Fresh Air with Terry Gross, August 21, 2018: Interview with Beth Macy; Review of book 'Severance.'

Since its national debut in 1987, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been a highly acclaimed and much adored weekday magazine among public radio listeners. Each week, nearly 4.8 million people turn to Peabody Award-winning host Terry Gross for insightful conversations with the leading voices in contemporary arts and issues. The renowned program reaches a global audience, with over 620 public radio stations broadcasting Fresh Air, and 3 million podcast downloads each week. Fresh Air has broken the mold of 'talk show' by weaving together superior journalism and intimate storytelling from modern-day intellectuals, politicians and artists alike. Through probing questions and careful research, Gross's interviews are lauded for revealing a fresh perspective on cultural icons and trends. Her thorough conversations are often complemented by commentary from well-known contributors. Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR.
(1.) BETH MACY talks to Dave Davies about her new book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. It's a ground-level look at the crisis in a new book focusing on central Appalachia, which she calls the birthplace of the modern opioid epidemic. Macy has spent three decades reporting on the region, focusing on social and economic trends and how they affect ordinary people. Her book is an intimate look at cops, judges, drug dealers, young heroin users and their long-suffering parents, doctors and health activists struggling to fight the epidemic – and executives of a pharmaceutical company that aggressively marketed opioids. Macy is also the author of Factory Man and Truevine. She was a reporter for the Roanoke Times from 1989 to 2014. In 2010, she was awarded the Nieman Fellowship for Journalism by Harvard University. (2.) Maureen Corrigan reviews Ling Ma's debut novel, 'Severance.'