We start the new year with Barbra Streisand, and listen back to the interview we recorded in November. Throughout her career, her mother would send her bad reviews of her performances. The intention was to prevent Barbra from getting a "swelled head," but they also served as fuel for a woman who was determined to be a star. 

Later, book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Prophet Song, the novel that won the 2023 Booker Prize.

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Barbra Streisand

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In 2021, burnt out from the intensity of her early career, Maggie Rogers considered quitting music entirely. Instead, she took a detour — to Harvard Divinity School, where she earned a master's degree in religion and public life. Her new album is Don't Forget Me.

SNL alum Kristen Wiig co-stars with Carol Burnett in Palm Royale, an Apple TV+ series about a former pageant queen who wants to break into high society. Wiig talks about working with Burnett and the rush of SNL.

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Best Of: Maggie Rogers / Kristen Wiig

How do you get on with life after an accident that leads to disability and chronic pain? That's the central question in Andre Dubus III's novel, Such Kindness. He talks about the injuries he faced when he was a carpenter, and how his relationship changed with his father after the senior Dubus was struck by a car and never walked again. His previous books include Townie and House of Sand and Fog. 

Justin Chang reviews the Western film The Dead Don't hurt.

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Carrying On After A Life-Changing Accident

Yohance Lacour's Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast, You Didn't See Nothin', tells the story of Lenard Clark, a 13-year-old Black boy who was beaten into a coma by white teenagers, after riding his bike into a predominantly white neighborhood. Lacour talks about the importance of the case today, and how it shaped his life and the city of Chicago.

Also, John Powers reviews the film Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara. 

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Revisiting A Chicago Hate Crime And Its Aftermath

About 25 years ago, the acclaimed cellist asked a high school student to help him name his instrument. Yo-Yo Ma brings his cello — aka "Petunia" — to his conversation with Terry Gross. He talks about being a child prodigy, his rebel years, and straddling three cultures: American, French, and Chinese. 

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Yo-Yo Ma Says He's Living His Best Childhood Now

When journalist Rachel Somerstein had an emergency C-section with her first child, the anesthesia didn't work. She recounts her own experience and the history of C-sections in her book, Invisible Labor.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the last season of Evil. 

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Barbra Streisand

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