Has been a major spike in anti-Semitic attacks in New York this year for n.p.r. News I'm Sean Carlson in New York the Russian military has declared its new intercontinental weapon operational They say the weapon can fly 27 times the speed of sound and can make Sherpa new verse while heading toward its target if true that would make the missile much harder to intercept officials say the missile can also carry a payload of up to 2 megatons the flu is in full swing just in time for the holidays the c.d.c. Estimates that 4600000 Americans have had the flu so far this season and it's not over yet N.P.R.'s Sidney leptin reports 25 states are now experiencing high flu activity according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention It estimates that there have been $39000.00 hospitalizations from the flu so far the rate of hospitalization is similar to previously seasons this flu season is still gaining steam according to Dr William Schaffner with Vanderbilt University Medical Center it likely will peak within the month and then several weeks we might see it recede know of course flu is fickle meaning it can be unpredictable last year there were 2 peaks one for each dominant strain of the virus public health experts say it's not too late to get a flu shot Sidney leptin n.p.r. News the major stock indexes on wall street clothes don't most flat to finish the week the s. And p. 500 closed out the day up 110th of a point to finish at 3240 the Nasdaq composite slipped 15 points the Dow Jones Industrials closed up 23 points to end the week at 28645 this is n.p.r. . U.s. Officials say an American defense contractor was killed today in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base several u.s. Service members and Iraqi troops were wounded the bases located near the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq officials there suspect the attack was carried out by Iranian backed militia. Legendary Broadway songwriter Jerry Herman has died he was 88 years old Hermann is best known for writing big happy optimistic musicals including Hello Dolly may mental Akasha fall he was also a major contributor to Aids research Hermann died yesterday in Miami from pulmonary complications Jeff Lunden reports one of Jerry Herman's biggest hits was a full which opened in 1983. And while Herman won a Tony Award for the score it was not the best of times the aids crisis was starting in many of the show's cast members died Hermann was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1905 and his lover passed away in 1989 but thanks to a cocktail of drugs he survived and gave back says Marilyn Stasio who coauthored Herman's autobiography he started a lot of hospices he gave a lot of money to Aids causes for n.p.r. News I'm Jeff Lunden in New York at least 12 people were killed today when a plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Kazakhstan another 54 people are said to be hospitalized the back Air jet was leaving the main airport in the city of all muddy when it crashed I'm Dale Willman n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include age 24 presenting uncut gems starring Adam Sandler Edina I'm Kevin Garnett directed by the staff the brothers now playing in theaters everywhere and a Annie e. Casey Foundation. This is Fresh Air I'm David Bianculli editor of the website t.v. Worth Watching sitting in for Terry Gross we usually spend this time of the season revisiting some of our staff interview picks for the year but since this is 21000 where widening the scope and presenting some of the staff picks for the entire decade today the focus is on Broadway musicals and our guests are some of the artists behind some of the biggest hits of the decade later we'll hear from T.V.'s South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker whose musical The Book of Mormon premiered on Broadway in 2011 and became a major hit the biggest hit of the decade was written by our 1st guest Lynne Mann Well Miranda who's musical Hamilton one Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama Miranda wrote the music the lyrics the book and starred on stage in the original cast almost 5 years since it premiered in 2015 Hamilton remains the hottest ticket on Broadway Miranda's 1st Broadway show in the Heights was a musical set in a Latino neighborhood in New York similar to the one in which he grew up in 2008 that show also won the Tony for Best Musical Terry Gross spoke with Lynne Mann Well Miranda in 2017 after he had left his starring role as Alexander Hamilton but his hip hop musical about the Founding Fathers remains a cultural phenomenon. Ok so I want to talk to you about how often. And so let's start with my shot and this is Alexander Hamilton making his big statement about how you know he's come to America he's going to make it and he's not giving away his shot you know and you know 1st it's going to be in the Revolutionary War and the new American government so let's hear some of it and then we'll talk so this is Lynne Mann Well Miranda from the cast recording of Hamilton by you know. Such. A trivial scrap. To King's College. I got Maysan astonished. The brains of an old Polish. Knowledge. Speech. Cold. Enough to get a job at McDonald's don't just walk the streets famishing the food is just. A column. For the Flynn man while Miranda from his cast recording of how much and so you are so incredible at these like intricate rhymes that you do in this show how do you assemble all these intricately placed rhymes for me the fun of writing my shot was it's Hamilton's declaration of purpose and I wanted to demonstrate his intellect and his ambition not just in what he was saying but in the way he was saying it so. Prior to his arrival and singing my shot the other guys in that bar right Laurens Mulligan in Lafayette are raw. I mean at the end of the line it's I'm John Lawrence in the place to be 2 pints and I was but I'm working on 3 rhyme at the end of the line and then here comes Hamilton and suddenly you're getting a lot of internal assonance and a lot of internal rhyming and not content to just rhyme at the end of the line but you know have these Big Pun ask lyrics you know I know the action in the street is exciting but Jesus between all the bleeding and fighting not been reading and writing so it's there intricately tied together and if you consider that Hamilton is delivering this in real time suddenly like whoa this is the greatest 1st Tyler who ever lived. And so that was the fun in constructing that and it was many days and months of work to sort of make his lyrics just that much more intricate than everybody else's because he was