National and International News

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Aja Gabel's new novel has music cues for each new section. One of them is for Antonin Dvorak's "American" String Quartet in F, Op. 96, No. 12, which is performed in the opening of the book.

It's a love story, the famous violinist had said, and even though Jana knew it was not, those were the words that knocked around her brain when she began to play on stage.

It's a club no one wants to join, but many Americans these days find themselves automatically eligible for the "Bill of the Month" club.

Kaiser Health News and NPR began collecting people's health care bills for examination early this year. We have waded through roughly 500 submissions, choosing just one each month to decode and dissect. (If you'd like to submit your story or bill, you can do it here.)