November 4, 2016

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Entertainment November 4, 2016

Best of the Week: New 'Wonder Woman' Trailer, Johnny Depp Joined the Wizarding World and More

The Important News

Harry Potter’s Wizarding World: Johnny Depp joined Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and its sequels.

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Kevin Feige revealed the future of Marvel movies.

DC Extended Universe: The Flash needs a new director. Ciaran Hinds will play the villain in Justice League.

Star Wars: The Han Solo movie will break some rules of the franchise.

Sequels: Sylvester Stallone will return for Escape Plan 2. James Cameron plans for Avatar 2 to be in 3D without glasses. Fede Alvarez will direct The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Olvia Munn joined The Predator.

Prequels: Edge of Tomorrow 2 will be a prequel.

Remakes: Disney is making a live-action redo of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And they revealed the Beast from the Beauty and the Beast remake. Starship Troopers is getting rebooted.

Box Office: Madea won the weekend again while Inferno bombed.

Biopics: Tom Hardy will play Al Capone in Fonzo.

Video Game Movies: Tim Miller might direct Sonic the Hedgehog.

Family Films: Zach Galifianakis joined A Wrinkle in Time.

Foreign Productions: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan will reunite for a Russian horror movie. Matt Dillon will star in the next Lars von Trier thriller.

Release Dates: The Dark Tower, Jumanji and Baby Driver shifted release dates.

The Videos and Geek Stuff

New Movie Trailers: Wonder Woman, The Lego Batman Movie, T2: Trainspotting, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, La La Land, 20th Century Women, Sing, The Eyes of My Mother, Office Christmas Party, Gifted, Life, Sugar Mountain and the Suicide Squad Extended Cut.

TV Spots: Passengers.

Watch: Guardians of the Galaxy weird Halloween special trailer. And a music video version of the Logan trailer.

See: 24 reasons Howard the Duck and Thor are the same movie.

Watch: Horror icons Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and more battle in a mashup video.

See: Star Trek Beyond mashed with Mars Attacks! And Harry Potter mashed with Stranger Things.

Watch: Deadpool is recapped in a rap.

See: Brad Bird gives insights on animation.

Watch: An alternate ending for Sausage Party.

See: John Turturro as Jesus Quintana in his Big Lebowski spinoff.

See: All of this week’s best new posters.

Our Features

Movie Calendar: Above is our monthly calendar and guide to November’s new releases and anniversaries.

Comic Book Movie Guide: We explore how Doctor Strange is a different kind of Marvel movie.

Geek Movie Guide: Our list of everything geeks need to seek out this month.

TV Reviews: The Exorcist TV series is one of the best new horror “movies.”

R.I.P.: We remember all the reel-important people we lost in October.

Home Viewing: Our guide to everything hitting VOD this week. And our guide to everything hitting Netflix this month.

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Business November 4, 2016

Episode 733: A Trunk Full of Truffles

Truffles on a scale

Dan Pashman/WNYC

Truffles are one of the most expensive, sought-after foods on earth. Frankly, we don’t get it. They’re a fungus that smells like dirty socks.

We wanted to understand what all the fuss is about. Enter Ian Purkayastha, a baby-faced connoisseur known as Truffle Boy. He’s has been completely obsessed with truffles since he was 15. Growing up, he foraged for mushrooms in the forests of Arkansas. Now he sells truffles to the fanciest restaurants in New York City.

Ian takes us to some of the best kitchens in Manhattan on his quest to sell $20,000 worth of truffles out of the trunk of his car. It is a race against time: the truffles lose value with every passing minute. Meanwhile, Ian has to deal with traffic, parking cops, penny-pinching chefs and black market smugglers.

Truffles can’t be cultivated like other crops, so the supply can’t increase to meet the demand. That means truffle dealing — and truffle smuggling — are a high stakes hustle.

Today on the show we follow Ian through back alleys and curbside deals with some of best chefs in New York to find out why people are willing to pay so much for a fungus that smells like old socks. Plus, we hear the science behind why people just can’t get enough of them.

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Music: “Back From The Dead” and “Soul Toucher.” Find us: Twitter/Facebook.

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Sports November 4, 2016

Cubs Fans Line Streets Of Chicago For World Series Victory Parade

It was a party 108 years in the making. Fans packed the streets of Chicago to watch the Cubs World Series victory parade on Friday.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Everything in Chicago, even the river, was awash in Cubbie blue today. The Chicago Cubs celebrated their first World Series title in over a century with a parade and rally.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Yes, a parade happens after any team wins a championship in any major sport, but there was nothing typical about today’s crowd in Chicago. An estimated 5 million fans jammed themselves along a 6-mile parade route that ran from Wrigley Field to Grant Park just to get a glimpse of their newly minted champions riding in double-decker buses.

