The Frame

Rankine, whose poetry has examined everyday racism in America, and Wolfe, whose music addresses issues of the American worker, were both named MacArthur Foundation fellows; as the Fall TV season launches, we visit with producer Betsy Beers at Shondaland, one of the most successful companies in the industry.

Diavolo Dance Theatre is reinventing modern dance by combing architecture and wildly physical choreography; media critics have been piling on NBC for going soft on the GOP nominee, and now late night host Samantha Bee has joined the fray; Richard Nelson keeps his election-themed plays current by writing until the last minute.

The new documentary, “The Lovers and the Despot,” tells the true story of what happened in 1978 when Kim Jong-il ordered the kidnapping of a filmmaking couple from South Korea to jumpstart North Korea's movie industry; William Bell has revived the classic Stax sound; a new report shows that the music business is actually making money in the streaming age.

Playwright and performer Lucy Alibar draws on her Southern childhood for “Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up"; Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, who won a writing Emmy for "Master of None," talk about their approach to diversity; the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off a lot of Academy Award talk.

Kent McCord of the 1960-70s TV cop show, "Adam-12," which was produced in partnership with the LAPD. McCord says a show about cops who aren't "edgy" wouldn't sell in today's TV business; In advance of TV's big awards night, we discuss what goes into an Emmy campaign, and how valuable is a nomination or a win in this era of "too much TV"?

Cheo Hodari Coker, creator and showrunner of the Netflix series "Luke Cage," unpacks the idea of building a show around a superhero who also happens to be a "bullet-proof black man" in a hoodie; Can Pandora and Amazon be the next disruptors in the streaming music space? They hope so.

The documentary "Audrie & Daisy" examines the sexual assault and cyber-shaming of two teen girls; with its third album, the band Local Natives remains entrenched in Silver Lake's indie rock scene; a group of songwriters is challenging the Dept. of Justice's control over royalty rates.

How do unconscious biases affect hiring practices in Hollywood? To dig deeper into this issue, Cathy Schulman (Oscar-winning producer/Women In Film) and Judith Williams (Global Head of Diversity at Dropbox) put Frame host John Horn to the test as if he's a studio executive; In 2005 Jackie Lopez co-founded the hip hop troupe "Versa Style" to teach kids not only how to dance but the cultural history behind hip hop.

"Kicks" filmmakers discuss how being outsiders who didn't fit society's views of manhood fueled the making of their lyrical coming-of-age drama; A new documentary explores why Brad Bird's 1999 animated film "The Iron Giant" was a critical darling, but a box office bomb; Inside Nate Parker's "The Birth of a Nation" press conference at TIFF; Can you scream like Nicholas Cage?

Every August, cultural festivals take over the Scottish city of Edinburgh with thousands of performances taking place day and night. This year The Frame host John Horn immersed himself in shows and brings an audio postcard of his creative excursion; TV reporter Whitney Friedlander joins us to preview some new and returning television shows that are worthy of our time and DVR space this fall.

The director's new film continues his focus on characters struggling to come to terms with themselves; why are 1930s-era murals in San Francisco causing a fuss today?; revisiting our chat with Emmy-nominee Samantha Bee.

His father is Bobby McFerrin and he has a brother and sister who also are singers. Taylor has been making music for some time now, but he's never sung on an album — until now; gay characters are featured on a telenovela for the first time; the story behind "Blinded by the Light."

An Associated Press exposé details decades of alleged sexual harassment by the renown opera singer and conductor; the documentary “Cold Case Hammarskjöld” turned into a whodunnit; how did a little-known L.A. band end up opening for The Rolling Stones?

One of the few major music festivals in the U.S. that is not organized by a giant company, Outside Lands took over Golden Gate Park this weekend; Universal Pictures scraps "The Hunt," an R-rated satire in which elites hunt "deplorables" for sport.

In "Escape At Dannemora," director Ben Stiller goes inside a prison to tell the story of the inmates who broke out; comedian and SNL writer Julio Torres prefers humor about ordinary objects to politics; Geena Davis hopes her research institute and a new documentary will convince Hollywood the value of creating film and TV with a diverse cast of women and girls.

The offbeat comedian talks about his path from immigrant to "SNL" writer to star of an HBO stand-up special; Rolling Stone writer Elias Leight on the continuing practice of payola in the radio industry; an episode of Song Exploder with Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney.

Geena Davis is executive producer of the new documentary that explores the status of women in the film industry; David Rubin, the newly-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; rock musician Ty Segall.

Nanfu Wang's documentary is a personal look at China’s former one child policy, which continues to reverberate there; The Emmy Awards will go without a host; on the 20th anniversary of "Eyes Wide Shut," a look at how its composer was chosen.

The wrongly-convicted former athlete and director Tom Shadyac discuss the path to making the movie; we revisit the documentary, "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am," following her death; Bruce Lee's family is unhappy about his depiction in "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood."

Barak Goodman's documentary, “Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation,” asks: Why did 400,000 young people trek across the country for a festival in the middle of nowhere?; music historian Andy Zax helped restore every Woodstock performance for a 38-disc boxed set; filmmaker Sam Jones on the influence of documentary director D.A. Pennebaker.

Today's show: The creators of "Sherman's Showcase" discuss the comedy and music in their sketch show. We discuss the portrayal of Bruce Lee in Tarantino's new film. Why Patricia Arquette wanted to co-star in "Otherhood." Then Indie duo The Bird and The Bee make a tribute album of Van Halen covers.

Actress Patricia Arquette, writer/director Cindy Chupack and producer Cathy Schulman talk about their new film and how middle-aged women are portrayed in Hollywood; has hip-hop reached a turning point in its inclusivity of black, gay artists?