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.

Ilene Chaiken runs "Empire" while co-creator Lee Daniels develops his next show for Fox, "Star"; the SxSW Interactive Conference is getting heat for canceling sessions about sexism in the gaming industry; the Hammer Museum will benefit from UCLA's purchase of the Occidental Petroleum building.

The duo's production company, Smokehouse, has examined politics in the TV series, "K Street," and the films “The Ides of March" and "Good Night and Good Luck." Their latest is "Our Brand is Crisis."

Rock star Courtney Love has acted in films and TV, but now she's hitting the boards in Todd Almond's "Kansas City Choir Boy"; the "Steve Jobs" biopic got good reviews from critics, but audiences are staying away in droves; Upright Citizens Brigade is taking its comedy franchise online.

Sean Rameswaram of WNYC and Soraya Nadia McDonald of the Washington Post talk about the week's top stories from the wide world of culture; the new music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars performs Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" for the first time in an American airport.

Mark Mothersbaugh, a founding member of the new wave band Devo, is also a film and TV composer with a long list of credits that includes "The Last Man on Earth"; an exhibition of Cuban art arrives as the island nation develops a new relationship with the United States.

"Suffragette" screenwriter Abi Morgan and director Sarah Gavron made a period film that has current-day resonance; Disney is going all out to sell "Star Wars" in the world's second-biggest film market; Pakistani and L.A. musicians collaborated to create a new East-meets-West sound.

Filmmaker James Vanderbilt revisits the story that led to Dan Rather and a "60 Minutes" producer losing their jobs at CBS; producer Noah Hawley says the key to making "Fargo" a TV series was to not be bound by the Coen brothers movie.

As the most prominent woman on HBO's "Project Greenlight," film producer Effie Brown has had to address race and gender issues; Lenny Abrahamson wrote a long letter to "Room" novelist Emma Donoghue to convince her that he was the right director for the film version.

FX chief John Landgraf says his warning of there being too much TV for the industry to bear -- and the consumer to watch -- struck a chord with other network heads; How composer Jóhann Jóhannsson created the haunting score for 'Sicario'

The actor has directed a documentary about the rise and fall of the once powerful record store chain; the first-ever Politicon was a sort of Comic-Con for political junkies, journalists and jokesters; Fox is developing more TV shows with comic book heroes, including "X-Men" characters.

Kelly Sue DeConnick describes her feminist sci-fi series, "Bitch Planet," as "Margaret Atwood meets Inglourious Basterds”; Cary Fukunaga encountered severe challenges while shooting "Beasts of No Nation" in Ghana.

Producer Aline Brosh McKenna wants to upend genre stereotypes on her new CW network comedy. (Cue the band!) ; several films hitting theaters this fall are tackling stories of women striving for equality; Kurt Vile has a new album of chilled-out folk music.