Fresh Air Weekend: Best Of - Amanda Peet & Re-examining Toni Morrison
Date: April 18, 2026
Host: Terry Gross, Tonya Mosley

Episode Overview

This "Best Of" episode of Fresh Air features in-depth interviews with actor/writer Amanda Peet and Harvard professor/author Namwali Serpell. The show first delves into Peet’s new film Fantasy Life, her struggles with aging in Hollywood, and the intense personal challenges she faced navigating a cancer diagnosis alongside the terminal illness of both her parents. In the second half, Serpell offers a fresh scholarly perspective on the acclaimed novelist Toni Morrison, exploring the legacy, critical misreadings, and the enduring power and “difficulty” of Morrison’s work.

Amanda Peet: Career, Aging, and Personal Resilience

Amanda Peet on “Fantasy Life” and Hollywood Ageism

Timestamps: 01:29 – 13:21

• Peet’s Recent Roles:

  • Lead in the award-winning film Fantasy Life and co-star of Apple TV’s You, Friends and Neighbors.
  • Former co-creator/showrunner for Netflix’s The Chair, highlighting her transition to writing and producing.

• Scene from Fantasy Life

  • Peet plays Diane, a once-successful actress wrestling with career decline and depression.
  • Notable moment:
    • Diane (Peet): “I won an Obie.”
      Kim (Agent): “He has Alzheimer’s, Diane.”
      [05:03]

• On Aging and the Pressure for Cosmetic Surgery

  • Peet addresses the near-constant internal debate about cosmetic procedures:
    • “I probably think about getting a facelift or something every other day, if not more. ... It goes straight to thoughts about death.” [07:56]
  • Shares a fable connecting elective surgery to existential anxieties (the "Appointment in Samarra" story) [08:55].

• Authenticity vs. Hollywood Standards

  • Peet recounts a premiere encounter:
    • “An older, quite beautiful woman … said, I love your wrinkles. And I found that to be really depressing, actually.” [10:44]
  • Terry Gross reinterprets the encounter as a celebration of authenticity.

• Navigating Depression and Mental Health

  • Peet on depression’s everyday presence:
    • “I’m no stranger to depression and no stranger to anxiety. … These notions and labels have been batted around in my head and in my household all my life.” [12:03]
  • Appreciates Fantasy Life’s nuanced portrayal of “average, expectable” mental illness, as opposed to extreme cinematic depictions.

“You, Friends and Neighbors” & Family Dynamics

Timestamps: 13:21 – 18:32

• On Middle-aged Female Representation

  • The Apple TV series addresses perimenopause, changing sexuality, and maternal anxieties:
    • “Your character is dealing with perimenopause, anxiety, rage, sexual changes. … TV movies are starting to catch up with real life.” [16:30]

• Art Imitating Life

  • Peet draws direct parallels between her screen character’s challenges and her own family:
    • “Some of those scenes with my adolescent daughter Isabel were really way too close to home as well. … I definitely put too much pressure on [my daughter].” [17:04]

• Her Path vs. Her Parents’ Wishes

  • Peet recalls her parents were deeply skeptical of her acting ambitions:
    • "No, they were concerned and they didn't want to pay for anything ... it just wasn't a part of the conversation." [18:04]

Cancer, Loss, and Writing Through Grief

Timestamps: 18:32 – 22:47

• Overlapping Crises

  • Peet was diagnosed with stage 1 luminal B breast cancer while both her parents were in hospice—on opposite U.S. coasts, divorced and dying simultaneously.

  • Her response:

    • “I didn’t really have that why me? thing. Maybe it’s because I’m Jewish. I’m just sort of always waiting for the other shoe to drop. So in this case, it was three shoes.” [04:44, repeated at 03:05 and 19:26]

• Family Support and Finding Beauty Amidst Pain

  • “There were really beautiful things that came out of it. Even my mom’s death … there’s no way to describe. It was very scary, but it was also very beautiful.” [20:54]

• Coping Through Writing and Ritual

  • Peet used writing, family time, and Jewish rituals to process grief, emphasizing the catharsis and connection found in sitting shiva with her sister:
    • “We looked at pictures of her and read things that she’d written. I was writing a lot and we were laughing a lot.” [22:47]

• Closing Gratitude:

  • “Thank you so much, Terry. This is a dream come true.” [23:00]

TV Review: “Margot’s Got Money Troubles” by David Bianculli

Timestamps: 23:33 – 29:50

(Key highlights for context; segment focuses on the adaptation process, central performances (Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman), and the series’ balance of realism and melodrama in its depiction of family and financial adversity.)

