Fresh Air

Spielberg's new thriller centers on a massive U.S. conspiracy to hide the fact that aliens have been visiting Earth for decades. If anything, though, the movie's pleasures feel more retro than timely.

The biggest World Cup ever starts this week. Laura Williamson, editor in chief of The Athletic, describes how sky-high prices, travel restrictions, politics and the Ebola outbreak are impacting fans.

Fifteen years after The Book of Mormon made its Broadway debut, original cast members Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad once again took the stage as Mormon missionaries — this time at the 2026 Tony Awards.

Backrooms, by 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons, is set in a mysterious maze of abandoned offices. Curry Barker, 26, tells a horror story about consent and male loneliness in Obsession.

Javier Bardem is riveting in this 10-part Apple TV miniseries about a man who, recently released from prison, goes on to terrorize his former attorney.

Pope Leo's Black family roots inspired journalist Susan Saulny to research her Creole great-uncle who moved to Chicago, became white and didn't return. She describes her journey to reunite her family.

As a classics professor, Beard has spent her career pondering life in the ancient world. The central question of her latest book is: What on earth was it like to be there?

Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor spent years researching the racial slur, but never revealed that her father was the legendary comic who used it profusely. Her new book is Something We Said.

Though the 2026 festival featured less Hollywood razzle-dazzle than in years past, there were still plenty of great films. Most notable: All of a Sudden, from the Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.

Woodard says not giving up is the key to her long career. In the Netflix series The Boroughs, she plays a resident of a retirement community where something supernatural is preying on the residents.