Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 7, 2016: Interview with Maia Szalavitz; Review of novel Underground Airlines

Since its national debut in 1987, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been a highly acclaimed and much adored weekday magazine among public radio listeners. Each week, nearly 4.8 million people turn to Peabody Award-winning host Terry Gross for insightful conversations with the leading voices in contemporary arts and issues. The renowned program reaches a global audience, with over 620 public radio stations broadcasting Fresh Air, and 3 million podcast downloads each week. Fresh Air has broken the mold of 'talk show' by weaving together superior journalism and intimate storytelling from modern-day intellectuals, politicians and artists alike. Through probing questions and careful research, Gross's interviews are lauded for revealing a fresh perspective on cultural icons and trends. Her thorough conversations are often complemented by commentary from well-known contributors. Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR.
(1.) Journalist MAIA SZALAVITZ ("MY-ah Sal-LA-vitz") has been covering addiction issues for thirty years. She also had a heroin and cocaine addiction in her teens, but has long since been clean. In her new book Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, she writes about new research that considers addiction a developmental and learning disorder. She also writes that tough love, interventions, hitting bottom, and 12-step programs may not be the right approach to treating addiction. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).(2.) Book critic MAUREEN CORRIGAN reviews the new suspense novel Underground Airlines, by Ben H. Winters that imagines what life would be like now if Lincoln was assassinated before he took office, and some states were still allowed to maintain slavery.