Benicio del Toro

We are making some bold predictions for Hollywood's biggest night and we may help you win your

Oscar's pool. Listen to pop culture happy hour in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air, I'm David Beancoolie. Benicio Del Toro, an actor who has made a career out of playing complex, morally ambiguous characters, is nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in the Paul Thomas Anderson film one battle after another. Del Toro plays Sergio St. Carlos, a karate instructor and leader of

an immigrant rescue operation. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a member of a far-left

revolutionary group, the French 75. He's burned out and has been living off the grid for 16 years

raising his daughter Willah. Her mother, who also was a revolutionary, fled to Mexico when Willah was a baby. Let's listen to a clip from the film. In this scene, Benicio Del Toro as Sergio is in his karate studio when he gets a call warning him that the authorities are coming after the migrants hiding in the building where he lives. While on the phone he gets a knock at the door, it's Bob. He's trying to contact his daughter, who's in danger.

Yes, I'm going to cause bronzer and I'll call you back. Okay, bye. We gotta go. I need a weapon, man.

“Oh, you got a gun. You're going to work. You're going to work. You're going to work. What's going on?”

Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you? Can you? What? We'll bust it open

my door. We're coming after me and Willah right now. Right now. That's heavy metal, bro. Hey. Where is she? I don't know. I got to charge my phone to find out. Here. Use my phone. Can't. I can't. They'll trace that phone. I got to use my phone. Let's do that on my place. Have we got to go? You're a place? Yeah. You got to gun in your place? I'll get you a gun. You have a gun, right?

Yes. Okay. Right now. It's a gun round up. I got to deal with this. Okay. Yeah. I'll just take that to go. Let's go to your place. Let's go to your place. Charge my phone. You got to gun there. Go, go, go, go, go, go. Get up, get up. That's a tummy. Okay? Listen. Breathe. All right. Okay? Whoop. Oh, she's a waves. Oh, she's a waves. Let's go. Let's go. I'll follow you. Whoop.

In the year 2000, Benicio Del Toro received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in traffic. In that movie, he portrayed a Mexican police officer forced to decide whether to uphold justice or compromise his ethics in a corrupt system. In this iconic scene, he meets up with United States DEA agents. They want information about his new boss, a corrupt drug pin. Del Toro's character is nervous when he meets up with the agents in a car at a parking

garage. So he suggests they change locations and have the meeting in a public place. A hotel's swimming

“I believe he's important that we work together in Mexico and the United States, one hand”

watching the other. We agree. So maybe you can tell me about your information out of relations. We thought that maybe you'd have that kind of information for us. This is a very different proposition. We pay for that kind of information. Is that what you're talking about, Aviat? I don't even pay.

I like baseball. Baru. We mean, nice really parks. So kids can play at night. So the safe. So they've completed baseball. So they know we'd come to the hospital as well as everybody like baseball. Everybody likes parks.

“This, I believe is important that the United States can interest him to one hand now.”

I just want talking about my friends.

to play the drug-fueled lawyer, Dr. Gonzo, starring alongside Johnny Depp in fear and loathing in Las Vegas.

“And he won best actor at Can for his role as Che Guevara in Che.”

His other films include Basqueot and 21 grams and he starred in the Showtime series Escape from Donomora. Last year, Del Toro starred in the West Anderson film The Finesian Scheme. He played Jaja Corda, a charismatic but morally complicated tycoon of the 1950s, who, after surviving in a assassination attempt, tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter. A novice none played by Mia Threpleton.

This is the second West Anderson film for Del Toro. In 2021, he starred as a volatile, imprisoned artist

in the French Dispatch. We're going to listen to Tanya Mosley's interview with Benicio Del Toro from last year. She asked him about the Finesian Scheme. You know, I read that West Anderson wrote this character with you in mind. You are essentially in every shot. And I want to give the audience a taste of your character. As I mentioned, his name is Jaja Corda and he's this powerful industrialist from the 1950s, whose

conscience is kind of awakened by his relationship with his estranged daughter. And in this scene, I'm about to play. The two of them are on Corda's private plane alongside Michael Sarah, the family tutor. Let's listen. We're starting our dissent. Prepare your documents before we

de-planes, so you never delayed my schedule. Passports. Pass yours. I don't have a passport.

