Movies I've Seen A Million Times
4:01 pm
Sat August 18, 2012

The Movie Simon West Has 'Seen A Million Times'

Originally published on Sat August 18, 2012 6:14 pm

The weekends on All Things Considered series Movies I've Seen A Million Times features filmmakers, actors, writers and directors talking about the movies that they never get tired of watching.

For director Simon West, whose credits include Con Air, The Mechanic and The Expendables 2, which opened in theaters this weekend, the movie he could watch a million times is the cult British film, Withnail and I. "I instantly fell in love with it," West says.

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Author Interviews
4:01 pm
Sat August 18, 2012

Soccer Star Hope Solo On Loving Lost Parents

Credit Drew Hallowell / Getty Images
Goalkeeper Hope Solo competes against China in Chester, Penn., on May 27. Solo took a gold medal home from this summer's London Games.

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 12:46 pm

Hope Solo is generally regarded as the best women's goalkeeper in the world. Fresh off winning her third-straight Olympic gold medal with the U.S. national team, Solo has been as busy off the field as on it, releasing an autobiography titled Solo: A Memoir of Hope.

The memoir details her rise as an international celebrity, but it also focuses on the complicated relationship she had with her father, who taught her to play soccer.

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Music Interviews
2:23 pm
Sat August 18, 2012

Rhiannon: An Improviser Resists The Urge To Reuse

Credit Courtesy of the artist
"There was this sensation of going on a journey together, without seat belts," says Rhiannon of her band's first totally improvised performance. Her newest album is called Spontaneous.

Originally published on Sat August 18, 2012 6:14 pm

If you ever listened to jazz vocalists and wondered if you could ever in your life scat like them, there's someone who's willing to teach you. The vocalist Rhiannon has long held the importance of improvisation as a personal credo, and in her career has blended that art form with jazz, world music and storytelling.

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Participation Nation
11:18 am
Sat August 18, 2012

Sitting With Books In Oklahoma City, Okla.

Credit Courtesy of Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones, children's librarian.

Some Oklahoma City parents use the Capitol Hill public library as a babysitting center. They drop children off when the library opens; they pick them up when it closes.

Certain librarians might see this as a nuisance. My girlfriend, Jennifer Jones — the children's librarian — sees it as an opportunity. And she is developing the Safari After-School Project, a program for the kids that includes mentoring and tutoring.

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The Picture Show
10:59 am
Sat August 18, 2012

A Photo Homage To The Working Class ... Of Animals

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 10:01 am

There are roughly 21 funerals a day at Arlington National Cemetery. The majority are simple graveside burials. But for those soldiers who have earned "full honors," the casket is brought to the grave by a team of horses pulling a caisson.

These horses are the subject of a new series of portraits by 35-year-old Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas now on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The horses seem sad, and Dumas says that's what drives her work.

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Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
8:56 am
Sat August 18, 2012

Comedian Mike Birbiglia Plays Not My Job

Credit Brian Friedman /

Stand-up comedian Mike Birbiglia gained fame with his wry and witty monologues on This American Life. Now, along with TAL host Ira Glass, he's made one of his stories into a new movie called Sleepwalk with Me.

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Fresh Air Weekend
8:03 am
Sat August 18, 2012

Fresh Air Weekend: Susie Arioli, Frank Langella

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 4:09 pm

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:

Jazz Vocalist Susie Arioli Goes 'All The Way': Listen to an in-studio concert and conversation with the Canadian singer and her longtime guitarist, Jordan Officer.

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Favorite Sessions
6:14 am
Sat August 18, 2012

The Devil Makes Three: Punk Ethos With A Country Twang

Credit Folk Alley

Originally published on Tue August 28, 2012 4:15 pm

Based on their instruments, they seem like an old-time string band; based on their appearance, they seem like they might play punk music. The answer lies somewhere in between. Pete Bernhard (guitar) and Cooper McBean (banjo) grew up in New England to parents who liked ragtime and old blues. The two moved to Santa Cruz temporarily, where they met Lucia Turino (upright bass), and The Devil Makes Three was born. (For our session, Adam Chilenski fills in for Lucia, who had a broken arm.)

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Asia
5:53 am
Sat August 18, 2012

Pakistani Televangelist Is Back On Air, Raising Fears

Originally published on Thu August 23, 2012 3:32 pm

As Pakistan's media has expanded in recent years, there's been a rise in Islamic preachers with popular TV call-in talk shows. And they've had their share of scandal. One famous TV host fled the country after embezzlement allegations. Others are accused of spewing hate speech.

That's the case for Pakistan's most popular televangelist, Aamir Liaquat, who's just been rehired by the country's top TV channel despite accusations that he provoked deadly attacks in 2008.

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Credit NPR

Leila Fadel is the Cairo Bureau Chief for NPR.

Before joining NPR, she covered the Middle East for The Washington Post. In her role as Cairo Bureau Chief she reported on a wave of revolts and their aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.

Prior to her position as Cairo Bureau Chief for the Post, she covered the Iraq war for nearly five years with Knight Ridder, McClatchy Newspapers and later the Washington Post. Her foreign coverage of the devastating human toll of the Iraq war earned her the George. R. Polk award in 2007.

Leila Fadel is a Lebanese-American journalist who speaks conversational Arabic and was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

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