest movie written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. And her husband, Javier Bardem, is nominated for his role as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos. He's probably best known for playing a psychopathic serial killer in the Coen brothers' film, No Country for Old Men.

Also Justin Chang reviews two international films — Belgium's Playground and Chad's Lingui, the Sacred Bonds.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, says lawmakers in 27 states are considering hundreds of bills designed to limit voting or undermine the integrity of the election process. We talk about the ongoing threat to our democracy and fair elections. Waldman's book is The Fight to Vote.

Though she litigated Brown v. The Board of Education, was the first Black woman to argue before the Supreme Court, and represented MLK, few people know her name: Constance Baker Motley. Guest interviewer Tonya Mosley speaks with her biographer, Tomika Brown-Nagin, author of Civil Rights Queen.

John Powers reviews Severance on Apple TV+.

Journalist Matthieu Aikins accompanied his Afghan interpreter when he decided to flee Afghanistan in 2016, using smugglers' routes to make his way to Europe and start a new life. For Aikins, it meant shedding his own identity and passport and taking risks refugees take — heading into the Mediterranean sea at midnight in a flimsy, overcrowded rubber craft, where Coast Guard patrols would ram the vessel to turn refugees away from their destination...

About 60 women have come forward accusing Cosby of drugging and raping them. In 2018, Cosby was convicted of three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, though that conviction was overturned on a technicality in 2021. W. Kamau Bell's new Showtime documentary series, We Need To Talk About Cosby, grapples with the comedian's tainted legacy, which Bell describes as a "third-rail" conversation for many people in the Black community...

Jonny Greenwood plays guitar and keyboard in Radiohead, but in 2007 director Paul Thomas Anderson enlisted him to score his film There Will Be Blood. Since then, Greenwood has scored such films as The Power of the Dog, Spencer, and Phantom Thread.

Method acting is more than mining personal experiences to play a character — or physically transforming for a role. Author and cultural critic Isaac Butler traces the history of the technique in The Method.