Terry Gross

Freedom Summer, now streaming on PBS, focuses on the 1964 movement to get Black people to vote in Mississippi. Director Stanley Nelson and organizer Charles Cobb discussed the film in 2014.

The Catholic nun became an opponent of the death penalty following the events in her book Dead Man Walking. She details her spiritual journey in River of Fire. Originally broadcast Aug. 12, 2019.

The HBO show uses sci-fi and superheroes to examine American racism. Cord Jefferson wrote the episode in which the main character goes back in time and to relive the trauma of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre.

Nunberg became a contributor to Fresh Air in 1987. He wasn't interested in scolding people for not following the rules; he wanted to explore how language changes over time. He died Tuesday at 75.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are frequently seen as opposing forces in the struggle for civil rights but Peniel Joseph, author of The Sword and the Shield, says the truth is more nuanced.

"Female characters are not [usually] the center of the story," filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood says. Her new movie follows a diverse group of world-weary warriors who've been alive for centuries.

Hamill, who died Aug. 5, was a columnist and editor at the New York Post and the New York Daily News, covering wars, crime and the people of NYC's boroughs. Originally broadcast in '94, '08 and '11.

Toobin's new book, True Crimes and Misdemeanors, examines how Trump and his team outmaneuvered special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller, he says, gave Trump "a free pass" on obstruction of justice.

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.

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.

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."

When Natasha Trethewey was 19, her stepfather killed her mother. Tretheway says she aimed to "forge a new life for myself that didn't include that past." Her new memoir is Memorial Drive.

In the memoir, The New One, comic Birbiglia and his wife, Jen Stein, open up about his ambivalence about fatherhood and the strain it had on their marriage.

In a career spanning four decades, Dickey authored seven books and reported from more than 40 countries, often covering war, conflict and espionage. He died July 16. Originally broadcast in 1998.

Mary Trump was devastated when her uncle was elected president. Her book, Too Much and Never Enough, describes Donald Trump as a "belligerent" youth who hasn't changed since he was a teen.

In the HBO drama, a young woman is drugged and sexually assaulted — and then must piece together what happened to her. Coel wrote, directed and stars in the show, which is based on her own experience.

"I saw firsthand how police and prosecutors manipulate evidence, coerce witnesses into giving false testimony," says Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries. His memoir is When Truth is All You Have.

Lewis, who died July 17, grew up the son of sharecroppers. He later became an associate of Martin Luther King and co-led the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Ala. Originally broadcast in 2009.

The late J.L. Chestnut was the first Black lawyer in Selma, Ala. He was working with the NAACP at the time of the city's 1965 civil rights march. In 1990, he spoke to Fresh Air about Bloody Sunday.

Trejo has played menacing characters on Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy. The documentary, Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo, chronicles his years in prison. Originally broadcast March 14, 2018.