Saturday, October 14, 2017

'Lady Killers:' Cherchez La Femme Fatale

An FBI investigator once famously said "There are no female serial killers," but Tori Telfer sets out to prove him wrong with this gruesome new account of multiply-murderous women throughout history.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

For October: 3 Romance Heroes Who Bare It All

There's one thing romance heroes have in common — whether a duke, a workaholic billionaire or reality TV hunk: They look really good with their shirts off. Here are three of our favorites this month.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Hollywood's Biopic Fever: Five Fact-Based Films Released This Week

It's a big week for movie biographies. Opening today: Fact-based films about a supreme court justice, two semi-famous authors, an infamous artist, and a man who refused to let polio defeat him.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'The Meyerowitz Stories' Is A Squirm-Inducing Comedy About Family Dysfunction

Writer-director Noah Baumbach's new film is a collection of loosely connected episodes that offer a revealing glimpse into the heart of a lively and fractious New York Jewish family.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Human Flow' Offers A Searing Look At The Global Refugee Crisis

Using aerial photography and intimate, one-on-one interviews to document the plight of migrants in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, artist Ai Weiwei's documentary is grim but vital.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

The End

In this final round, contestants must endure an impending letter trend that portends the end: every answer contains the letters "E-N-D" in consecutive order.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Mystery Guest

This episode's mystery guest, Steve Baldwin, leads an unusual tour through Brooklyn. Can you guess his secret before Jonathan and Ophira do?

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Monkee Business

This music parody quiz is exactly as fun as a barrel of Monkees! We rewrote Monkees songs to be about other zoo animals. Hey hey, we're the Giraffes!

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Spelling Bee Style

Way less A-W-K-W-A-R-D than your average middle school spelling bee. In this quiz, contestants need to identify a fashion label and then correctly spell the brand name.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Adam Conover: Adam Fixes Everything

Adam Conover from truTV's 'Adam Ruins Everything' tells us why ignorance is not bliss. Then we challenge the notorious debunker to a game we call Adam Fixes Everything, about famously broken things.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Caller ID

In this audio quiz, we open up the Ask Me Another hotline to phone calls from TV and movie characters and musicians. After the famous callers say hello, contestants must answer questions about them.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Pre-K Education

For ages 3 and up: Every answer in this quiz will be something you learned in school, but we've changed one letter to a K.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Steve Ramirez: If We Could Erase Memories ... Should We?

Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez used lasers to enter the brains of mice and edit their memories. He imagines a future where this technology might be possible in humans as well.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Elizabeth Loftus: How Can Our Memories Be Manipulated?

Years of research have taught Elizabeth Loftus just how unreliable our memories are. From tweaking a real memory to planting a completely fabricated one, tampering with our minds is surprisingly easy.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Ali Velshi: In An Age Of "Alternative Facts," How Do We Know What's True?

Journalist Ali Velshi began his career to "speak truth to power." Now he worries that fake news has subverted the meaning of truth.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Historical Veggies Take Root In D.C. War Garden

To commemorate 100 years since the U.S. entered WWI, the gardens outside the Library of Congress have been transformed into a traditional war garden — producing heirloom vegetables of the past.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

With 'Voices In The Dark,' An Artist Missteps

Comic artist Ulli Lust's unique, surreal style proves a bad match for this adaptation of a historical novel about the children of Joseph Goebbels and their last days in Adolf Hitler's bunker.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Last Da Vinci Painting In Private Hands Will Be Auctioned Next Month

The portrait of Jesus Christ, Salvator Mundi, was recently confirmed to be a da Vinci that had been thought to be destroyed. It's not clear where the painting was, exactly, for more than a century.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Anthropologist Jason De Leon Awarded MacArthur 'Genius' Grant

NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with anthropologist Jason de Leon, who was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in recognition of his work which shines a light on the human toll of U.S. immigration policies. His Undocumented Migration Project involves collecting artifacts left behind by migrants living and dead, from the Sonoran Desert.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Smithsonian Night Market Celebrates The Art Of Asian Cuisine

Food is central to culture, but museums often overlook it. So for their grand reopening, the Smithsonian's Asian art museums are giving center stage to cuisine from across Earth's largest continent.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

75 Years Later, A Look At The 'Life, Legend, and Afterlife' Of 'Casablanca'

Film historian Noah Isenberg revisits the making of the classic Hollywood film in his new book, We'll Always Have Casablanca. "Seventy-five years after its premiere, its still very timely," he says.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Noah Baumbach Explores Love, Resentment And Anger In 'The Meyerowitz Stories'

Baumbach's new film mixes comedy with deep emotional pain. It revolves around three adult siblings whose father is a self-absorbed sculptor. Baumbach's previous films include The Squid and the Whale.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Electrifying 'Power' Flips The Gender Script To Unsettling Effect

For most of recorded history, men have held power over women. Naomi Alderman's new novel imagines a world where women suddenly have power — actual electrical power — to oppress, hurt and kill men.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'The Apparitionists' Raises The Specters That Haunted America

Peter Manseau skillfully weaves together spirituality, technology and the legacy of the Civil War to tell the story of a "spirit photographer" on trial for claiming he could take pictures of ghosts.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Here Are The 2017 MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners

Jason De León, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Derek Peterson are among the 24 winners of this year's MacArthur Fellowship, which honors "extraordinarily talented and creative individuals."

