Fresh Air Weekend: ‘Barbie’ casting director Allison Jones; Nazi jazz propaganda

James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini and Seth Rogen in Freaks and Geeks, left, and Issa Rae in Barbie.

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Getty Images / Warner Bros. Pictures

James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini and Seth Rogen in Freaks and Geeks, left, and Issa Rae in Barbie.

Getty Images / Warner Bros. Pictures

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

From ‘Freaks and Geeks’ to ‘Barbie,’ this casting director decides who gets on-screen: Allison Jones is known for casting actors who look like real people — and who are naturally funny. One of her hardest conversations? Telling Bob Odenkirk he didn’t get Michael Scott in The Office.

Lauren Groff’s survivalist novel ‘The Vaster Wilds’ will test your endurance, too: An impoverished servant girl escapes the fledgling Jamestown colony during the winter of 1609–1610 in a historical saga that takes its inspiration from Robinson Crusoe.

‘Swingtime for Hitler’ explores the Nazis use of jazz as a propaganda tool: Hitler’s Germany banned jazz, which was deemed degenerate music made by Jews and Black people. But NPR host Scott Simon says the Nazis repurposed jazz abroad to weaken British and American resolve.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

From ‘Freaks and Geeks’ to ‘Barbie,’ this casting director decides who gets on-screen

Lauren Groff’s survivalist novel ‘The Vaster Wilds’ will test your endurance, too

‘Swingtime for Hitler’ explores the Nazis use of jazz as a propaganda tool