Fresh Air Weekend: Steven Spielberg; Black servicemen in WWII

“I was a fearful kid, and my parents didn’t quite know what to do with that,” Steven Spielberg says. He’s pictured above in New York City in March 2017.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

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Mike Coppola/Getty Images

“I was a fearful kid, and my parents didn’t quite know what to do with that,” Steven Spielberg says. He’s pictured above in New York City in March 2017.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

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:

Steven Spielberg was a fearful kid who found solace in storytelling: Spielberg’s latest project, The Fabelmans, is semi-autobiographical — focused on his childhood and teen years and his parents’ divorce. He jokingly refers to the film as “$40 million of therapy.”

Small in scope, Claire Keegan’s ‘Foster’ packs an emotional wallop: Keegan is a writer who revels in the suspense of the unspoken, the held breath. Her new novella centers on a nameless young girl whose parents leave her in the care of relatives for the summer.

‘Half American’ explores how Black WWII servicemen were treated better abroad: Though more than one million Black Americans contributed to the war effort, historian Matthew Delmont says a military uniform offered no protection from racism.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

Steven Spielberg was a fearful kid who found solace in storytelling

‘Half American’ explores how Black WWII servicemen were treated better abroad