How Tucker Carlson Became Right-Wing Media’s Most Significant Voice

President Trump calls global warming "a hoax." As the U.S. faces more severe storms and extreme weather events, New York Times climate reporter David Gelles describes what this means for climate change policy and shares what global leaders were saying at Davos. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

‘New Yorker’ staff writer Jason Zengerle says after Tucker Carlson was let go from CNN and MSNBC, and joined Fox News, Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy revived his career. “Those more prestigious Fox shows… they could not find camera-ready, intelligent human beings to go on their programs and make a sensible case for Donald Trump -- and Tucker was someone who could,” he tells Terry Gross. After Fox fired Carlson in 2023, he started his own streaming show and moved further to the right. Zengerle writes that Carlson’s story shows how conservative media has changed. His book is  ‘Hated By All The Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind.’ Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Heather Ann Thompson talks about the 1984 New York City subway shooting, when Bernhard Goetz, a white man, shot four Black teenagers. "We are watching someone tell us exactly who they are, exactly what they did, and it will not matter. Up will become down, down will become up. And that also felt very, very familiar to where we are today," she tells Tonya Mosley. Thompson argues reactions to the Goetz case helped fuel a politics of racial resentment that reshaped criminal justice, national policy and media narratives. Her book is 'Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage.'Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

When writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths married Salman Rushdie in 2021, she expected her wedding  day to be joyful. But the joy was invaded by tragedy, when she got the news her best friend had died. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed and nearly killed onstage. Griffiths describes that year in her new memoir, ‘The Flower Bearers.'Also, we hear from Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, writer of ‘In the Heights,’ ‘Water by the Spoonful,’ and the memoir ‘My Broken Language.’  Her new novel, ‘The White Hot,’ tells the story of a young mother who buys a one-way bus ticket and leaves her 10 year-old daughter behind. Plus, film critic Justin Chang reviews ‘Sound of Falling,’ which is shortlisted for an Oscar for Best International Feature.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

He’s the subject of a new two-part HBO documentary by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio called ‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ It looks at his origins in Brooklyn, his service in WWII, his EGOT-winning comedy career and lifelong friendship with Carl Reiner. We’re returning to our 1991 and 2001 interviews with Brooks. He told Terry Gross about why he loves mixing bad taste and high production value. Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews the Oscar-nominated German film ‘Sound of Falling.’ Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright has written a debut novel that asks a provocative question: What if a woman claimed the right to a spiritual quest like men have done for centuries in literature? 'The White Hot' follows a young mother from Philadelphia who walks away from everything to find herself. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about her antihero April, her collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda on 'In The Heights,' and her mother’s spiritual gifts. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the mystery novel ‘Even the Dead,’ by John Banville. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As protestors clash with some 3,000 federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities, we look at the legal issues with law professor Emmanuel Mauleón and Brennan Center for Justice's Elizabeth Goitein. "The principle that the military should not act as a domestic police force goes back centuries, all the way to the Magna Carta," Goitein says. "I think the reason for it is obvious: If a leader can turn the army inward against the people, that can be a very powerful instrument of tyranny and oppression."Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On the day Griffiths married author Salman Rushdie, her long time best friend died unexpectedly. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times while being interviewed on stage. In her new memoir, ‘The Flower Bearers,’ Griffiths examines her grief, healing, and living with Dissociative Identity Disorder. She spoke with Terry Gross. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Four years ago, Heather McGhee examined a question at the heart of American life: Why do so many Americans believe that progress for one group means loss for another? She traveled the country talking to factory workers, homeowners who'd lost everything, organizers, and scholars, trying to understand where that belief comes from, and what it costs us. This MLK Day, McGhee spoke with Tonya Mosley about this and how it comes on the heels of President Trump's comments that civil rights protections resulted in white people being “very badly treated.” McGhee’s book is ‘The Sum of Us.’  Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Jodie Foster has been acting since she was 3. At 12 she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver.’ This year marks the 50th anniversary of that film. Foster spoke with Terry Gross about her early acting career, including getting mauled by a lion on set. Her new film is ‘A Private Life.’  Tessa Thompson stars in the new Netflix murder mystery limited series ‘His & Hers’ and in Nia DaCosta’s adaptation of Ibsen’s ‘Hedda.’ She spoke with Tonya Mosley about navigating her biracial identity and why she has both “yes” and “no” tattooed.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy