Arts and Culture

Fresh Air

• Zack Hample, Baseball Fan Extraordinaire
  Is it ever acceptable for a pitcher to bean a batter intentionally? Baseball expert and obsessive fan Zack Hample gives the answer.
• Ricky Skaggs Returns To Roots Music
  Grammy-winner Ricky Skaggs is redoing his own country hits. On his latest album, <em>The High Notes</em>, the musician gives his older classics a bluegrass twist.
• The Secret Life Of The 'American Teen'
  Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new documentary <em>American Teen</em>. Directed by Nanette Burnstein, the film follows a group of seniors at a high school in Warsaw, Indiana.
• Ron Suskind Alleges War Fought On False Premises
  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind says that the war in Iraq was based not simply on blunders but on lies. His book, <em>The Way of the World,</em> accuses the Bush administration of burying critical information and forging a letter that linked Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks.
• 'Pineapple Express' Blazes Into Theaters
  Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new stoner-action comedy, <em>Pineapple Express</em> starring and co-written by Seth Rogen.
• Mike Chinoy On How North Korea Went Nuclear
  Journalist Mike Chinoy, author of <em>Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis</em>, discusses North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and America's attempts to stop their program.
• Summer Knight: Is Kingsley This Year's Rogen?
  Veteran actor rules the screen this summer, appearing in five features between June and August. Among his roles: a mystic in <em>The Love Guru,</em> a corrupt C.I.A. mastermind in <em>War, Inc.</em>, and a stoned shrink in <em>The Wackness</em>.
• Behind The Iron Curtain: Solzhenitsyn Remembered
  On August 3, Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn died of heart failure at age 89. Solzhenitsyn exposed the atrocities committed by the Soviet Gulag in his work, <em>One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich</em>. Fresh Air remembers the Nobel Prize winner.
• Randy Newman, Singing On 'Easy Street'
  Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews <em>Harps and Angels</em>, Randy Newman's first album in nine years.
• Hard Copy: Reporter Pens Killer Newsroom Novel
  As a journalist, John Darnton spent 40 years at <em>The New York Times</em>. As a novelist, he writes colorful mysteries. His newest murder yarn, set in a big-city newsroom that seems awfully familiar: <em>Black and White and Dead All Over</em>.
• Thomas Frank's Indictment Of Conservatism
  Why is it that government has expanded under an administration that claims to be against big government? Social critic Thomas Frank poses this question in his new book, <em>The Wrecking Crew</em>.
• Paul Anka: Once A Teen Idol, Now A Classic
  Last month, Paul Anka was given the 2008 Johnny Mercer Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Anka was a teen idol during the 1950s and 1960s, singing number-one hits like "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" and "Diana."
• For Neil Patrick Harris, Life's Far From 'Horrible'
  Everything may seem to go wrong for the villainous Dr. Horrible, but life's peachy for Neil Patrick Harris, the actor who plays the bumbling baddie in the eponymous Internet musical. He's moved on from life as Doogie Howser, M.D., and was recently nominated for an Emmy for his role in the sitcom <em>How I Met Your Mother</em>.
• Blues-Rock Virtuoso Lonnie Mack Rambles On
  Rock historian Ed Ward considers Lonnie Mack, who sings soulfully and plays a mean guitar. While his career has slowed since the 1960s, he's still chugging along, writing new material from his Tennessee log cabin.
• Seth Rogen, Looking Less Geeky These Days
  The <em>Pineapple Express</em> star often portrays less successful members of society &mdash; but he's hardly one of them. The actor and screenwriter has four Hollywood projects out this summer.

Driveway Moment

• This American Life
• Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen
• BBC Arts in Action