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Fresh Air Weekend: 'Barbie' casting director Allison Jones; Nazi jazz propaganda

James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini and Seth Rogen in <em>Freaks and Geeks, </em>left, and Issa Rae in <em>Barbie.</em>
Getty Images / Warner Bros. Pictures
James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini and Seth Rogen in Freaks and Geeks, left, and Issa Rae in Barbie.

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:

From 'Freaks and Geeks' to 'Barbie,' this casting director decides who gets on-screen: Allison Jones is known for casting actors who look like real people — and who are naturally funny. One of her hardest conversations? Telling Bob Odenkirk he didn't get Michael Scott in The Office.

Lauren Groff's survivalist novel 'The Vaster Wilds' will test your endurance, too: An impoverished servant girl escapes the fledgling Jamestown colony during the winter of 1609–1610 in a historical saga that takes its inspiration from Robinson Crusoe.

'Swingtime for Hitler' explores the Nazis use of jazz as a propaganda tool: Hitler's Germany banned jazz, which was deemed degenerate music made by Jews and Black people. But NPR host Scott Simon says the Nazis repurposed jazz abroad to weaken British and American resolve.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

From 'Freaks and Geeks' to 'Barbie,' this casting director decides who gets on-screen

Lauren Groff's survivalist novel 'The Vaster Wilds' will test your endurance, too

'Swingtime for Hitler' explores the Nazis use of jazz as a propaganda tool

Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.