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Wendy Kaminer Dissects the Self-Help Culture.

Journalist and lawyer Wendy Kaminer (cam-AH-ner). Her new book, I'm Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional, is a critical look at the recovery and self-help movement. Kaminer believes that the movement tends to trivialize suffering by refusing to distinguish among levels of suffering or victimization (for instance, one recovery expert suggests that childhood is a holocaust.) Kaminer also considers the political implications for democracy if people view themselves as victims. (by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company).

22:50
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Other segments from the episode on May 28, 1992

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, May 28, 1992: Interview with Wendy Kaminer; Interview with Gayle Pemberton; Review of the television show "Julie."
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16:44

Gayle Pemberton Discusses her Memoir..

Writer and professor Gayle Pemberton. She is associate director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University. Her new book, The Hottest Water in Chicago: on family, race, time, and American culture, is a collection of autobiographical essays. Pemberton was born into a northern black middle-class family in the late 1940s. (by Faber & Faber)

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03:36

"Julie" is No Good At All.

TV critic David Bianculli previews Julie, a new summer sitcom starring Julie Andrews, directed by her husband Blake Edwards.

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06:10

'Self-Help Messiah' Dale Carnegie Gets A Second Life In Print.

In the many decades since the publication of How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie's self-help classic has been both celebrated and mocked, but it's still selling plenty of copies. Steven Watts' new biography of the man may feel overstuffed, but, as Maureen Corrigan notes, Carnegie's relentless positivity always shines through.

Review
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33:52

Running a 'School for Scoundrels'

Writer-director Todd Phillips' new film is School for Scoundrels, starring Billy Bob Thornton as a cross between a self-help genius and a scam artist. Phillips' other films include Old School, Road Trip and Starsky and Hutch.

Interview

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52:30

Daughter of Warhol star looks back on a bohemian childhood in the Chelsea Hotel

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

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This fake 'Jury Duty' really put James Marsden's improv chops on trial

In the series Jury Duty, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden has agreed to participate in what he believes is a documentary about the experience of being a juror--but what Ronald doesn't know is that the whole thing is fake.

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