Fresh Air

Martin Scorsese's masterpiece about loneliness, urban decay, and vigilantism is 50 years old this month. We’re revisiting archival interviews about ‘Taxi Driver’ with Scorsese, screenwriter Paul Schrader and actors Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, and Al Brooks.

Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews 'Pillion.'

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Julia Loktev's acclaimed documentary, ‘My Undesirable Friends,’ follows young Russian journalists in the months before and after Putin's invasion of Ukraine — and the impossible choices they face when dissent means prison or exile. 

Also, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead revisits a two-night set Miles Davis did in Chicago in 1965.


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Atlantic writer Robert Kagan says as President Trump violates norms, laws and the Constitution, including his call to nationalize elections, we’re on the edge of the consolidation of dictatorship. “I think we're already well into a dictatorship. It's just a question of whether [Trump] will go ahead and basically disrupt the '26 elections, which I think he's made it clear he has every intention of doing now,” Kagan tell...

We go inside the real succession story within the Murdoch family media empire. It includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. In 2023 Rupert Murdoch chose his eldest son and most conservative child, Lachlan, as his successor – buying out three of his other children from the family trust and estranging them in the process. “His dream was to build a family business. And what he built was a business ...

"Every now and then you bump up against a part that presses you to the wall of your ability," Hawke says of playing lyricist Lorenz Hart in ‘Blue Moon.’ He’s nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Hawke spoke with Terry Gross about collaborating with Richard Linklater, losing his friend River Phoenix, and his thoughts on aging. 


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Liz Moore’s bestselling book, ‘Long Bright River,’ was set in a troubled Philadelphia neighborhood where she’d worked on a photo essay. “My own family has a long history of addiction. I was kind of emotionally drawn back to the neighborhood over and over again because of that,” she tells Dave Davies. The resulting thriller about a policewoman searching for her missing sister was made into a series on Peacock. Moore’s l...

When Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was a kid growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, he would draw monsters all day. His deeply Catholic grandmother even had him exorcised because of it. But when del Toro saw the 1931 film ‘Frankenstein,’ his life changed. "I realized I understood my faith or my dogmas better through Frankenstein than through Sunday mass." His adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic book is nomina...

Brooke Nevils was a young NBC producer working the 2014 Sochi Olympics when, she says, ‘Today Show’ host Matt Lauer sexually assaulted her. Lauer has denied her account, calling their relationship consensual. Now, in her new memoir, ‘Unspeakable Things,’ Nevils doesn't just revisit what happened – she interrogates why it took years to understand it. She spoke with co-host Tonya Mosley. 

Also, book critic Ma...

‘New Yorker’ staff writer Jason Zengerle says after Tucker Carlson was let go from CNN and MSNBC, and joined Fox News, Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy revived his career. “Those more prestigious Fox shows… they could not find camera-ready, intelligent human beings to go on their programs and make a sensible case for Donald Trump -- and Tucker was someone who could,” he tells Terry Gross. After Fox fired Carlson in ...

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Heather Ann Thompson talks about the 1984 New York City subway shooting, when Bernhard Goetz, a white man, shot four Black teenagers. "We are watching someone tell us exactly who they are, exactly what they did, and it will not matter. Up will become down, down will become up. And that also felt very, very familiar to where we are today," she tells Tonya Mosley. Thompson argues reaction...

When writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths married Salman Rushdie in 2021, she expected her wedding  day to be joyful. But the joy was invaded by tragedy, when she got the news her best friend had died. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed and nearly killed onstage. Griffiths describes that year in her new memoir, ‘The Flower Bearers.'

Also, we hear from Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, w...

He’s the subject of a new two-part HBO documentary by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio called ‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ It looks at his origins in Brooklyn, his service in WWII, his EGOT-winning comedy career and lifelong friendship with Carl Reiner. We’re returning to our 1991 and 2001 interviews with Brooks. He told Terry Gross about why he loves mixing bad taste and high production value. 

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The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright has written a debut novel that asks a provocative question: What if a woman claimed the right to a spiritual quest like men have done for centuries in literature? 'The White Hot' follows a young mother from Philadelphia who walks away from everything to find herself. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about her antihero April, her collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda on 'In The Heights,'...

On the day Griffiths married author Salman Rushdie, her long time best friend died unexpectedly. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times while being interviewed on stage. In her new memoir, ‘The Flower Bearers,’ Griffiths examines her grief, healing, and living with Dissociative Identity Disorder. She spoke with Terry Gross. 

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Jodie Foster has been acting since she was 3. At 12 she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver.’ This year marks the 50th anniversary of that film. Foster spoke with Terry Gross about her early acting career, including getting mauled by a lion on set. Her new film is ‘A Private Life.’  

Tessa Thompson stars in the new Netflix murder mystery limited series ‘His & Hers’ and in Nia ...

We remember Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead, who died last week at 78. The guitarist spoke with Fresh Air Executive Producer Sam Briger in 2016 about working on a ranch, learning to ride, and getting to know cowboys. Also, we remember jazz singer Rebecca Kilgore, who was known for her interpretations of the Great American Songbook. She died at age 76. Kilgore often performed and recorded with pianist Dav...