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.

Joe Weisberg and Joel Field, writers and executive producers for "The Americans," talk about the joy and surprise at getting the nominations that long eluded the show; Emmy-nominated hairstylist Amanda Mofield shares her secrets for creating hundreds of looks for "Key & Peele;" "Ghostbusters" screenwriter Katie Dippold defends her movie against critics.

Neil Druckmann is a writer and creative director who has won acclaim for his cinematic approach to video games such as "The Last of Us" and "Uncharted 4"; Eric Glatt was a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight after working as an unpaid intern on "The Black Swan." The case has settled, but his mission to challenge what he calls "wage theft" continues.

Chris Kelly, the writer-director of "Other People," shares the personal story behind his film about a gay son and his terminally ill mother; Nintendo's Pokemon franchise has been revived with an augmented reality phone app that's sweeping the nation; the Exceptional Minds School trains people on the autism spectrum for visual effects careers in Hollywood.

The recent spate of killings of African-Americans by police officers has inspired new protest songs and political acts by Jay-Z, the singer Miguel, Beyoncé, and Snoop Dogg; the writer and director of the new movie "The Infiltrator" are also mother and son; a top rock 'n' roll tour manager shares tales from his unglamorous life on the road.

In the wake of the past week's violence around the country, we hear from artists who see it as their duty to also be activists. Among the voices: poet Claudia Rankine, comedian Jerrod Carmichael and singer Aloe Blacc.

Aloe Blacc considers himself an "artivist" — equal parts artist and activist — and it's evident in his hopeful and soulful sound; Amazon's content division has added a new platform for the growing world of podcasts; why did a Variety film critic pick on Renee Zellweger's appearance?

Matt Ross may be most known for playing Gavin Belson, a narcissistic executive on the HBO show "Silicon Valley" but he's also a filmmaker. He's written and directed the new movie "Captain Fantastic," in which Viggo Mortensen plays a father of six children living off the grid; a former convict became a gifted guitar maker through the state's prison arts program.

Composer Cliff Martinez shares his philosophy on movie music and stories from his collaborations with Nicolas Winding Refn ("The Neon Demon," "Drive") and Steven Soderbergh ("Contagion," "The Knick"); how singer-songwriter Kandace Springs was inspired by her father and mentored by Prince; why the holiday weekend left Spielberg's "The BFG" wanting.

Roseanne Barr ran for the U.S. presidency in 2012 and a lot of people didn’t take her seriously. She came in 6th place in the general election and now she’s the subject of a documentary about her bid for the White House called “Roseanne for President!”; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members are voting for who will lead them on the Board of Governors into this new era. We hear from three people running for election

Comedians Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel talk about moving their stand-up comedy show into a bus and out onto the streets of L.A.; Artist Martine Syms on her short film "Laughing Gas" now on display at "Made In L.A." at the Hammer Museum; Nielsen independently assembled ratings for three streaming shows: “Orange is the New Black," “Better Call Saul" and “Seinfeld."

July 1 is a big day for Sara Watkins: her new solo album is out and she performs on Garrison Keillor’s final “Prairie Home Companion"; Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs discusses the latest effort to diversify the historically white, male Hollywood institution; veteran visual effects supervisor Ellen Poon on what she learned in her first year as an Academy member.

Paul Dini went from writing Batman stories to mining his own traumatic history in the graphic novel “Dark Knight: A True Batman Story”; NBC is going all-in on Summer Olympic coverage like you've never seen; inside a bootcamp for Broadway dreamers with pros such as Taye Diggs.