so smart and so verbal Yes So do you use any tools like a rhyming dictionary do you catalog words do you have like lists of words that you know when you were doing your research did you write down key words that you thought would be good to use in their lives and so that you'd have a kind of storage box like words or phrases that you could work with I would love to tell you that that's exactly what I did that would seem like it took such care but honestly I kind of throw the kitchen sink at whatever situation I'm in at the moment I'm writing so I remember when I got up to Lafayette section and being like wow I don't even have conversational French so going and figuring how do you say in French How do you say how do you count to 10 in French I didn't know any of these very elementary things and doing research just to be able to have it feel tossed off my life I get a mix of French and English while he is learning English in the original colonies and that was you know that amount of time. That I spent for those 2 lines. I'm also sort of a love letter to Lancelot in Camelot which is my my mother's favorite score so have him ending his line with Sam wa which is Lancelot's big tune that's my little love letter to Lerner and Loewe just him saying that So the answer is No I kind of I stop and research whatever situation that's and that being said I did have Ron Cherry Now his book as a guide post do you do anything to be able to capture the speed without tripping up your tongue does it get harder or easier over time when you're doing the same you know wraps every night and again it's really fast intricate lyrics and you have to get them unbeaten do it without stumbling. The fact that I'm a performer helps me enormously as a lyricist I wouldn't give a performer something I couldn't deliver myself. With the occasional exception of Davi Diggs who's just so exceptionally articulate and able to articulate at high speeds that I give him some raps that I probably couldn't deliver the same way at that velocity but I'm not trying to make something is difficult to perform every night needs to proceed at the speed of that character's thought because that's the only way it's actable But you know it's interesting I think the. It was an enormous challenge to do that show every night and yet who to blame but myself I wrote the heart and a and it was also the most thrilling roller coaster every night you know I got to fall in love I got to win a war I got to write words that inspired a nation so how it has such an interesting connection to the White House for 2 reasons the show basically originates at the White House you started off thinking of Hamilton as a concept album about Alexander Hamilton and the 1st time you performed one of the songs the opening song from the show it was at the White House what was it like an evening of American music or something that Michele Yeah about my thing about poetry and spoken word and it was in about May of 2009 you know fresh new administration and thrilled to be asked let's hear a little bit of that performance at the White House from 2000 Here's one man Well Miranda. I'm thrilled the White House called me tonight because I'm actually working on a hip hop album it's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip hop Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. You laugh but it's true that he was he was born a penniless orphan in St Croix illegitimate birth became George Washington's right hand man became treasury secretary beef with every other founding father and all on the strength of his writing I think he embodies the words ability to make a difference so I'm going to be doing the 1st song from that tonight I'm accompanied by Tony and Grammy winning music director Alex like more. Anything you need to know I'll be playing vice president Aaron Burr and snap along if you like. This is a bastard for Finn son of the whole reason the Scotsman dropped in the middle of the forgot and spot in the Caribbean but probably the wrist disqualified to be a hero when the scholar. Found him father without a father I got. To know a lot. Of stuff. Placed him in charge of the trade in. The way he. Was long. Haul the brawl that Flynn ran while Miranda performing the opening number from Hamilton at the White House with Michelle and Barack Obama in the audience so let's skip ahead when Vice President elect Mike Pence attended Hamilton and he was cheered he was booed when he was there and then when the show was over Brandon Victor Dixon who now plays Aaron Burr came out and read like a little speech directed to Mike Pence and I'll read some of it for our listeners who might not have heard this yet this is what he said Vice President elect Pence we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton an American Musical we really do we serve are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us our planet our children our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights sir but we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us all of us thank you truly for seeing this show this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men women of different colors creeds and orientations. So you co-wrote this as minors and you co-wrote. It with the director and the producer doing it right yes with Tommy and Jeffrey we got the heads up that he was coming that afternoon and sort of put that together before his arrival Ok so what was the conversation like between you and whoever else was involved whether you should say something or not. Well the conversation was this is been an incredibly divisive election with a lot of hurt feelings and disappointment and anger on both sides and the overwhelming sort of statement within that statement is we truly hope you lead all of us we're a play that tells the story of our founders with a very diverse company that we feel if you know reflects what our country looks like now and so it was really intended as an olive branch you know please lead all of us and I was what I was really grateful for was that Sunday Mike Pence really was grateful for that and I think got it in the sentiment in which it was intended he said I wasn't offended I assure you that we are trying to lead all of you and so I was I was grateful for his statements and for him stopping to listen you know he didn't have to do that but he did and I thought it felt like a a civil dialogue between us Lynn mineral Miranda the composer and lyricist of the Broadway musical Hamilton speaking to Terry Gross in 2017 more after a break this is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air Let's get back to Terry's 2017 