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Fresh Air Weekend: Stacey Abrams; Raphael Saadiq

Stacey Abrams says her focus is on ensuring free and fair elections in 2026.
Kevin Lowery
/
Penguin Random House
Stacey Abrams says her focus is on ensuring free and fair elections in 2026.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, as well as new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and it often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Stacey Abrams warns of autocracy and voter suppression, doesn't rule out another run: Abrams isn't running for office — but she's not ruling it out, either. "Politics is a tool ... for getting good done, but it's not the only one." Her new thriller is Coded Justice.

By land and by sea, these new nonfiction books will carry you away: Helen Whybrow's memoir, The Salt Stones, is a closely-observed account of her life as a shepherd. In A Marriage at Sea, Sophie Elmhirst tells the true story of a couple adrift on a rubber raft.

"Music is about taking chances," R&B musician/producer Raphael Saadiq says: Saadiq has helped define the sound of modern R&B and soul for more than three decades, both as a member of Tony! Toni! Toné! and as a solo artist. He has a new, deeply personal one-man show.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

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