Normal people want the basic human rights that accompany citizenship in any sovereign nation. I don't. My legal residence is a shack and portraitual. My official domicile is a hut on the Black Sea. My certificate at a boat is a lodge perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Sub-Saharan Ring Forest accessible only by Goatbath. I don't live anywhere. I'm not a citizen at all. I don't need my human rights. That was my guest today, Benicio del Toro in the new West Anderson

filmed the Phoenician scheme. And Benicio, that line, I'm a man who does not need his human rights.

“What a lie. It is a great line. How would you describe this man this character that you inhabit it?”

Ruthless businessman, a tycoon, a rascal, who is looking for redemption, whether he knows it

or not. He's a character under reconstruction in a way. So that's the beginning of the character and the character has an arc. And wherever he starts in the movie, he will end up in a completely different place. And he's faced with mortality. He starts to look at his life in a different way. And because of the help of his daughter, like you said earlier, his daughter helps him put him in track and perhaps awaken his consciousness. You and West Anderson actually collaborated on this.

And I was thinking about what it actually means to have a director right a role tailor made for you. Like is there something about the moral dilemmas your character is dealing with that West Anderson felt only you could draw out? You know, West is a great director. And we know him as a director. And we know his films. But really he is maybe a better writer. And what I met by that is like

“I think actors look for characters that are layered and by that I mean make contradict themselves.”

They break the stereotype. Let's put it that way. If they contradict themselves. And then you know when you get a character that has an arc like Jaja in the Phoenician scheme has a hell of an arc, then as an actor you're doing interpretations right? So now you're almost in the cockpit of the character and of the story. You're part of this of what's happening and you're you're looking at the arc and you're making sure that it that is believable

where the character is going to end up. So it's a real rich character to tackle. So much is said about West Anderson's aesthetic. I think the description you gave

Adam Stockhausen. He's worked with West I think most of his films and they collaborate amazingly and these things come to life and it's like you're in fantasy land but you're in

“real fantasy land. What was it like for you as an actor being in sort of like a real pop-up book?”

Because when you're performing of course they're all different types of sets but I mean this is very very different almost maybe the complete opposite of maybe a big franchise film with CGI and visual effects you're actually in it. Everything around you is real. Yeah yeah West doesn't

use CGI that much. I don't think so. I think very little really. But first thing you're trying to

if you do film or you train yourself is to erase the camera is not there and when you find yourself in the moment and you're acting the set will not get in the way. The camera is not going to get in the way. What does happen in West Anderson film is when you walk in the set will embrace you to really feel that you are in this room and this dining room and this airplane and the details are makes it really exciting but when it comes to when they say action you just got to be

in the moment and usually being in the moment means you take everything around you for granted you know

“so it's a combination you know but the fact is that when you walk on the set and there were many”

sets on this film it was one wow after another. You mentioned Mia Threpleton who plays your daughter and really your relationship is the core of this entire film and watching as you mentioned the evolution of you and kind of your redemption arc. You tell this story about her auditioning for the role that there was something in her eyes it was something about her eyes that made you feel that your character needed those eyes that look can you elaborate on that. Well you know yes I think West

had her in mind already because we only auditioned her. I was in London and we did a reading and then we you know we started playing a little bit and there was a moment there we in between scenes we're doing a scene and then just when we finished I kept my eyes on her eyes and and she kept her eyes on

my eyes and we kind of looked at each other and no one blinked and and it was pretty amazing to see such

a young actress you know just hold her instrument you know just everything just there and just kind of like she was just looking at me and didn't blink and I remember telling West like you know

“I think that's what jaja needs he needs a strong support if he's gonna become a better person.”

You had this relatively small role but and it was at the beginning of the film you played Fred Finster he was the small-time crook and con man around it up like with a bunch of other guys and you made this choice it wasn't called for in the script to give this character a mumbling accent and I want us to take a listen of this because in this scene you've just gone through this lineup with several other guys and you're now in a holding cell and and your characters complaining let's listen

so I did a little time that means I get ready all the time I'll try to find whoever Finster were you relax you guys don't have any probable cause you know right no PC now got

the right you do sometime I never let you go you know it tricked me like a criminal I end up

a criminal you are a criminal I want you guys going to die trying to make a point that is my guest today vinesio del Toro in the 1995 film the usual suspects vinesio you you chose this accent to make him memorable because he was actually one of the first to die I think it's what a bold choice for a young actor you know it was a decision made between the director of myself because it's correct I died on page 37 out of like 98 pages so I did

they trusted me that was the win there when they trusted me because now I just how to deliver

where did you get the accent from I got it from many different influences Joe Frazier

