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

The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief':Journalist Stephen Kinzer reveals how CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb worked in the 1950s and early '60s to develop mind control drugs and deadly toxins that could be used against enemies.

Filmmaker Ken Burns Goes Wide, Not Deep, In His Chronicle Of 'Country Music': Burns is known for finding fresh takes on big topics, but his new eight-part PBS series about country music treads a well-worn path, leaning heavily on the biggest stars and the most obvious ideas.

Why Fashion Expert Tan France Nearly Turned Down 'Queer Eye':"The thought of being one of the very first openly gay South Asian men on a major show. ... That pressure was so hard to handle," France says of his role on the Netflix makeover series.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

The CIA's Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A 'Poisoner In Chief'

Filmmaker Ken Burns Goes Wide, Not Deep, In His Chronicle Of 'Country Music'

Why Fashion Expert Tan France Nearly Turned Down 'Queer Eye'

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