Fresh Air Weekend: Comic Wanda Sykes; Crime Novelist Laura Lippman

Fresh Air

Published August 3, 2019 at 9:00 AM EDT

Wanda Sykes surprised herself by coming out publicly as a lesbian at a 2008 LGBTQ rally in Las Vegas. "I didn't even know that I was going to do it," she says. "It wasn't planned at all."

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:

Wanda Sykes Loves Stand-Up: That's Where 'I Can Be Free,' She Says: Before Sykes became a comic, she worked at the National Security Agency, where she had top security clearance. Now she takes on the president in her Emmy-nominated Netflix special Not Normal.

'Cities Are Resilient,' Says Baltimore Crime Novelist Laura Lippman: Lippman's latest novel, Lady in the Lake, was inspired by two real-life Baltimore disappearances in the 1960s. She says Trump's recent tweets show a "basic disrespect" for the residents of her city.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

Wanda Sykes Loves Stand-Up: That's Where 'I Can Be Free,' She Says

'Cities Are Resilient,' Says Baltimore Crime Novelist Laura Lippman