“the boxer yeah yeah yeah the lonius monk yeah yeah and I would play with it you know the fact is that”

the movie became a huge success and you're only as good as your movie in a way you know I think that the fact is that that movie helped my career quite a bit and the part but the fact is that there was a great ensemble in that film and the movie was a huge success at the box office it was very independent we shot it in 21 days or 20 days and it was and you know it's like it's it's a sign of like your only as good as your movie I mean I think if that movie would have not been

a success the way it was we might not be talking about that my character in it I want to go back way back to some of those early days when you were an aspiring actor moving into some of your early roles so I know earlier in your career you studied with Stella Adler who she is famously known for teaching Marlon Brando and James Dean what became known as method acting and I know there's so much there Benicio but what do you remember the most about that experience of being in

her class and learning from her? It changed my life studying with her or her studio I studied under several teachers and one whose name was Arthur Mendoza in Los Angeles and she would come on the for summer and winter and teach and I remember you know taking those classes and it was legendary but I think one of the things that she was really particular was the fact that the actor

“needs to understand what the writer is trying to say so you need to improve your reading comprehension”

also the other thing that was exciting about the class was the fact that it was a serious job an actor is as important as a doctor. Did you go on into the class believing that?

Well I never really thought about it really to be honest with you I don't come from a family of

theater you know I did watch movies when I was younger than like anybody else but I never thought about what was behind it and acting was looked at as you know not really a profession that's something that you would consider a real profession and my world as I was growing up you know a profession would be being an architect being a lawyer being a doctor because your family were intentional people right in Puerto Rico yes yes yes many of my family members were lawyers and my godmother

who after I lost my mom when I was nine she was the one who's stepped in and you know kind of like helped a lot you know so and she was a lawyer as well so yeah so but acting was like a hobby you know you don't turn that into a profession so when when going into Stella for me was like it is as important as any other profession that we consider important there was a respect for the craft it made it exciting for me it made me feel proud

she also told you something like go to the lines last so don't go to the lines before you understand who the character is I just thought that was interesting too yeah she told every actor

“don't go to the lines right away because it's crucial that you need to understand why that”

character that person wants you need to understand where that character you know is coming from

where it's going and so the first way to understand it is just put yourself in that person's shoe

and then from then on you can then build and create a character that maybe eventually doesn't

was that if you go to the words first and you're concentrating just on the words and you're not

“going into the psychological aspect of who that person is. Benicio del Toro speaking with Tanya Mosley”

last year after a break we'll continue their conversation and we have two TV reviews I'll review the new Nicole Kidman series Scarpeda based on the novels by Patricia Cornwell and critic at large John Powers reviews the Netflix series how to get to heaven from bell fast I'm David being coolie and this is fresh air you mentioned your mom passing when you were nine and I've actually think I've heard you say that really from a very young age you were thinking about mortality

because at that young age you guys knew that that she was dying it's a powerful lesson for a

young child to be faced with and to to know and and have to learn and understand. I don't know if

“you ever really understand it really you know I mean just marks you forever it's just part of who you”

are and I don't know if you really get over it I I had an interesting meeting with a Japanese filmmaker name is a connectosindo and he was I met him he was about 97 years old and in our conversation he lost his mom when he was nine just like me and that when he was 72 he made a movie about his mother and I asked him that after making that movie did anything change regarding that loss and he said nothing and you know basically what I'm saying is like you

never get over it yeah no it's just what it is it's just what it is it's just what it is

was it your brother who kind of planted that seed in you that maybe you could be an actor he did mention something like that and you know I don't know why he saw the ham in me I don't know I guess I you know yeah he did he did mention it at some point like it but it was really strange because it was like I would have that come from and you know I never did any acting how I fell into acting was like this I went to San Diego University of California San Diego my freshman year

and you could make your own schedule and I decided wow I can make it really easy for me you know I could just hang around and write a bike around and just hang about you know and I there was an acting class I think it was called acting 101 just like that and I said how can I fail that and if there's homework it's going to be watching movies which I already do so look pretty easy to me so I went in and the teacher said that everyone here is 18 years old or 19 and that's the

right age to study acting because you you have a little bit of an understanding already about life and so this is the right age to study it and that clicked that was kind of like I still remember and the feeling was like there's a logic to this there's a science to this and also the fact like am I on time I thought if you were an actor you had to be born into acting and just like a

“musician you need to start playing when you're like you're not playing you know you need to start”

you need to come from a family of musicians you know or or you need to come from a family of of theater people and actors and it was kind of strange that it was like hey this is the right time to start and I took the class and then I started realizing that there was a logic to it you can start yet and you can get better you mentioned your godmother seratoras parotta she was also your mom's really good friend she's she's the big reason that you came from Puerto

Rico here to the States to to go to private boarding school in Pennsylvania yes how different was Pennsylvania from your life in Puerto Rico I wanted into a control environment to an extent I went to private school a boarding school and what I do remember is suddenly I was alone but the

healthy for new thoughts there were no clicks I made friends with the basketball players because I played basketball but for the most part everybody was an equal footing and also you would find yourself

“alone which is also healthy I think in Puerto Rico I had my pussy my friends and I was never”

alone you know and here in Pennsylvania for the first time it's like and you start looking in

and you start having different thoughts and new ideas might come in and it was healthy that way and I quickly made friends and you know I made a lot of friends and and played basketball and made a lot of friends there I had you know I spoke English before I went to the school but had a thick accent but playing basketball created a language right there and I think music also

“you have the ability to kind of transform and be ambiguous ethnically and it seems to work in your”

favor but has it always worked in your favor you know it's interesting because

the first time I ever acted in Spanish was in traffic I mean I did say lines in Spanish in Basquilla and I might have said something in Spanish in a James Bond movie I did call licensed to kill when I was 20 but for the most part you know the the whole ethnic thing was not out until I did traffic and suddenly the ethnic thing the Hispanic helped me create a character and help my career and change my career really and it was traffic

so it's funny because you know when I was going out for movies early on I would be asked to change my name because I would be limited it was an issue that you would be limited to play Latino roles right and so you went against it because you'd be limited to stereotypes and at some point I said bring it on because I do believe everyone is different and I will play every Latino different if I have to play Latino for the rest of my life in a way like I just had to break through

in what you were saying here about this because one of the things Hollywood has been kind of known

for is flattening identities or culture I mean my approach was it's always been like hey you know

“you play the character I think now it's changed a little bit you know your heritage is”

embraced in more so now I think there's more opportunity we're not out of the bag for let's say for Latino actors and actresses to get roles that it means something that are you know three-dimensional and not stereotypes but there's more opportunity now than when I start it that's for sure and I think that you know it's a good thing still there should be more and it is a complicated thing because it's not up to the actors it's really it's got to start with the writing

then the writing and then the idea that it will attract eyeballs and ears to come and watch these stories and so it's it's interesting and and and it is it's better now than ever and there's a lot of you know Latino actors working out there and you know probably more than there were when I first started you know tons more yeah Benicio del Toro thank you so much for this conversation

best supporting actor Oscar for his role in one battle after another the Academy Awards are scheduled

“to be held Sunday and televised by ABC coming up I review Nicole Kidman's newest TV project”

Scarpeda the prime video series based on the series of novels by Patricia Cornwell this is fresh air Nicole Kidman is an executive producer of as well as the main star of Scarpeda the new eight part mystery series now streaming in its entirety on prime video she plays Virginia medical examiner K Scarpeda but in this ambitious lecture drama Kidman isn't the only one playing her this narrative unfolds is two different mysteries from two different timelines and shifts

between them like cards being shuffled in a deck one timeline in the present has Kidman is K returning to her old job after a long time off and instantly faced with a baffling set of murders the other timeline from decades earlier in 1998 shows a younger K taking the job as chief medical

“examiner for the first time and being hit with a serial murder case then two. In these scenes from”

the past K is played by a different actress Rosie McCune who matches Kidman's mannerisms and demeanor perfectly. It's a high-wire balancing act also required of almost all the other young actors who managed to mirror their more mature counterparts convincingly and entertainingly and that's not an easy task because the actors in the current timeline are major players delivering excellent wide-ranging performances. Jamie Lee Curtis plays K's flamboyant sister

Dorothy author of a popular series of children's books. Bobby Cane Valley plays playing speaking quick tempered homicide detective Pete Marino and Simon Baker plays cerebral FBI profile Taylor Benton Wesley. All of these movie starts have done exceptionally well on television,

“Baker on the mental list, Cane Valley on boardwalk empire, Jamie Lee Curtis on the bear,”

and Nicole Kidman in a string of small screen triumphs including nine perfect strangers, the perfect couple, and big little lies. When Nicole and Jamie Lee share the screen which is often, it's incendiary. As youngsters, K witnessed their father's death during a robbery, one of many differences between the two sisters. We will literally fight about anything, anything, a song from our childhood because I mean you fighting is the idioma, the language of siblings.

We could try and not be so threatened by each other. I am not threatened by you. Correct and forget it. But you know, listen, I couldn't do your day, not one day. Not one day, no, no, you win. Just the thought of being in proximity of a dead body. It just, it would destroy my brain. Maybe if I hadn't seen death at such a young age, I would have had some broader career choices. Just maybe. Scarpetta is based on a series of novels by best-selling author Patricia

Cornwell, who has written 29 stories to date built around K Scarpetta. The modern parts of this

first season story, a follow-up second season already has been ordered, are inspired by autopsy,

the 25th book in her series. The murder mystery set in the past is from Cornwell's very first Scarpetta novel, post-mortem, from 1990. Liz Sarnoff, the writer producer who developed this for television, combines them both in a format that demands close attention, but rewards it too. Sarnoff, working with a pool of directors and other writers, delivers solid mysteries in both storylines, as well as in intriguing some plot involving emotional dependence on an AI-generated

personality. But it's the characters, not the clues, that makes Scarpetta so captivating. The veteran actors are rock-solid, Bobby Cane Valley, especially is terrific, and so are their younger counterparts. In one bit of very effective casting, the younger version of Cane Valley's detective Pete Marino is played by the actor's own son, Jake. Here he is, in a scene where the younger K, played by Rosie McEwen, interrupts homicide detective Pete, and the younger FBI

Profiler Benton, played by Hunter Parish. They're discussing the profile of their suspected killer, and Pete is a lot less enamored of all the hypotheticals than his colleagues.

You guys always fight like this? Yes. If I can't, Yoke Saburo Profiler with a homicide detective.

or an answer. How does Lori Peterson affect your profile? This guy, so many might not look at twice.

“Well, function probably has some type of a menial job, a construction worker.”

We can all average all American Joe. Labor-related occupation, I suppose, but above average in intelligence, I'm shocking. No, the best part for him is the antecedent phase, the fantasy plant, right after he becomes aware of her when he's fueled by obsession. Yeah, my sense is he's a sadist. I realize this whole series structure sounds complicated, and it is. But it's rewarding, too. I've seen all eight episodes, and the plots and the characters really hold up. And I haven't

even mentioned Ariana Dubo's, another major name in this production, who plays the daughter of

Jamie Lee Curtis's Dorothy, or Amanda Regetti, who plays Dorothy in the flashback scenes.

“There's a lot to applaud here, and a lot to absorb. In the way prime video is streaming it,”

you can gobble it up as fast as you can to help keep things straight, just like a good novel, or two good novels. Something you call love, but confess, he you've been a messer, where you shouldn't have been a messer, and now someone else is getting know your best. These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they're doing. One of these days he boots are going to walk all over you.

[Music] Can you keep lying when you ought to be true then? And you keep losing when you ought to not bet.

“Can you keep saying it when you ought to be a change then?”

Now what's right is right, but you ain't been right yet. These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do. One of these days he's boots are going to walk all over you. Coming up, critic at large John Powers reviews the Netflix series "How to Get to Heaven from Belfest" by the creator of the dairy girls. This is fresh air. The Netflix series "How to Get to Heaven from Belfest" is a comic mystery about three long-time friends investigating the death of another

mutual old friend. The show was created by Lisa McGee, who brought us the cult hit dairy girls. Our critic at large John Powers says he was a bit slow getting to the series, which dropped

last month, but he found it such a wrongly fun that he simply had to praise it. When I first

discovered stories as a kid, I was in love with plot. I was thrilled by the way that everything could slide so neatly into place. But as I watched and read more, the thrill began to vanish. Plots began to feel like freeways, great for moving you long efficiently, but all pretty much the same. And in truth, you can't see much of life from there. You're better off on the streets, back roads, and alleyways. Someone who grasped this is Lisa McGee. The northern Irish screenwriter,