interview with Lynn manwell Miranda the composer lyricist and original star of the musical Hamilton It's one of our staff picks for interviews of the decade so how often is in part a story about an immigrant and about immigrants and which of course relates to your family background your father came to New York from Puerto Rico for college and your mother technically making him not an immigrant because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth but the experience of Spanish to English displacement right are similar exact in your mother I think moved as an infant to the u.s. From Puerto Rico correct and you grew up in a predominantly Latino neighborhood. You went to like the Hunter College elementary and high school to have that right that's right yeah so you've spoken in the past about this divide between who you were at home and in your that neighborhood and who you were at school with friends what was the difference between those 2 use. Oh man I feel like we've just stepped into codes which because that's what I was doing I think that's that's sort of the interesting thing I mean I think if you want to make a recipe for making a writer have them feel a little out of place everywhere have them be an observer kind of all the time and that's a great way to make a writer I won the lotto when I got into Hunter to get a great free public school education sort of saved my family and I was aware of it I was aware of that I was at a school with kids who were really smart. And I also had friends in the neighborhood who do went to the local school and I remember feeling that drift happen you know when you spend your entire day with someone your closer friends become the ones you go to school with and yet I'd still have sleep overs with the friends from the neighborhood make movies with my friends and they were hood and you know the corner of that I lived in was like this little Latin American country it's one in which the nanny who lived with us and raised us who also raised my father in Puerto Rico never learned needed to learn English all of the business owners in and around our block all spoke Spanish and yet I'd go to school and I'd say I'd be at my friend's houses on the Upper East Side Upper West Side and I'd be the one translating to the nanny who spoke Spanish so it's interesting to become a Latino cultural ambassador when you're 7 you know. So I had that experience as well so you know we change depending on the room we're in I'm talking quieter because I'm talking to Terry Gross. So you obviously you know love rap and hip hop what were the 1st recording. That made a big impression the 1st rap recordings that made a big impression on you. I've several I remember my sister bringing home the Fat Boys when I was really little and also taking me to the 1st hip hop movies I remember going to see Beat Street going to see breakin as a really little kid being sort of dragged along by my older sister I my sister is as responsible for anyone for giving me good taste in music. I remember stealing her copy of Black Sheep a wolf in sheep's clothing and learning engine and. The New York transit law and I think that's probably the 1st rap song I really worked hard to memorize in 6th grade but then also you know naughty by nature and Queen Latifa the music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you and I find that it's it's all over the score of Hamilton the quotes are big quotes they're Big Pun these are all New York east coast ninety's rappers and that's when I was a teenager so I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you to do one the 1st rhymes that you remember writing that you still remember today. Well hello my name is Lynn but if you're dyslexic call me male my rhymes are going to kill so I suggest you write. To me I am the you picked to me it coolest can't be read to me because I will be hitting the mike tonight notice my voice went up about 2 thirds it's because at that time I was listening to nothing but the far side and my favorite rapper in the far side had that well there she goes again don't just Ethiopian and now the world around me it was it was that cadence and I think my rapper voice is still influenced by far side but that is those lines were a rhyme I wrote in one thread that I showed to friends and they're like oh right stick to your day come on those are pretty good that's funny. Now so your father has or had a political consulting company he worked with New York City Mayor Ed Koch he still has it and it vising him on Latino Affairs and you apparently wrote jingles when you were younger for this political consulting company that your father. How old were you when you started writing them and please sing one for us well jingles is misleading because it sounds like a way to wake up in the morning it's not they're not like I like Ike they were it's background music for commercials I was basically cheap labor for my dad he would say I need 30 seconds of some jazz for a Sharpton spot that's going to be on w.b. Ls or I need some bright spots for Fernando for air campaign commercial you know I wrote music for Eliot Spitzer before we knew what we knew when he was running for governor and whatever Democrat was running or my dad was working with I was writing the campaign music I like writing the negative ads more than because it's more minor chords you just kind of hit the synthesizer. Politician x. Voted against that and then it ends with bright salsa. Vote politician y. So you know who you're talking about. The compartmentalize you that you are when you are at home and you know that Tino neighborhood in the you you were at school when your friends were white and Latino and then you learned finally to bring all those parts together with the same kind of compartmentalisation happening for you musically you loved Broadway shows and you loved him and it's maybe hard to find people who were in their teens love both. Yeah I mean absolutely and honestly what a fantastic question because theater is really the thing that began to break that divide for me my senior year in high school I was the director of the school musical and I picked West Side Story painfully aware that there were not enough Latino kids to play all the sharks. At hunter must or at least audition and so what that became for me was actually this kind of weird. Way of bringing my culture to school I remember being knocked out when I 1st saw the movie in 6th grade that there's actually a musical number in the canon about whether you should stay in Puerto Rico and live in the United States. You know that's amazing when you're 12 and you grow up in New York