Fresh Air

Raven Leilani's novel centers on a young woman with a free-range libido who dreams of being a painter. Lusteris a crackling debut about sex, art and the inescapable workings of race.

In Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the laws and practices that created a bipolar caste system in the U.S. — and how the Nazis borrowed from it.

This mordantly funny horror film opens on a young woman who awakens with a terrifying premonition of doom. She Dies Tomorrow feels surprisingly in tune with our present moment of unease.

More than 2,000 newspapers have shut down in recent years, and some regions have become news deserts. Washington Postcolumnist Margaret Sullivan says the collapse of local news undermines democracy.

Trethewey revisits her mother's murder in a new memoir. Kevin Whitehead reviews a newly unearthed album from drummer Art Blakey. Comic Mike Birbiglia and poet Jen Stein share parenting truths.

The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?host, who died July 24, held the Guinness World Record for clocking more hours on camera than anyone else in the history of TV. Originally broadcast in 2011.

Ross, who died July 21, was a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. She wrote "Twisted," which was recorded by both Joni Mitchell and Bette Midler. Originally broadcast in 1990.

A new comedy from The Muppets Studio features familiar characters and a few new ones. But the Disney+ series isn't nearly as funny as the original — and many of its sketches go on too long.

Swift's eighth studio album came as a surprise. In the isolation of the past months, she's cooked up a yeasty kind of sugar-free pop that rises above much recent music-making.

White Too Long author Robert P. Jones says churches should be more in vocal on issues of social justice: "White Christians have been largely silent ... and have hardly begun these conversations."

The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die,by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, centers on an Indian family haunted by a jealous ghost. And S. A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland is a noir thriller — with muscle cars.

About half of the Miami Marlins' roster has tested positive for COVID. ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian explains the challenges Major League Baseball faces as play resumes amid the pandemic.