Society & Culture

Thomas Friedman is a man bent on revolution. In his new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist writes about the need for a green revolution — and calls upon Americans to lead the charge.

Political scientist and author runs the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics at UCLA; he talks to Terry Gross about how Barack Obama's campaign is addressing issues touching on race and ethnicity.

When Sen. Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the Democratic presidential primary in June, she thanked her supporters for making "18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling. Political columnist Katha Pollitt discusses the historical significance of Clinton's presidential bid.

Journalist Joshua Green discusses the activities at the Democratic National Convention. Green is a senior editor at The Atlantic. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire and Rolling Stone.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new documentary American Teen. Directed by Nanette Burnstein, the film follows a group of seniors at a high school in Warsaw, Indiana.

As war continues and the economy sags, Maureen Corrigan recommends three historical works that provide insight into coping with trying times.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews Mad Men, the drama about advertising execs during the Kennedy years. Season two of the Emmy-nominated series begins on Sunday night on AMC.

Health care advocate Carol Levine has looked out for the interests of the housebound both at work and at home. For 17 years, she cared for her husband, who had been seriously injured in a car accident. He died recently, and Levine is left coping with a renewed sense of loss.

From the telegraph to the typewriter to the text message, every new technology inspires rhapsodies about the effect it'll have on language — especially the language of the young. Geoff Nunberg points out that language — and the young — somehow manage to survive.

The man behind Nemo and Wall-E has warmed hearts with his unlikely heroes — a clownfish? A sentient trash compactor? He tells Terry Gross about finding inspiration in unlikely places, and in everyday objects.

Artist Don Bachardy was a teenager when he met then middle-aged novelist Christopher Isherwood on a California beach. But the two had a romance that lasted until Isherwood's death in 1986. Their relationship is the subject of the documentary Chris and Don: A Love Story.

Martinis, misogyny and men behaving badly: AMC's drama series remembers an era's excesses in stunning style. The setting: a Manhattan ad agency, circa 1960. The first season has just been released on DVD.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the life and language of the late comedian George Carlin, who died last month.

Pixar has always focused on loss, decay, and the dark side of materialism. Here that theme extends to the ruination of the planet — and Wall-E ranks among the most sublime feature-length works of animation ever made in this country.

The debut short-story collection by Nigerian writer and Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan offers a sobering view of a world in which atrocity is commonplace, and the unthinkable is the everyday.

Singer and actress Kelli O'Hara has received three Tony nominations in as many years. She currently stars in the crowd-pleasing revival of South Pacific.

Her father was Louis Armstrong's music director and a noted bandleader in his own right; her mother was a member of the iconic International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Critic Nat Hentoff says that pedigree — and her own unmistakable chops — make Cat Russell "the real thing" in a crowd of jazz wannabes "who couldn't lasted through a chorus in a contest with Ella Fitzgerald or Betty Carter."

Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow performs three songs from her new album, Detours, plus a portion of a song from an early album that she persuaded the record company not to release.