



The Nose looks at ‘The Secret Agent’ and ‘Network’
The Secret Agent (O agento secreto) is a neo-noir political thriller written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho. It’s set in Brazil in 1977, and it’s currently nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for its sta…

A look at the art of casting
This year’s Academy Awards will include the first-ever Oscar for Achievement in Casting. It’s the first new category in 25 years, since Best Animated Feature was added in 2001 (which inaugural award was won by Shrek). Casting, though, is seen as kind of an illusive, inscrutable art form. We feel l…

All Calls: You had me at consciousness.
We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to sneezing, the state of the union address, losers and losing, consciousness, Michael Poll…

A refresher on your rights and why they’re worth fighting for
This hour, we look at what rights individuals and protesters have. And we ask: are our rights changing? And what can we do about that? Plus, we take a look at what rights we have online, and what we should know about digital surveillance and privacy. GUESTS: Dan Barrett: American Civil Liberties …

Alissa Wilkinson on Joan Didion, Hollywood, and American mythmaking
This hour, author and film critic Alissa Wilkinson joins us to talk about Joan Didion, Hollywood, and how we make sense of our politics. GUEST: Alissa Wilkinson: Movie critic at The New York Times. Her latest book is We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine The Col…

Love, revenge, moors: why we’re haunted by ‘Wuthering Heights’
Is Wuthering Heights “the greatest love story of all time?” Or is it a tale of hate, violence, and vengeance? Or maybe a gothic satire? This hour we look at Emily Brontë’s novel and how it was received when it was published in 1847. Plus, a look at the highest-grossing movie of the year so far — …

The animating power of rivers with writer Robert Macfarlane
What would it mean if we treated rivers as alive? That's the question that nature writer Robert Macfarlane wrestles with in his latest book. What would happen if we took that aliveness seriously? How would we know what a river would want? Who would speak for it? These are questions that communities…

Shedding light on the mystery of Mary
Biblical scholar James Tabor says that Mary – the mother of Jesus – is “the best known, least known woman in history.” This hour, we’ll get to know Mary a little better and talk about why some people are obsessed with preserving her purity at the expense of her humanity. And, we talk with (The Reve…

All calls: Name a musician who is not from Connecticut
We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. This hour, the conversation winds around to musicians, politics, jobs, jou…

The Nose looks at ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ and ‘Hamnet’
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the third series in the A Song of Ice and Fire television franchise. It is set about 90 years before Game of Thrones and almost 80 years after House of the Dragon. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is created by Ira Parker and George R. R. Martin and based on the Tale…