Arts & Culture

Anna Karina, Acclaimed French New Wave Actress, Dies At 79

By Bobby Allyn • 3 hours ago

Anna Karina, the French New Wave actress who in the 1960s established herself as a fixture in films directed by Jean-Luc Godard, died on Saturday in Paris. She was 79.

France's culture minister confirmed the news, saying on Sunday that "her look was the look of New Wave. It will remain so forever."

Hallmark Channel Embroiled In Controversy After It Pulls Ad With Lesbian Brides

By Laurel Wamsley • 3 hours ago

The Hallmark Channel is facing fierce criticism from gay rights advocates after it pulled ads featuring a lesbian couple. The ad for the wedding planning site Zola shows a couple at the altar, wishing they had used the service before their big day.

Reality TV Meets Social Experiment In '63 Up'

By Tim Greiving • 4 hours ago

This Book Teaches Kids The Concept Of 'Boonoonoonous' (It's A Good Thing)

By Samantha Balaban • 13 hours ago

Children love to pronounce the name of Olive Senior's new book: Boonoonoonous Hair. ("You break it down into boo noo noo nous, and then you say it fast," she advises.)

It's a word that comes from Jamaica where Senior was born. She says this evocative term has fallen out of fashion, but she's working to bring it back.

"It's just a word that suggests something lovely, something beautiful, something warm, something wonderful," she says. "So if you're told you're boonoonoonous that's a great compliment."

Finding A Stolen Gustav Klimt Painting

By editor • 13 hours ago

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Hair School For Dads

By editor • 13 hours ago

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

A group of fathers in York, England, is learning some important skills, including French plaiting, Dutch braiding and how to use a bobble. Yes, they are going to hair school.

'Imagine Pleasant Nonsense' With 'Strange Planet' Creator Nathan Pyle

By Liz Metzger • 14 hours ago

Nathan Pyle fills the pages of his new book Strange Planet with big eyed, bright blue aliens from a planet that shares a lot in common with Earth. These aliens sunbathe, sneeze and even wish each other sweet dreams like us, but they describe these practices with deadpan technical terminology like "sun damage" and "face fluid explosions." The lifegiver aliens even implore their offspring to "imagine pleasant nonsense" as they tuck them in for the night.

Not My Job: We Quiz Baseball Pitcher Sean Doolittle On Real-World Saves

By editor • Dec 14, 2019

As a relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals, Sean Doolittle saves baseball games, but how much does he know about real-world saves? We'll find out.

Click the audio link above to find out how he does.

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

You Can Tour This Banjo Museum Without Getting Up From Your Couch

By editor • Dec 14, 2019

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

For more than 15 years, Boston area filmmaker Marc Fields has been on a quest to capture and share the story of the banjo. He's assembled more than 300 hours of original video and piles of research that's the fuel for his new banjo museum. And you don't need to leave the couch to visit, as Andrea Shea of member station WBUR reports.

ANDREA SHEA, BYLINE: Marc Fields' production team is wiring up collector Jim Bollman and his rare 1858 banjo.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Testing one, two, three, four.

(SOUNDBITE OF BANJO PLAYING)

'Dangerous Melodies' Examines Classical Music And American Foreign Relations

By Scott Simon & Andrew Craig • Dec 14, 2019

At the height of the Cold War in 1958, Van Cliburn, a curly-headed kid from Texas, won the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He was hugged by Nikita Khrushchev and heralded like Elvis Presley when he returned.

Kids These Days ... Are Reading Nietzsche In The 'Burbs'

By Michael Schaub • Dec 14, 2019

It's about time that disaffected teenagers get the credit they've long deserved and never wanted. Sure, they can be kind of frustrating, with their hair-trigger eye-rolling reflex and grunted monosyllabic responses to any possible question, but they're also likely single-handedly keeping the French-poetry-collection and black-coffee industries alive. (And if there's a thriving black market for now-banned clove cigarettes — a staple of depressed and pretentious teens back when I was one of them — they're probably responsible for that, too.)

In 'Work In Progress,' A Darkly Funny Coming-Of-Middle-Age

By Ari Shapiro • Dec 13, 2019

In the new Showtime comedy series Work in Progress, Abby McEnany joins a long tradition of comedians playing a version of themselves on TV.

She's playing a "45-year-old self-identified fat, queer dyke" who is depressed, anxious and self-conscious.

McEnany has spent decades in Chicago's improv comedy scene. She says she dealt with a long string of rejections and failed auditions. Then her pilot got picked up and greenlit for a full series.

She still can't quite believe it.

Wanda Sykes Loves Stand-Up: That's Where 'I Can Be Free,' She Says

By Terry Gross • Dec 13, 2019

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

Class, Culture And Sexual Identity Take Center Stage In 'Girl, Woman, Other'

By Maureen Corrigan • Dec 13, 2019

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

Angel Olsen On Her Spectacular Sonic Evolution

By Stephen Kallao & John Myers • Dec 13, 2019

Angel Olsen's fourth album, All Mirrors is a departure from her indie rock sensibilities of albums past, but that wasn't always the plan. The songs were initially recorded as sparse and stripped-down numbers — in the style of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska.

Arts & Culture

Pages