Fresh Air Weekend: Misty Copeland; 'Weird Al' Yankovic

Fresh Air

Published November 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM EST

Misty Copeland has been a principal ballerina with the American Ballet Theatre since 2015. She took a break from performing due to COVID-19 and the birth of her son in spring 2022, but she hopes to be back on stage in 2023.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

'It chips away at you': Misty Copeland on the whiteness of ballet: For years Copeland was told that her skin color, her body and her hair didn't conform to what ballerinas were supposed to look like. Her memoir is The Wind at My Back.

'Weird Al' Yankovic wants to 'bring sexy back' to the accordion: It's "a very sensual instrument," the parody artists insists. A new over-the-top "biopic" tells the story of Yankovic's life — sort of.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

'It chips away at you': Misty Copeland on the whiteness of ballet

'Weird Al' Yankovic wants to 'bring sexy back' to the accordion