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

More Women Allege Misconduct By Harvey Weinstein, Including Sexual Assault

The New Yorker spoke with 13 women who said they were sexually harassed or assaulted by the film executive, who was fired on Sunday. Three women said Weinstein had raped them.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'The Year I Was Peter The Great': A Young American In Soviet Russia

Marvin Kalb's new book is about a very interesting year — 1956 — that he spent on a diplomatic mission to what was then the U.S.S.R. It's part memoir, part context for understanding the Cold War.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

There's Good Stuff In 'Hirschfeld,' Despite Style Stumbles

Like a hidden NINA, there are great moments in Ellen Stern's hefty new biography of cartoonist Al Hirschfeld — but they're obscured by her off-puttingly glib tone and perpetual present tense.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Rules Of Magic' Blends The Charm Of The Familiar With New Enchantments

Alice Hoffman returns to the world of her best-selling Practical Magic in this new book, a prequel dedicated to the early lives and loves of the first volume's elderly aunts Francis and Jet.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Collection Puts A Playful, Pulpy Twist On Preposterous Stories About Obama

Fifteen writers riff on various wild conspiracy theories generated about President Obama over the years. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the sly short stories in The Obama Inheritance pack a punch.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Red Famine' Revisits Stalin's Brutal Campaign To Starve The Peasantry In Ukraine

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum explains how Stalin killed millions in the '30s by orchestrating a famine to suppress the nationalist movement and strengthen Russian influence in Ukraine.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Poet Rupi Kaur: 'Art Should Be Accessible To The Masses'

Rupi Kaur came to Canada from India when she was four years old and didn't learn English well for years; she says her raw, minimalist poems are tailored for readers like her, with limited English.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Q-Tip Says His New Kennedy Center Role Helps 'Institutionalize Hip-Hop'

A Tribe Called Quest frontman is the first artistic director for hip-hop culture at the Kennedy Center. He discusses the cultural levity of his appointment and the current political climate.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Agnes Varda And JR: The Cinematic Odd Couple Behind 'Faces Places'

Agnes Varda practically invented the French New Wave, and at 89 she's still working, co-directing a new film with artist JR about their travels through the French countryside in his photography van.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

USPS Honors Beloved Children's Book With New 'Snowy Day' Stamps

The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a "forever" stamp collection featuring illustrations from the 1962 children's book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

In 'Florida Project,' A First-Time Actress Plays A Single Mom Doing Her Best

Bria Vinaite landed the role after director Sean Baker discovered her on Instagram. "It was my first time reading a script," she says, "and it made me cry the first time I read it."

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Sunday, October 8, 2017

'Her Body And Other Parties:' Be Your Own Madwoman

Carmen Maria Machado's new collection takes young female online culture — LiveJournal and Tumblr, ghost stories and urban legends — and reinforce the uncanny power and reach of those stories.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

In 1960s New York, Witchy Women Learn 'The Rules Of Magic'

In Alice Hoffman's prequel to Practical Magic, two sisters uncover their family's supernatural gifts and curses while growing up in the city.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Taste Of Empire' Shows Us The World In Our Kitchen Cupboards

Lizzie Collingham's new book takes 20 exemplary British meals, from plain stewed beef to an elaborate Christmas pudding, and uses them to illustrate the way food and empire are inextricably linked.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Not My Job: We Quiz Conan Sidekick Andy Richter On 'Conan The Destroyer'

Conan O'Brien's longtime announcer gets to answer questions about the less-successful sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Conan The Barbarian.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

You're Going To Hate 'TheMystery.doc,' And That's OK

Matthew McIntosh's fractured and fracturing 1,600-page tale of a writer with amnesia and a missing manuscript isn't fun, and it probably isn't supposed to be. But it is magnificently weird.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Stunning New Biography 'Ali' Is The Portrait A Champion Deserves

Jonathan Eig's exhaustively researched new book paints a complex picture of Muhammad Ali, from his Kentucky childhood to his brilliant fighting style, his kindnesses, cruelties and eventual decline.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Kenan Thompson Becomes Longest-Serving Cast Member On SNL

With the start of this season of SNL, Kenan Thompson became longest-serving cast member in the show's history. So what's the secret to his longevity and making it click with the audience?

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'The Florida Project' Presents A Thrillingly Alive Portrait Of Childhood

Director Sean Baker's new film centers on a six-year-old girl living in a dumpy motel complex outside of Orlando. Critic Justin Chang says The Florida Project "packs an emotional wallop."

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

The Greatest Hits Of 'The Platinum Age Of Television'

"Television has really become where a lot of the action is right now," critic David Bianculli says. His new book revisits the best of the small screen. Originally broadcast Nov. 10, 2016.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Florida Project' Turns A Decrepit Corner Of Orlando Into A Cinematic Playground

Sean Baker's new film follows an adorably unstoppable 6-year-old and her barely more mature single mom living in the shadow of Disney World.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Unkindness Of Ghosts' Transposes The Plantation's Cruelty To The Stars

Rivers Solomon's novel is set on a giant generation ship, on an interstellar voyage of centuries, divided between the wealthy, light-skinned upper-deckers and the oppressed, laboring lower-deckers.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Amid Harassment Reports, Harvey Weinstein Takes Leave Of Absence

Weinstein, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, made the announcement following a New York Times report alleging that he sexually harassed employees and actresses for decades.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

In The Powerful 'Una,' A Woman Wants Vengeance — And More

In this "intelligently talky, properly claustrophobic chamber piece,' Rooney Mara plays a woman who confronts the man who sexually abused her when she was a girl.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

'Faces Places': A New Wave Filmmaker And A Mural Artist Tear Through France

Agnès Varda and JR co-direct this documentary, which follows their travels as they turn the lives of the people they meet into public art.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR

Stranded Without A Script: 'The Mountain Between Us'

Director Hany Abu-Assad's film, which stars Kate Winslet, Idris Elba and a cute dog, is prettily shot but blandly predictable.

Source: Arts & Life : NPR