NBC journalist Antonia Hylton spent more than a decade piecing together the history of Maryland's first segregated asylum, where Black patients were forced into manual labor. Her new book is Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum. 

Also, Ken Tucker reviews the new album The Interrogator from The Paranoid Style.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Inside A Jim Crow-Era Asylum

Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.

Subscribe to Fresh Air Plus! You'll enjoy bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening - all while you support NPR's mission. Learn more at plus.npr.org/freshair

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

TV & Film

Books

Filmmaker Roger Corman, the "King of the B" movies, died last week at the age of 98. He made hundreds of films, such cult classics as Little Shop of Horrors, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Last Woman on Earth, and The Cry Baby Killer. We feature our 1990 interview with him, and with those whose careers he helped launch – including actors Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern, as well as directors James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Jonathan Demme. And our critic at large, John Powers, has an appreciation.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Remembering Filmmaker Roger Corman

Wallace is known for his celebrity profiles, but his new memoir, Another Word For Love, is about his own life, growing up unhoused, Black and queer, and getting his start as a writer at the age of 40.

David Bianculli shares an appreciation of John Mulaney's six-part live Netflix talk show, Everybody's in L.A.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Writer Carvell Wallace On Pain, Processing & Letting Go

The Economist Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom explains why some Arab leaders hate Hamas, fear Iran and have some sympathy for Israel — although not for how Israel is waging the war.

For sponsor-free episodes of Fresh Air — and exclusive weekly bonus episodes, too — subscribe to Fresh Air+ via Apple Podcasts or here.


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Regional Complexities Of The Israel/Hamas War

Williams was thrust into the public eye as a kid, when he starred in Everybody Hates Chris. Now, playing a teacher on Abbott Elementary, he strives to make the child actors on set feel comfortable. He spoke with Tonya Mosley about the trauma of fame as a kid, his Crohn's diagnosis, and tuning out online chatter. 

Justin Chang reviews the Japanese film Evil Does Not Exist, by Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

'Abbott Elementary' Actor Tyler James Williams

Kathleen Hanna's band Bikini Kill was the epicenter of the riot grrrl feminist punk movement of the '90s. Their song "Rebel Girl" was the anthem. Now Hanna has a memoir (also called Rebel Girl) about her time in the punk scene, her childhood, and finding joy in expressing anger in public. 

Also, book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Claire Messud's new novel, This Strange Eventful History. 

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Inside A Jim Crow-Era Asylum

Download our free app to listen on your phone