Fresh Air Weekend: James Gray, Siddhartha Mukherjee and the best books of 2022

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:

‘Armageddon Time’ director explores how the world is ruined by ‘well-meaning people’: James Gray’s new film was inspired by his childhood in Queens in the 1980s. Though his grandparents had fled antisemitism in Ukraine, his family didn’t recognize their own biases against Black people.

Maureen Corrigan’s favorite books of the year: 10 disparate reads for a hectic 2022: Some years, this annual book list falls into a pattern: like stand-out memoirs or dystopian fiction. But 2022 could not be contained, and these titles sprawl all over the place in subject and form.

A cell biologist shares the wonder of researching life’s most fundamental form: Physician Siddhartha Mukherjee explains how cellular science could lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, HIV, Type 1 diabetes and sickle cell anemia. His new book is The Song of the Cell.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

‘Armageddon Time’ director explores how the world is ruined by ‘well-meaning people’

Maureen Corrigan’s favorite books of the year: 10 disparate reads for a hectic 2022

A cell biologist shares the wonder of researching life’s most fundamental form