From relentless campaigning to snubs and speeches, the Academy Awards have often reflected a cultural conflict zone. Michael Schulman sifts through the controversies in his book, Oscar Wars. Maureen Corrigan reviews The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Actress Molly Ringwald came to represent '80s teen angst after starring in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. She's now in the new series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, about the high society women that Truman Capote loved and betrayed. Also, we hear from another actor who got her start as a teen — Busy Philipps. In the '90s, she played tough girl Kim Kelly in Freaks and Geeks. Philipps' latest project is the movie musical Mean Girls where she plays a mom trying to be young and cool. John Powers reviews the new Vim Venders film Perfect Days. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Sterling K. Brown won an Emmy for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in The People v. O.J. Simpson, and another for This Is Us. He's now nominated for an Oscar for his performance in American Fiction. Colman Domingo is also nominated, for his role in the biopic Rustin as Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader responsible for organizing the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was forced into the background because he was gay. Justin Chang reviews Drift, starring Cynthia Erivo. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

How is New York City coping with the 175,000 migrants from the Southern border? New York Times reporter Andy Newman says the city's legal mandate to provide shelter to any who need it is being tested by a stream of migrants — some of whom were sent on buses by Southern governors. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

We remember Peabody award-winning broadcast journalist Bob Edwards, who died on Saturday at the age of 76. He was the first and longest-serving host of NPR's Morning Edition, from the show's inception in 1979 until 2004. Terry Gross recorded two interviews with Edwards. Also, John Powers review Perfect Days, the new film from director Wim Wenders. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Ruffalo plays a debauched cad in Yorgos Lanthimos' bawdy, dark comedy Poor Things. The role was a big departure from his previous work playing real people in dramas like Spotlight or Foxcatcher, or as the Incredible Hulk in the Marvel movies. The Oscar-nominated actor spoke with Sam Briger about these roles, how he got his start in acting, and how a brain tumor changed his life. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Molly Ringwald became a film icon in the '80s after starring in a trio of films: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. "I don't like to use the word iconic because it's overused — but they really are. Those films are really iconic," she tells Tonya Mosley. Now she's in the new Ryan Murphy series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, about the high society women that novelist Truman Capote loved and betrayed. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Journalist Michele Norris has spent the last 14 years collecting what she describes as "an archive of the human experience" with The Race Card Project. She wanted to see how Americans really talk and think about race, so she asked people to share their thoughts in six words. Norris adapted the project into a memoir called Our Hidden Conversations. Also, we'll hear from Kai Wright, host of the WNYC podcast Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when so little was known about HIV, and so much was misunderstood. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

We remember Wayne Kramer, the guitarist of the late '60s proto-punk band MC5. The revolutionary band's idols were the Black Panther party, Malcolm X and John Coltrane. Kramer died last week at 75. He spoke with Terry Gross in 2002. Also we listen back to our 1988 interview with actor Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies. He died at 76. Justin Chang reviews the French film The Taste of Things. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Award-winning ProPublica reporter Topher Sanders has spent the last two years investigating America's aging freight train system. He says the Federal Railroad Administration monitors "less than 1% of what's happening on the rails." Sanders talks about the toxic East Palestine, OH derailment, the prevalence of blocked railroad crossings, and why railway safety legislation is yet to be passed. Also, rock critic Ken Tucker shares three new songs. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The civil rights leader Medgar Evers is maybe more known for his assassination in 1963 than the work he did to fight for voting rights and desegregation. MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid tells the story of Medgar and his wife Myrlie in a new book. Evers was the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, a state that lynched more Black people than any other. The risks of the job created a lot of tension in their marriage — and after Medgar's death, Myrlie's fury drove her to be an activist herself. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

When Mark Daley and his husband, Jason, became foster parents to two brothers, they fell in love with the children right away. But Daley and his husband also know that their family could change at any moment. Eventually, the boys were reunified with their biological parents. Daley's memoir is Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family. Daley talks about the foster care system at large, as well as the joy and pain he and Jason experienced as foster parents. Also, TV critic David Bianculli reflects on Curb Your Enthusiasm, as it enters its 12th and final season. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy