The Book of Mormon is straight-up brilliant, by far the best new musical of the 21st century.

In the entertainment industry, everyone knows Jerry Weintraub, and Jerry knows everyone who matters. He discovered John Denver. He produced Oceans 11 (and 12 and 13) and more than a few Karate Kids – as well as Robert Altman’s Nashville. Before that he staged tours for Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan...

Bonus Track: Four Degrees of Jerry Weintraub

Wretches & Jabberers follows two men with autism as they go on a global tour to raise awareness about the disorder.  It's a vivid portrait of their struggles which manages to be both gripping and entertaining.

If you’ve seen a Pixar movie in the last decade or so, chances are about even you heard Randy Newman singing. Newman composed the scores for Monsters, Inc, A Bug’s Life, Meet the Parents – and he recently won an Oscar for his song written for Toy Story 3. But another generation knew him as a cheerfully dark, satirical, folky singer-songwriter.

Bonus Track: Randy Newman performs "Potholes"

The science fiction show Fringe has just been renewed by Fox for a fourth season. Fans of Fringe, many of whom are TV critics or work in the entertainment industry, rejoiced.  It’s not easy for sci-fi shows to keep their momentum. They’re expensive to make, and the fan base is passionate but limited. So why care about Fringe?  At first, I didn’t.

Last week, Japanese-American historian Bill Tsutsui found himself in Tokyo in the middle of the earthquake: “We were outside this hotel and the earth started moving.  And all of a sudden people started running out.  First just a few, but then wave after wave.  And after it was ...

Catherine Deneuve became an international star in films like Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Belle de Jour, and Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. She still epitomizes a kind of continental classiness. Deneuve's now 67 and stars alongside Gérard Depardieu in the new comedy Potiche, a French ...

In 1989, Steven Soderbergh helped launch the independent film movement with Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Box office success followed with the Ocean's Eleven franchise, Traffic, and Erin Brockovich. But the filmmaker tells Kurt Andersen that he's ready to retire from movie-directing.

Bonus Track: Extended cut of Kurt's conversation with Steven Soderbergh

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire may feel close to his Boston roots, but his next script will be set steps from the Yellow Brick Road.

Martha Plimpton may be the hardest working woman in show business. In the last year she's had recurring roles in television series, had a run on Broadway, and sold out a cabaret show at Lincoln Center. Plimpton's been on stage since she was 8 years old, and she shares her thoughts on how that helped — or hindered — her growing up.

If you’ve just tuned in for the implosion of CBS’s most successful comedy, “Two and a Half Men,” you may be wondering: who’s this Chuck Lorre fellow?

"Dallas" has been off the air for 20 years but it's still considered one of the most successful television shows in history. Studio 360 listener Laura Detre nominated “Dallas” on our American Icons website, and we liked her idea so much, we went to Southfork Ranch to understand how Dallas changed the way the world sees America.

Meet Watson, the newest contestant on Jeopardy! Starting Monday, February 14, he’ll compete against the greatest Jeopardy! players of our generation. Did we mention that Watson is a supercomputer?

Even among this year’s Best Picture nominees for the Academy Award, there is nothing quite like "Winter's Bone" – a “rural noir” about a teenager making her way perilously through a community ravaged by the meth trade. Kurt talks with director Debra Granik about the film.

We're celebrating 360's first decade on the air with the publication of the book Spark: How Creativity Works, by long-time Studio 360 executive producer Julie Burstein. This week, Julie and Kurt talk about falling in love with the stuff you work with. Featuring stories from Elizabeth Streb, Stanley Kunitz and Ben Burtt.

(To hear our original full-length interviews with those artists go here.)

Listen to full interviews with Ben Burtt, Stanley Kunitz, and Elizabeth Streb.

In Jon Robin Baitz's new play, Other Desert Cities, a novelist returns home to her prominent California Republican parents with the manuscript of a new book — a memoir filled with very dirty laundry. Kurt talks to Baitz about how this combination of tension, comedy, and politics has become the playwright's specialty.

We're celebrating 360's first decade on the air with the publication of the book Spark: How Creativity Works, by long-time Studio 360 executive producer Julie Burstein. This week, Julie shares childhood stories from Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Mira Nair, and Richard Serra.

(To hear our original full-length interviews with those artists go here.)

Hollywood never produced a realistic movie about lesbian parents — until 2010's "The Kids Are All Right." It tells the story of two moms and their sperm donor, and it's now up for several Oscars. Last summer the writer-director Lisa Cholodenko told Kurt how she managed to make an accessible, touching film out of what could have been an outsider art-house flick.

Listen to full interviews with Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Mira Nair, and Richard Serra.