Fresh Air

We look back at the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge in Idaho, where gunfire left two civilians and a deputy U.S. Marshal dead. Chris Jennings’ new book explores the apocalyptic religious beliefs that led Randy Weaver and his family to move to a remote cabin, armed to resist government intrusion. He traces the impact of Ruby Ridge on the spread of conspiratorial anti-government and white-supremacist movements. His book is ‘End of Days.’Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the memoir 'Dizzy,’ by Rachel Weaver.  

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Julia Loktev’s latest documentary, ‘My Undesirable Friends - Part 1: Last Air in Moscow,’ follows independent Russian journalists in the months leading up to, and just after, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The film has arrived in the U.S. at a moment when questions about press freedom feel newly present. “Every day it feels like there is something to bring the story home for Americans, where it almost feels like there’s Easter eggs in the film that become more and more relevant.” she says. Also, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Heather Ann Thompson revisits a 1984 New York City subway shooting, when Bernhard Goetz, a white man, shot four Black teenagers. In the days that followed, Goetz became  a hometown hero. “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.” Her book is ‘Fear and Fury.’ 

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Martin Scorsese's masterpiece about loneliness, urban decay, and vigilantism is 50 years old this month. We’re revisiting archival interviews about ‘Taxi Driver’ with Scorsese, screenwriter Paul Schrader and actors Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, and Al Brooks.Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews 'Pillion.'

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Julia Loktev's acclaimed documentary, ‘My Undesirable Friends,’ follows young Russian journalists in the months before and after Putin's invasion of Ukraine — and the impossible choices they face when dissent means prison or exile. Also, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead revisits a two-night set Miles Davis did in Chicago in 1965.

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Atlantic writer Robert Kagan says as President Trump violates norms, laws and the Constitution, including his call to nationalize elections, we’re on the edge of the consolidation of dictatorship. “I think we're already well into a dictatorship. It's just a question of whether [Trump] will go ahead and basically disrupt the '26 elections, which I think he's made it clear he has every intention of doing now,” Kagan tells Terry Gross. “So I think that this should be a five-alarm fire for everybody.”

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