Fresh Air

A former pro-wrestling executive, McMahon is now the education secretary Trump tasked with abolishing the agency. New Yorker writer Zach Helfand explains how her WWE experience led her to this role.

In Season 2 of Beef, Isaac plays Josh, a country club manager whose life is unravelling. He got into character by imagining how Victor Frankenstein would feel trapped inside Josh's "small life."

This TV adaptation of Rufi Thorpe's 2024 novel is a wild ride from start to finish. Its all-star cast includes Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman and Nicole Kidman.

In Steven Soderbergh's new dark comedy, Ian McKellen plays a famous painter, and Michaela Coel is an art restorer hired to infiltrate his home by his greedy grown-up children.

Peet is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Except last year there seemed to be three different shoes, as she faced her parents' deaths and a breast cancer diagnosis.

The war entered a new phase when President Trump began a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains what this means.

Nancy Foley's deviously-plotted novel centers on an aging artist in New Mexico. Brutally dismissive of anyone who disagrees with her, Agatha is a perfectly engaging (if unreliable) narrator.

Mary Fariba Afsari's book, Labor, is a portrait of reproductive healthcare in post-Dobbs America. Her book also is about her Iranian heritage and her grandmother's death from an illegal abortion.

Much of our image of Dylan derives from his early protest music, but Robert Polito's book makes the argument that the most recent 30 years of Dylan's career have been just as creative as the first 30.

In 2020, Annabelle Gurwitch went to urgent care for a COVID-19 test and learned she had cancer. She writes about life as a "cancer slacker" in her memoir, The End of My Life is Killing Me.