The Frame

After the 2016 Presidential election, the singer/songwriter took a cross-country train trip and then wrote a song cycle of character sketches and personal reflections; Taylor Swift's recording contract is about to expire, giving her a world of options; Boots Riley's "Sorry to Bother You" is one of the year's biggest critical hits.

Director Chris Weitz's film 'Operation Finale' tells the amazing story of the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann; fans begin to pay their respects to the Aretha Franklin at the Museum of African American History in Detroit; and Cuban jazz pianist Dayramir Gonzalez is a rising star.

Breaking down the scene between Michelle Yeoh and her would be daughter-in-law, Constance Wu; documentary filmmaker Steve James spent a year inside a Chicago high school for the series, “America to Me”; remembering playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, who died at the age of 91.

The former "Gilmore Girls" co-star has an Emmy nomination for her role in the dystopian world of "The Handmaid's Tale"; Harvey Weinstein's legal woes seem to be mounting; Aneesh Chaganty, director and co-writer of the film, "Searching," has created a hyper-modern day thriller.

On Today's Show:

The co-star and Emmy nominee says she isn't daunted by challenges being faced by the cast; ever seen James Corden and friends performing a musical on the streets outside CBS on Fairfax? That's the work of Emmy-nominated choreographer Chloe Arnold.

The Emmy-nominated director of "Atlanta" talks about his collaborations with Donald Glover, his love of the Coen brothers and how the show set out to accurately portray life in urban Georgia; in the documentary, "What Haunts Us," Paige Goldberg Tolmach examines multiple suicides at her prep school alma mater; director Jesse Peretz and actor Chris O'Dowd talk about their movie, "Juliet, Naked."

Sarah Paulson has a lead actress Emmy nomination for "American Horror Story: Cult" — the seventh season of the anthology series; Bing Liu's videos of his skateboarding pals turned into the intimate documentary, "Minding the Gap."

Wayne Kramer, guitarist and leader of the Detroit rock band MC5, discusses his new memoir, "The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities"; Amazon is in the running to buy Landmark Theatres.

The iconic singer has died at the age of 76. We hear from her longtime bass player, Chuck Rainey; why has a documentary about her landmark 1972 performance at a Baptist church in Los Angeles never been released?; Daphne Brooks, a professor of African American Studies and Theater Studies at Yale University on the transcendent power of Aretha's voice.

Lena Dunham's love-it-or-hate-it HBO series is ending its six-season run; Icelandic music is more than just Björk and Sigur Rós. Composers Valgeir Sigurdsson, Nico Muhly and other members of their music collective are also part of an ongoing showcase at Disney Hall.

The 14th Factory is a massive warehouse filled with installations by artists from around the world; major life changes contributed to the latest album by Tift Merritt; the Cannes Film Festival lineup is short on blockbusters, but brimming with politics.

Ever wonder what musicians hear during a concert? We sit onstage at Disney Hall during a rehearsal to find out; comic book artist Dash Shaw has made his first animated feature, “My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea”; we help you sort through the conflicts on the Coachella Music Festival schedule.

After almost 40 years as front man of the band T.S.O.L., Jack Grisham retains his punk spirit; "The Encounter" is Simon McBurney's tour de force about an explorer of the Amazon jungle; 'Finding Oscar' looks at fallout from Guatemala's civil war.

Photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield spent years documenting wealth throughout the world. Now her work is featured in a multimedia exhibit titled “Generation Wealth"; We get an update on the Writer’s Guild contract negotiations, which resumed today; With its third album, the L.A. band Jungle Fire is solidifying its tropical funk sound.

We visit a rehearsal for the CW show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and meet choreographer Kat Burns, the woman behind the comedic dance routines on the show; Two correspondents for Vice on HBO talk about what it's like to cover such dangerous and emotional stories; A Middle East scholar reflects on changes "Homeland" has made to respond to criticism of the show's depiction of Muslims.

Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood reveal that it was a conversation with their sons about Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till that gave them the idea for the Fox event series "Shots Fired." And Andrew McCarthy found his true calling as an actor when he was a teenager, but later in life he's found that writing is his preferred form of creative expression.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile balances a busy recording career with his new role as host of "A Prairie Home Companion"; How can a big company like Pepsi make such a tone-deaf ad?; The storm clouds at Disney Hall have nothing to do with the orchestra's emotional state.

Aimee Mann happily talks about her new album, "Mental Illness"; revenue was up in 2016 for record companies, but it's still half what it was at its peak; in a new episode of "Song Exploder," Norah Jones breaks down the title song from her latest album, "Day Breaks."

“Building the Wall" is a new Robert Schenkkan play that imagines the effects of President Donald Trump's immigration policies; in the era of Instagram and Snapchat, art museums are harnessing the power of their visitors' social media feeds; the Emmys are not until September, but award campaigning is underway.

The new Hulu series, co-created by Moira Buffini, has been likened to Sofia Coppola’s "Marie Antoinette" and the sharply modern feminist commentary of “Orange Is the New Black.”

Danger Mouse is an adventurous music producer whose 2004 project, “The Grey Album,” put him on the map. Since then he’s won six Grammy Awards and worked with some of the biggest names in pop. Now he has a collection of songs he imagined would be heard on the radio station on Amazon’s dystopian WWII series, “The Man in the High Castle.”