MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• Strange, Singular, Audacious 'Annette' Works As An Odd, Original Rock Opera
  Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard play a celebrity couple in this extravagant movie musical. Critic Justin Chang warns you'll have to get on the film's bizarre wavelength, but he's grateful it exists.
• Listen To New Music Inspired By Karate's Olympic Debut
  Musicians in the U.S. and Japan are collaborating in honor of the first Olympic karate competition: Composers tracked the brainwaves of people performing karate, and turned that data into music.
• Having A Conversation With Loss And Grief In 'Waiting For The Waters To Rise'
  Maryse Condé's new novel follws a lonely man, an obstetrician who adopts an orphaned baby girl and tries to find her family — it's an examination of loss and grief on a personal and national level.
• Mattel's Barbie Turns Women Of Science, Including COVID Vaccine Developer, Into Dolls
  Professor Sarah Gilbert, a leader on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, is one of six women in health care who now have Barbies in their image. She hopes they will inspire girls to enter STEM careers.
• A Farmer Offers A Stark Time-Lapse Portrait Of His Family's Land Over A Lifetime
  James Rebanks' new book Pastoral Song urgently conveys how the drive for cheap, mass-produced food has impoverished both small farmers and the soil, threatening humanity's future.
• Osama Bin Laden Biography Goes Inside Al-Qaida Leader's Final Hideout
  Journalist Peter Bergen visited bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, before it was demolished. His new book, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, draws on materials seized in the raid.
• This Remake Of A Beloved Game Has The Style — But Lacks A Little Substance
  Not a remaster or a reissue, NEO is a genuine sequel to the hit 2007 Japanese RPG that cast you and your friends as fashionable Tokyo kids battling for your lives in a strange alternate world.
• The Music Industry Is Holding DaBaby Accountable
  After making homophobic comments during a performance, rapper DaBaby has been widely criticized and dropped from multiple festivals. The fallout could mark a cultural shift in the music business.
• Soccer Star Abby Wambach Recommends 3 Reads On Sports And Leadership
  Wambach retired from soccer in 2015, and now, as a professional speaker, she shares three books that helped her learn to be a leader — both on the field and off.
• Oprah Picked It, So Did Obama — Why This Novel Is THE Summer Book
  Nathan Harris's debut, set in a small Southern town just after Appomattox, has captured American readersthis summer by asking a question we haven't yet answered: How do you make peace after civil war?