Huge swaths of the country are pivoting from fossil fuels, toward wind, solar and other renewables. New York Times climate reporter Brad Plumer discusses this progress and the roadblocks that lie ahead.

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Poet and writer Safiya Sinclair grew up in a devout Rastafari family in Jamaica where women were subservient. When she cut her dreadlocks at age 19, she became "a ghost" to her father. Her new memoir is How to Say Babylon.

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When it comes to biological and medical research, female bodies have historically been under-studied. Author Cat Bohannon traces the female body through evolutionary history in her new book, Eve. She talks about how women process opioids and painkillers differently, human menstruation, and the difference between male and female brains.

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Music producer and DJ Jennifer Lee — aka TOKiMONSTA — underwent two brain surgeries in 2016 that temporarily stripped her of her ability to understand words or music. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about that life-altering experience and being in the male-dominated field of electronic music.

Also, Kevin Whitehead shares an appreciation of tenor saxophonist Von Freeman.

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In her new memoir, comedian Leslie Jones writes about being on Saturday Night Live – and the years she spent working odd jobs to get by before she was famous.

Ken Tucker reviews Allison Russell's new album, The Returner.

Award-winning actor, producer, and activist Kerry Washington also has a new memoir. In Thicker Than Water, she examines her life, career and the discovery of a secret about her origins that her parents revealed to her just a few years ago.

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Scottish actor David McCallum played an eccentric medical examiner on the CBS crime series NCIS, but he found fame nearly 60 years ago in his role as Russian agent Illya Kuryakin on the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He died Sept. 25 at age 90.

Also, we feature our interview with Allen Ginsberg. A tribute album of musical interpretations of his poems will be released next week.

Film critic Justin Chang reviews the new futuristic action thriller The Creator.

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The secretive company Clearview AI scans unidentified faces, and finds a match in their database of billions of photos. The pics are scraped from websites and apps, including Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, without the companies' permission. NYT tech reporter Kashmir Hill found that once your face is identified for a client, Clearview can quickly connect the client to a lot of information about you. Chances are your face is in Clearview's database, without your knowledge or permission. Clearview's clients include many police departments and some government agencies. Hill says it could spell the end of privacy. Her new book is Your Face Belongs To Us.

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Russell talks and sings about the physical and sexual abuse she endured from her racist adoptive father — and about how she learned she was worthy of being loved. Her new album is The Returner.

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Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb says cars are killing animals, while highways cut off them off from their food sources and migration paths. His new book about road ecology is Crossings.

Maureen Corrigan reviews C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey.

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Award-winning actor and producer Kerry Washington was an adult when she learned that she had been conceived via artificial insemination and the man she considered her father was not her biological dad. Her new memoir about her journey of self-discovery is Thicker than Water.

Also, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead celebrates Sam Rivers on what would've been his 100th birthday.

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