Fresh Air - NPR

'New Yorker' journalist Ed Caesar discusses Arron Banks, the British businessman who funded the most extreme end of the pro-Brexit "Leave" campaign — possibly with help from Russia. Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Carsie Blanton's new album 'Buck Up.'

As a teen, Heidi Schreck debated the Constitution in competitions. Later she realized it had failed to protect four generations of women in her family. "I believed it was perfect. I believed it was a tool of justice. I did not realize as a 15-year-old girl how profoundly I had been left out of it. I didn't realize that it didn't protect me," Schreck says. Her play, 'What the Constitution Means to Me,' is headed to Broadway. Pianists Lennie Tristano and Herbie Nichols were active on the New York scene in the 1950s. Though worlds apart stylistically, their music demonstrates how the piano accommodates myriad personalities. Kevin Whitehead has an appreciation of the two pianists who were born 100 years ago.

Primatologist Frans de Waal has spent 40 years studying the behavior and emotions of primates. He talks about how primates experience jealousy, reconciliation, and empathy — just like humans. "That's a spectrum of behavior that we have, and the same thing is true for many other species." His new book is 'Mama's Last Hug.' Also, book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews 'Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal' by Yuval Taylor.

Dr. Homer Venters spent nine years overseeing the care of thousands of inmates on New York City's Rikers Island. He details horrific cases of inmate deaths from beatings and neglect, and how a new medical record system could be used as a human rights tool. "Jail settings [are] incredibly dehumanizing, and they dehumanize the individuals who pass through them," Dr. Venters says. Security staff and health staff can stop seeing inmates as people. "They look at them as problems. They look at them as liars, as malingerers." Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews unusual recordings of familiar pieces by Beethoven and Mozart.

'Saturday Night Live' cast member Aidy Bryant mourns the time she lost in her teens and early 20s feeling self-conscious about her weight and living in fear of judgment about her body. "The second I stopped being afraid of someone calling me fat, I was able to start to focus on my goals and my dreams," Bryant says. Now she stars in the Hulu series 'Shrill,' based on Lindy West's memoir about being fat and feminist. The series follows Annie, a journalist struggling with body acceptance. Bryant talks about her own journey to being fat positive and her road to 'SNL' with Terry Gross. Also, rock critic Ken Tucker reviews two Ray Charles albums of country music that have just been re-issued. Barbara Brown Taylor, an ordained Episcopal priest, left her job as rector of a church to become a professor of religion. Her new book, 'Holy Envy,' is about how teaching the religions of the world changed her understanding of her own faith, and how her students, who were mostly Christian, responded when she took them to mosques, synagogues, and Buddhist and Hindu temples.