• Memorable quote:
  • "Fanning throws herself into this role in a way that's both vulnerable and empowering, and it's an enthralling performance to witness." [29:10]

Namwali Serpell: Rethinking Toni Morrison’s Legacy

Timestamps: 30:02 – 47:21

The Burden and Freedom of Morrison’s “Difficulty”

• On Morrison’s Critical Reception

  • Serpell re-examines the notion that Morrison is “difficult” — as a writer and a person.
    • “I have been called difficult more times in my life than I can count. But I only began to…discover the meanings and uses of my own difficulty because of Toni Morrison.” [31:37]
  • Examines how this label is often a projection or a misreading by critics unwilling to meet Morrison’s work on its own terms.

• Writing for Black Readers: Literary Centrality and Misreadings

  • Morrison’s artistic independence was inspired by African writers who did not explain their culture to presumed white audiences:
    • “I don’t actually have to translate all the elements of my culture.” [36:53]
  • The American literary tradition’s origins meant Black writers often had to address external audiences; Morrison’s liberation came through centering Black experience for Black readers.

• Endemic Racism in Criticism

  • Serpell discusses a shocking New York Times profile:
    • “She will often put on an act, suddenly get down and be very chicken and ribs, sucking her teeth, poking a finger into her scalp and scratching. A strange primitive gesture...” [37:41]
    • Serpell: “I just thought, how could you possibly talk about anyone in terms like that? A Black woman...of Toni Morrison’s stature and genius. … Incredibly racist.” [37:41]

Morrison’s Monumentality & Literary Versus Personal Legacy

• On “Making a Saint” of Morrison
  • Current reverence risks fossilizing Morrison, making her “too far away to actually read.” [45:29]
  • Morrison herself preferred a living legacy, such as a library room for reading, rather than statues or memorials:
    • “What Morrison wanted most of all was for people to read and to read her…” [47:16]

Sula, Blackness and Friendship

• Distinctiveness Within Blackness

  • Morrison illuminated not just the boundaries between white and Black, but the diversity within Black experience:
    • “Pilate says, ‘Black may as well be a rainbow.’” [42:12]

• On Sula’s Devastating Last Line

  • Serpell describes how the book’s ending — Nell’s epiphany about losing her friend — never fails to move her:
    • “When that sentence comes into my life…tears always spring to my eyes. It’s just such an incredible evocation of what it feels like to lose the love of your life, which is your friend.” [44:54]

• Serpell on Her Own Identity

  • Navigates race and Blackness from a Zambian and African-American perspective, relating deeply to Morrison’s sense of “centrality”:
    • “I have a kind of awareness that black and brown people are the majority of the world. And Morrison somehow managed to have that same powerful sense of centrality and black as the default.” [39:45]

Notable Quotes

• Amanda Peet on Fate and Cancer:
  “I didn’t really have that why me? Thing. Maybe it’s because I’m Jewish. I’m just sort of always waiting for the other shoe to drop. So in this case, it was three shoes.” [04:44]
• Namwali Serpell on Morrison’s Critical Reception:
  “It’s almost as though her personality or her Persona or the projections that we put on a black woman writer, a black woman genius, were getting in the way of people actually thinking about the work.” [31:54]
• Serpell on Sula’s Last Line:
  “When that sentence comes into my life … tears always spring to my eyes.” [43:57]
• Amanda Peet on Surgery and Mortality:
  “If I were to actually do an elective surgery to look younger, … my cancer would come back, or I would get Parkinson's… it’s almost like… if you lack gratitude for having health…something bad happens.” [07:56]
• David Bianculli on Elle Fanning in Margot’s Got Money Troubles:
  “Fanning throws herself into this role in a way that's both vulnerable and empowering, and it's an enthralling performance to witness.” [29:10]

Segment Guide with Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | | ------------------------ | ------------------ | | Amanda Peet Interview | 01:29 – 22:47 | | “Margot’s Got Money Troubles” Review | 23:33 – 29:50 | | Namwali Serpell Interview (Toni Morrison) | 30:02 – 47:21 |

Tone and Highlights

The episode is marked by the signature intimacy and candor of Fresh Air. Peet’s discussion is personal, honest, and often wry, punctuated by vulnerability and humor about aging, anxiety, and grief. Serpell’s interview is incisive and deeply thoughtful, challenging received wisdom about Morrison and inviting listeners to come to Morrison’s writing anew, with openness and curiosity rather than reverence. Throughout, Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley guide the conversations with empathy, wit, and intellectual depth.

This episode is essential listening for those interested in contemporary discussions around art, gender, race, grief, and creativity. Both interviews provide profound insight into living authentically through adversity and the power of art to remake how we see ourselves and each other.