CORNISH: Jackie Bienas was born in 1945, which, until this year, was the last time the Cubs had even played in the World Series. Today’s parade was a lot more relaxing for her than Wednesday night’s Game 7.

JACKIE BIENAS: Last game, I had to read my novel at the end because I was so tensed up. Like, I just couldn’t concentrate. But, of course, once they got ahead, I put that down, and then I watched the wonderful event at the end.

SHAPIRO: Rosalind Russell flew in from Argentina in time for Game 7. She says she just knew this was going to be the Cubs’ year.

ROSALIND RUSSELL: It’s all about those guys. Listen to the – that young group. They are so confident. It was something about them. It was something about the coach. This year, I knew it – this year.

SHAPIRO: Twenty-four-year-old Carlos Corral says this Cubs team is an inspiration.

CARLOS CORRAL: This is a great pick-me-up. I really do think now, now that the Cubs won the World Series, you can do almost anything if you want. Doesn’t matter, whatever it is, just believe in yourself, and you’ll eventually get there. Whether it takes two months or 100-plus years, (laughter) you’ll get there eventually (laughter).

SHAPIRO: Generations of Cubs fans have been waiting and waiting for this day. First baseman Anthony Rizzo said this World Series title was for them and for all those past Cubs players who could never quite make it to the promised land.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANTHONY RIZZO: Every single person that has worn this jersey I feel like won the World Series with us today – or the other day.

(APPLAUSE)

RIZZO: Dempster, Kerry Wood, Ernie Banks, who is looking down on us today smiling so bright right now – Billy Williams, Ronnie Santo – it’s just – every single player that’s still living, too, has been a big reason we’re here and a big part of this. And we thank them.

CORNISH: The Chicago Cubs and their fans have a few more months to revel in this. Pitchers and catchers report for spring training in February.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GO CUBS GO”)

STEVE GOODMAN: (Singing) The Cubs are going to win today. They’re singing go, Cubs, go. Go, Cubs, go. Hey, Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are going to win today. Go, Cubs, go. Go, Cubs, go…

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health November 4, 2016

Generic Drugmakers Facing Antitrust Inquiry Over Rising Prices

Generic drugmaker Mylan is one of the companies reported to be the subject of a Justice Department investigation into pricing of generic drugs. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images hide caption

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Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

The Justice Department is investigating the pricing practices of several generic drug manufacturers because the list prices of many older medications have risen in lockstep in recent years.

That investigation could lead to an antitrust lawsuit alleging price-fixing by the end of this year, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Bloomberg cited anonymous sources familiar with the probe.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the reported investigation for this story.

Many of the companies, including Teva, Mylan, Lannett Co., and Impax Laboratories, have disclosed in public securities filings that they are under investigation by the Justice Department and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen. Jepsen spokeswoman Jaclyn Falkowski declined to comment for this story.

Mylan’s disclosure said the following:

“Mylan N.V. received a subpoena from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) seeking information relating to the marketing, pricing and sale of our generic Doxycycline products and any communications with competitors about such products. The company is fully cooperating with DOJ’s inquiry.”

An antibiotic, doxycycline is used to treat bacterial infections, including acne, and sometimes used to prevent malaria. The drug’s price rose more than 8,000 percent from Oct. 2013 to April 2014, according to a report that was part of a congressional inquiry.

“Mylan is and has always been committed to cooperating with the Antitrust Division’s investigation,” said spokeswoman Nina Devlin in an emailed statement. “To date, we know of no evidence that Mylan participated in price fixing.”

The other companies’ disclosures were similar, often with different medications such as digoxin, a heart failure treatment, named. The price of digoxin rose more than 800 percent to $1.10 a tablet between 2012 and 2014, according to the Congressional report. It has since declined, according to GoodRx.

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Teva spokeswoman Denise Bradley said in a statement, “Teva is not aware of any facts that would give rise to an exposure to the Company with respect to these subpoenas.”

Lannett’s CEO said on a conference call that his company did nothing wrong.

The Bloomberg report comes on the same day that Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.), and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) sent a letter to the Justice Department asking it to investigate possible antitrust violations in the pricing of insulin. The lawmakers said the price of insulin products tripled from 2002 to 1013.

“Not only have these pharmaceutical companies raised insulin prices significantly – sometimes by double digits overnight,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “In many instances the prices have increased in tandem.”

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