Best Of: ‘Spider-Man’ dir. Destin Daniel Cretton / Novelist Harriet Clark

📺 Fresh Air 🕐 August 15, 2026 at 2:00 AM

Keeps playing with the screen off. The episode is played from Fresh Air’s own podcast host.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues to break box office records, after having the biggest U.S. opening weekend in history. Tonya Mosley talks with the film’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton. Long before Marvel, he worked in a group home for at-risk teens. He says it’s an experience that shaped everything he’s made since then, and became the movie Short Term 12.

Also, we hear from Harriet Clark. She was a baby when her mother was a getaway driver of a robbery of a Brink’s truck in 1981. The robbers were members of a radical offshoot of the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. For 37 years, Clark spent Saturdays visiting her mother in prison. “She figured out how to mother me in some of the most difficult conditions possible,” Clark tells Terry Gross. Her novel, The Hill, draws on her experience visiting her mother in prison.

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter
Follow us on Instagram
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Check out the Fresh Air Archives

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and curated playlists of archive interviews. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

🔗 View Original Source

Check this story

Search fact-checks Snopes PolitiFact FactCheck.org Rate this source AllSides ratings Wikipedia's source list See earlier versions

Ask the guide

The guide explains what to check and where. It cannot see this article or recent news.

Is this AI-made?

Content Credentials

Best Of: ‘Spider-Man’ dir. Destin Daniel Cretton / Novelist Harriet Clark.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues to break box office records, after having the biggest U.S. opening weekend in history. Tonya Mosley talks with the film’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton. Long before Marvel, he worked in a group home for at-risk teens. He says it's an experience that shaped everything he's made since then, and became the movie Short Term 12.Also, we hear from Harriet Clark. She was a baby when her mother was a getaway driver of a robbery of a Brink’s truck in 1981. The robbers were members of a radical offshoot of the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. For 37 years, Clark spent Saturdays visiting her mother in prison. “She figured out how to mother me in some of the most difficult conditions possible,” Clark tells Terry Gross. Her novel, The Hill, draws on her experience visiting her mother in prison. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our YouTube channel Check out the Fresh Air ArchivesSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and curated playlists of archive interviews. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

AI checkers give a likelihood, not proof.

← Back to News

Filter News

Best Of: ‘Spider-Man’ dir. Destin Daniel Cretton / Novelist Harriet Clark

Check this story

Ask the guide

Is this AI-made?

🔗 Share Article