John Powers
John Powers is the pop culture and critic-at-large on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He previously served for six years as the film critic.
Powers spent the last 25 years as a critic and columnist, first for LA Weekly, then Vogue. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Harper's BAZAAR, The Nation, Gourmet, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A former professor at Georgetown University, Powers is the author of Sore Winners, a study of American culture during President George W. Bush's administration. His latest book, WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (co-written with Wong Kar Wai), is an April 2016 release by Rizzoli.
He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, filmmaker Sandi Tan.
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In 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead in her Durham, N.C., home. Her husband, Michael, was accused of her murder, and a Netflix documentary followed. Now, a new HBO Max series revisits the case. -
Daniel Roher's film about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny offers intimate, sometimes amazing access to the bravery — and human cost — of opposing a despot.
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HBO's new eight-part series follows an American crime reporter who intends to take Japanese journalism by storm — but first must learn how to navigate the churning opacity of 1990s Tokyo.
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Mick Herron's Slough House books center on a ragtag crew of intelligence officers who've blown their careers through bungling or bad luck. The first of those novels is now a clever Apple TV+ series.
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Based on the novel by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko follows four generations of a Korean family in Korea, Japan and the U.S. as they navigate broken hearts, broken homes, murder, suicide and more.
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Schumer stars as a woman on a voyage of self discovery in an enjoyable (if uneven) new Hulu series. Life & Beth is at its best when it harnesses Schumer's capacity for catching life on the wing.
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In 1970, Hansen began a 12-novel series about Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator who happens to be gay. Reading now, it's clear that Hansen was one of the great crime writers of his time.
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This four-part TV series isn't merely unfolding a crime story —it offers a metaphor for the troubled soul of Northern Ireland, two decades after the Troubles supposedly ended.
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Mick Herron's brilliantly plotted series follows a group of maladroit MI5 agents who've somehow blown it with the agency. The latest installment is a timely novel set in a post-Brexit U.K.
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Lee Isaac Chung's semi-autobiographical film centers on a South Korean family trying to make it as farmers in rural Arkansas. Minariproves that a small story can feel bigger than a blockbuster.
