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Fresh Air Weekend: Aretha Franklin; 'Crazy Rich Asians'; 'A Girl's Guide To Missiles'

Aretha Franklin sings in the studio during during her early career at Columbia Records.
Frank Driggs Collection
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Getty Images
Aretha Franklin sings in the studio during during her early career at Columbia Records.

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:

Aretha Franklin: The 'Fresh Air' Interview: The Queen of Soul rarely gave interviews, so we were delighted when she sat down with Terry Gross in 1999. Franklin died Thursday at age 76.

Satire, Soap Opera, Duty, Devotion: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is A Movie Milestone: The romantic comedy based on Kevin Kwan's 2013 novel has been saddled with cultural and commercial expectations. Critic Justin Chang was happy to find the film doesn't collapse under the weight.

'A Girl's Guide' To Growing Up On A Secretive Missile Test Site: When Karen Piper was 6, her family moved to the Mojave Desert. In A Girl's Guide To Missiles she describes how her parents designed weapons, but she didn't understand how it all connected to war.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

Aretha Franklin: The 'Fresh Air' Interview

Satire, Soap Opera, Duty, Devotion: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is A Movie Milestone

'A Girl's Guide' To Growing Up On A Secretive Missile Test Site

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