History

Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson lost his firefighter father in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City. Davidson explores the loss of his father in the new dramatic comedy, The King of Staten Island. In it, he plays Scott, a fictionalized version of himself who's grieving after his father dies fighting a hotel fire. Director Judd Apatow calls the film a "hopeful story about somebody who starts opening up and getting support."

In The Splendid And The Vile, author Erik Larson details the British prime minister's first year in office, during which England endured a Nazi bombing campaign that killed more than 44,000 civilians.

In his new book, Let the People Pick the President, Jesse Wegman makes a case for abolishing the Electoral College. He notes that the winner-takes-all model means that millions of voters become irrelevant to a presidential election that is often decided by voters in key "battleground" states.

In a new book, lawyer/journalist Adam Cohen makes the case that the Supreme Court has been "a right-wing court for 50 years," siding with corporations and the wealthy — and against the poor.

In her memoir, Jill Wine-Banks talks about confronting Nixon White House insiders on the witness stand, enduring sexism in the courtroom and how the Watergate probe differs from Trump's impeachment.

In The Bomb, journalist Fred Kaplan reveals how U.S. presidents, their advisers and generals have thought about, planned for — and sometimes narrowly avoided — nuclear war.

Wash. Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker discuss presidential rages, erratic decision-making and other troubling tendencies of the Trump presidency. Their new book is A Very Stable Genius.

Bryan Stevenson has fought for racial justice within the justice system for over 20 years. His memoir Just Mercy has been adapted into a new film. Now Stevenson wants the U.S. to reckon with its racist past.

Journalist David Zucchino says Wilmington, N.C., was once a mixed-race community with a thriving black middle class. Then, in 1898, white supremacists staged a murderous coup that changed everything.

Charlize Theron talks about preparing for her role as former Fox news host Megyn Kelly, and about growing up in South Africa during Apartheid.

Previte, who died Nov. 16, spent 30 years working with at-risk youth and kids in detention in Camden, N.J. The center she ran became a national model. Originally broadcast in 1993.

Washington Post Beirut Bureau Chief Liz Sly has covered the Syrian civil war since it began in '11. "There is an inevitability that Russia is going to emerge as the dominant power in Syria," she says.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner talks how the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments relate to current debates about voting rights, mass incarceration and reparations for slavery.

Stephen Kinzer's new book 'Poisoner in Chief' is about the CIA's secret experiments with LSD in the 50s and 60s in search of a drug that could be weaponized to control the minds of enemies. It's also about the man who who led it.

In his new book, Gods of the Upper Air, Charles King tells the story of Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and the other 20th century anthropologists who challenged outdated notions of race, class and gender.

The Nobel laureate died Monday at 88. Terry Gross talked with Morrison in 1987 after she wrote Beloved, in 1992 after she authored Jazz and in 2015 when she published God Help the Child.

Baltimore is the setting for Laura Lippman's noir novels, including her popular Tess Monaghan series, and her new stand-alone novel 'Lady in the Lake.' Her new novel is set in the mid 60s but deals with issues that are still with us like racism, sexism, and homophobia.