Month: August 2025

A teacher’s students became enthusiastic about her summer side hustle. In the end, everybody learned something without even trying.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Slate senior editor Jenny Zhang about the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2, which broke box-office records even before its U.S. re-release.

It began on the edgy margins of a mainstream festival — which it’s now eclipsed. But nearly 80 years on, performers and spectators say rising costs threaten the Fringe’s alternative vibe.

(Image credit: Ewan Bootman)

Perkins, who died in 1998, wrote “Blue Suede Shoes,” the hit song sung by Elvis Presley, which became the first Sun label record to sell over a million copies. He spoke to Fresh Air in 1996.

Moore, who died in 2016, booked gigs for Presley during the early part of the musician’s career and later penned the memoir, That’s Alright, Elvis. He spoke in 1997 about recording “Blue Suede Shoes.”

Scrawled in pencil on a scrap of yellow legal paper by lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, the artifact is among dozens of treasures from The Wizard of Oz donated by composer Harold Arlen’s sister-in-law Rita Arlen.

(Image credit: Music Division)

Fans of silent film star Rudolph Valentino gathered at a Hollywood cemetery over the weekend to mark 99 years since his death.

In the real world, events happen in a linear order – but in the movies, they don’t have to. A look at the Rashomon effect, and how films handle complicating the narrative.

Lost actor Kim plays a spy who faked his own death in Butterfy. Justin Chang reviews the Spike Lee film Highest 2 Lowest. Somebody Somewhere actor Hiller got his big break after he was 40.

(Image credit: Mat Hayward)

Wisconsin’s Door County is a popular tourism spot on Lake Michigan, but for some locals the biggest attraction is the county’s baseball league. We went along to a game.