Fresh Air

New York Times reporter Eric Lipton discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations into Trump's conflicts of interest and whether he's exploiting the power of the presidency for self-enrichment.

The fifth and final season of the HBO Max series Hacks is nominated for 24 Emmys, including one for Smart as best actress in a comedy series. The writers "raised the bar every single season," Smart says.

Daniel Mason's new novel is a spin on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which academics collide with locals — and a few seductive fairies — in the woods of Vermont.

Historian Micki McElya revisits one September afternoon in 1968, Atlantic City, when the Miss America pageant collided with a changing country. Her new book is Liberation Summer.

A 10-part HBO Max spin-off to The Big Bang Theory expands on that long-running sitcom by following a quartet of its characters. Every episode offers a new multiverse — and surprising cameos.

Classics scholar Emily Wilson says Christopher Nolan shouldn't have written The Odyssey himself. Whether he's appearing in Spider-Man, The Odyssey or The Bear, Jon Bernthal loves to "take it too far."

Olivia Wilde plays an artist who initiates a wildly inappropriate sexual relationship with her younger employee. But between the sex scenes, there are thoughtful conversations about age and intimacy.

Bennett, who died in 2023, was known for a string of hits, including "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Kevin Whitehead offers an appreciation and remembers some of Bennett's lesser-known songs.

Best-known for his band The Frames and his part in the 2007 film Once, Hansard got his start as a street busker in Dublin. He died July 29 in a motorcycle crash. Originally broadcast in 2008.

"Our grit and our dedication is the one thing that we have control of," Bernthal says. He plays a Spartan king in The Odyssey, and reprises his role as the Punisher in the new Spider-Man film.