Radio Programs

On the next Fresh Air – Terry talks about President Trump’s Secretary of State and former CIA director Mike Pompeo with Mattathias Schwartz a contributing writer at the New York Times magazine.

Many of the best of this year's books were graced with humor and distinguished by deep dives into American identity. It was also a very good year for deceased authors whose posthumously published books were so much more than mere postscripts to their careers.

"Lost Hollywood." The phrase conjures up starlets in silver lamé and lunchtime gimlets at The Brown Derby; it does not bring to mind slimy swamp creatures or screwball surrealists starring in movies featuring walking melons.

Growing up, Tara Westover had no birth certificate, never saw a doctor and didn't go to school. She writes about her transition into the mainstream in Educated. Originally broadcast Feb. 20, 2018.

When Linda Kay Klein was 13, she joined an evangelical church that prized sexual "purity" and taught that men and boys were sexually weak.

According to Klein's faith, girls and women were responsible for keeping male sexual desire in check by wearing modest clothing, maintaining a sexless mind and body and taking a "purity pledge," in which they promised to remain virgins until marriage.

The pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc. is ending a six-year agreement to supply a lifesaving vaccine for children in West Africa.

At the same time, the company has started sending the vaccine to China, where it will likely be sold for a much higher price.

Luis Alberto Urrea's The House of Broken Angels borrows from the story of his older brother, who died of cancer. He told Fresh Air in 2018 that the book went through a rewrite after the 2016 election.

On the next Fresh Air -  the BBC nature series Dynasties follows five groups of animals: lions, tigers, chimpanzees, painted wolves and Emperor penguins -  revealing their complex social lives.

Michael Lewis is the author of bestselling books The Big Short and Moneyball. He talks with Terry about his new book, The Fifth Risk.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The federal government under President Trump is the subject of the new book "The Fifth Risk" by my guest, journalist Michael Lewis, who's also the author of the best-sellers "Moneyball" and "The Big Short," which were adapted into films, and "The Undoing Project.

On the next Fresh Air – the holiday week of favorite interviews of the year continues with Michael Pollan.