Fresh Air · 2026-07-11 · 54 min · 9,361 words

Best Of: Record producer Peter Asher / Romance writer Kennedy Ryan

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This message comes from the podcast Before and After with Lester Holt. One moment can change a life forever. Hear Lester's conversations with Jeremy Renner, Gabby Giffords, and others about rebuilding after the unimaginable. Search Before and After to follow now. From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend.

I'm Tanya Mosley in Los Angeles. Today we hear from the man who's been described as the force gump of rock and roll, Peter Asher. He discovered James Taylor and launched Carol King's career. Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote, I Wanna Hold Your Hand in His Family's Basement. The new documentary about Asher is everywhere, man.

Also, romance novelist Kennedy Ryan talks about how she fell in love with the genre in middle school, even though her mother, a preacher, didn't approve. Ryan read them anyway and hid the evidence. Hundreds of romance novels like hidden at the back of my closet behind closed and it wa and it was like in literally in my 30s when I was like, you know when you told me to stop reading romance novels? I didn't.

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