Best Of: A Writer Grapples With A Life-Changing Accident / The Post WWII 'Red Scare'

Fresh Air

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Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hanif Kureishi began his new memoir just days after a fall left him paralyzed. He describes being completely dependent on others — and the sense of purpose he's gained from writing. The memoir is called Shattered.

David Bianculli reviews the British series Ludwig.

Writer Clay Risen describes a political movement which destroyed the careers of thousands of teachers, civil servants and artists whose beliefs or associations were deemed un-American. His book, Red Scare, is about post-World War II America, but he says there's a throughline connecting that era to our current political moment.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Penguin Random House, with Everything is Tuberculosis.
0:05.5	Best-selling author John Green tells the story of a young TB patient in Sierra Leone
0:10.3	and systems of injustice fueling the world's deadliest infectious disease.
0:14.6	Available where books and audiobooks are sold.
0:17.8	From W.HYY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend. Today, how life can change
0:24.9	in a second. Hanof Koreshi's writing career got off to a remarkable start. After briefly writing
0:30.8	porn to make a living, his first screenplay, My Beautiful Laundrette, was nominated for an Oscar.
0:36.5	In 2022, he fell, lost consciousness,
0:39.7	and when he came to, he saw these objects he didn't recognize until he realized they were his
0:44.9	hands. But I had no agency over them. I thought that they were, you know, sort of live creatures,
0:52.0	curled live creatures.
0:56.7	We'll talk about life before and after the fall.
1:03.4	Also, journalist Clay Risen takes us back to the anti-communist frenzy of the post-World War II era.
1:07.2	Risen sees a through line running from that era to our own.
1:13.0	And TV critic David Bion Kuli reviews the new mystery series Ludwig. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things in other currencies.
1:22.0	Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut. With Wise, you can convert between up to 40 currencies
1:29.2	at the mid-market exchange rate. Visit wise.com. T&Cs apply.
1:35.1	This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Terry Gross. I first became aware of Hanof Koreshi when the
1:41.2	1985 film My Beautiful Laundrette was released. He was nominated for an
1:45.7	Oscar for his screenplay about a side of contemporary England that had rarely been explored on
1:50.7	screen, Pakistani immigrants, and their children. The film was a lively romantic comedy about
1:56.8	gay love, family, racism, and punk rock. It was directed by Stephen Frears and co-starred Daniel Day Lewis
	...

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