© 2026 WRVO Public Media
NPR News for Central New York
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Fresh Air Weekend: Novelist Maggie O'Farrell; Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor

Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor has spent much of her career tracing the N-word. What she didn't tell her audiences was that her father, Richard Pryor, was the comedian who put the word at the center of American comedy in the 1970s.
Simon & Schuster
Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor has spent much of her career tracing the N-word. What she didn't tell her audiences was that her father, Richard Pryor, was the comedian who put the word at the center of American comedy in the 1970s.

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:

Hamnet novelist Maggie O'Farrell turns to her own family story in Land: O'Farrell's new novel is based on the story of her own great, great-grandfather, and tells the story of a father and son mapping 19th-century Ireland after the devastation of the Great Famine.

Mary Beard illuminates the ancient world — and our own — in Talking Classics: As a classics professor, Beard has spent her career pondering life in the ancient world. The central question of her latest book is: What on earth was it like to be there?

Richard Pryor's daughter, Elizabeth, is a scholar of the N-word: Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor spent years researching the racial slur, but never revealed that her father was the legendary comic who used it profusely. Her new book is Something We Said.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

Copyright 2026 NPR

Recent cuts to federal funding are challenging our mission to serve central and upstate New York with trusted journalism, vital local coverage, and the diverse programming that informs and connects our communities. This is the moment to join our community of supporters and help keep journalists on the ground, asking hard questions that matter to our region.

Stand with public media and make your gift today—not just for yourself, but for all who depend on WRVO as a trusted resource and civic cornerstone in central and upstate New York.