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Fresh Air Weekend: 'Deuce' Traces The Birth Of Porn; An Obama Speechwriter Looks Back

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Candy, a prostitute who hopes to get out of the trade by learning to make porn films, on the HBO series <em>The Deuce.</em>
Paul Schiraldi
/
HBO
Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Candy, a prostitute who hopes to get out of the trade by learning to make porn films, on the HBO series The Deuce.

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:

'Deuce' Creators Capture The Birth Of America's Billion-Dollar Porn Industry: David Simon and George Pelecanos' new show depicts the growth of porn from illegal enterprise to full-fledged industry. Since then, Simon says, "the 'pornographication' of America has been profound."

An Encounter At A Passport Checkpoint Offers Respite From Depression's Grip: Newly divorced and suffering from depression, author Haroon Moghul moved to Dubai for a while, hoping to find a reason to live. Strangely enough, sharing a laugh over his "fat" passport photo helped.

A Former Speechwriter Looks Back On His 'Hopey, Changey' Years With Obama: David Litt says writing speeches and jokes for former President Obama was often a delicate task: "There's a whole industry of people trying to take your words out of context."

You can listen to the original interviews here:

'Deuce' Creators Capture The Birth Of America's Billion-Dollar Porn Industry

An Encounter At A Passport Checkpoint Offers Respite From Depression's Grip

A Former Speechwriter Looks Back On His 'Hopey, Changey' Years With Obama

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