WHYY - Fresh Air

In 2013, Edward Snowden showed journalists thousands of top secret documents about U.S. intelligence agencies' surveillance efforts. He's been living in exile in Russia ever since. His new book is 'Permanent Record.' Film critic Justin Chang reviews 'Ad Astra,' starring Brad Pitt. Andrea Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News and anchor of her own MSNBC show, looks back on her career in journalism. She's receiving a lifetime achievement Emmy on Sept. 24.

As the 'Downton Abbey' movie opens in theaters, we listen back to our interviews with the series creator Julian Fellowes and star Maggie Smith, who plays the Dowager Countess of Grantham. Film critic Justin Chang reviews 'Ad Astra,' starring Brad Pitt.

In 2013, Snowden showed journalists thousands of top secret documents about U.S. intelligence agencies' surveillance efforts. He's been living in exile in Russia ever since. "People look at me now and they think I'm this crazy guy, I'm this extremist or whatever. Some people have a misconception that [I] set out to burn down the NSA," he says. "But that's not what this was about. In many ways, 2013 wasn't about surveillance at all. What it was about was a violation of the Constitution." Snowden talks about his first hack as a preteen, why he decided to leak the documents, and his 40 days detained in the Moscow airport. His new book is 'Permanent Record.'

Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News and anchor of her own MSNBC show, looks back on her career in journalism. She's receiving a lifetime achievement Emmy later on Sept. 24. "It's very empowering to feel that you can ask questions and try to take on someone who is doing something wrong and betraying the public's trust," Mitchell says. Also, critic John Powers reviews the book 'Heaven, My Home,' by Attica Locke.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner talks about how current issues of racial inequality, voter suppression and mass incarceration relate to the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. They were added to the constitution after the Civil War and gave black men the right to vote, gave people equal protection under the laws, and granted citizenship to all people born in the U.S. His new book is 'The Second Founding.' Also, we remember pioneering NPR journalist Cokie Roberts, who died today at 75.