who had an international hit with dairy girls, a beloved teen comedy series set during the violent troubles of the late 90s. This time out, McGee has turned her unruly sensibility to a crime show. The result Netflix is how to get to heaven from Belfast, is a mad cap riff on the murder mystery. Vasely entertaining and flagrantly Irish. The show serves up so many different tones that it's like watching one of those performers who can juggle a chainsaw, a puppy, and a bowl of jello,

while playing a banjo with their teeth. The story centers on three late 30s Belfast women who have been friends since going to Catholic school together. There's Sirsha, played by Rochine Gallagher, a tireless fantasist who created a hit cop show that even she thinks is stupid. There's Robin, that Shinade Keenan, a bossy Falmouth bourgeois mother of three. Imagine an Irish weasel with her spoon. And there's Dara, played by Keelen Dunn, a love-lorn lesbian who might

of a buster Keenan or Stan Laurel. The three hear about the death of their estranged school friend

“Greta, with whom they have long shared a dark, potentially ruinous secret. And so they had”

down to scenic county Donegal to pay their respects. But they quickly realized there's something suspicious about Greta's death. At Sirsha's urging, she writes crime shows after all, they begin to dig. Naturally trouble follows. Soon they're dealing with everyone from booker. She's an enigmatically murderous outlaw to Liam, a member of the Irish guarda, or police, who they fear will learn their secret. Now I worry this description may make the show sound like a cozy routine

murder mystery. It's anything but, as the show leaps between past and present, our heroines rock it from one loony scene to the next. They seek ghosts. They have car crashes. Yes, more than one. They find themselves in funerals. Five star Portuguese resorts, abandoned lighthouses, yachts, golf carts, jails, religious precessions, country and western nights at a pub where women dress as Dalai Parton. Not to mention a St. Patrick's Day parade, bursting with the screwball exuberance

of a Preston Sturgis movie. Here, fleeing the menacing booker, they hide in a line of people queuing up to see the Irish equivalent of the tonight's show. Sirsha doesn't want to go in, but Robin explains why they have to. Then bluffs the woman who's taking the tickets. She can kill us on live TV. Can you guys move aside? Please. We don't have tickets because these are the competition rooms. What are you talking about? Should be on your list.

“She says I emailed about this yesterday. What list are you working from?”

What's your in the door? Cara. Uh, let's have a go. Hi. Well, tell me that you at least

have some high seats back. Yeah, of course. Always. All right. Shall we? Mm. Check it.

I've seen a lot of Ferdewa. The opening episodes of How to Get To Heaven from Bel Fast are so gleefully free-wheeling that it's a tad disappointing when later on it serves up some obligatory crime show stuff. You know, explaining the murder, drawing a moral, etc. The show is at its best when it's most anarchic. Luckily, McGee is less interested in the creaky mechanisms of mystery plotting than encountering up a giddly surreal world. One that weds some of David Lynch's

sense of teenage darkness to an anticcomic style akin to the Marx brothers. The show is teeming

“with Geralus Irish folk whose crazy dialogue just sings. None more so than Robin,”

niftly played by Kenan, a buzzing beehive of a woman who fires off obscene and blasphemous lines like a rapper. The glue that holds all the lunacy together is the decades-old friendship of its heroines. Hero women who know how to annoy, wound, and manipulate each other. They bicker hilariously. Although they've grown up and gone their separate ways, they're still living up feelings and experiences they shared, back when they were teens in their school uniforms,

a period to which the show keeps flashing back. We see the adult Sirsha, Robin, and Dara in their younger selves, each living out of destiny that feels almost pre-ordained, both in its trajectory and its frustrations. With devoutly unsentimental Irish good cheer, McGee reminds us that they

carried the past with them always. John Powers reviewed the Netflix series how to get to heaven

from Belfest. On Monday's show, a new book about Stephen Sahnheim draws on archives and letters that offer new insights into his music, his relationship with his collaborators, and his often toxic relationship with his mother, including the letter she wrote to him that's known to Sahnheim fans as the letter. We'll talk with the author, Daniel O. Crent. Join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air.

Our senior producer today is Roberta Sharak. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Hertzfeld, and Adam Stannis Sharsman. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Philis Meyers, Ann Marie Ballonado, Lauren Crenzel, Teresa Madden, Ponyne Nazareth, Thayich Allener, Susan Yucundee,

is Molly C.B. Nesper. Pertary Gross and Tanya Mosley, I'm David Beanfield.