Before states ran legal lotteries there was the underground street version — the numbers. When writer Bridgett M. Davis was growing up in Detroit in the ’60s, her mother was a successful bookie in the African-American community. She says the numbers helped fund both an underground economy and legitimate businesses at a time when opportunities for African-Americans were limited. Davis’ memoir is ‘The World According to Fannie Davis.’

Critic John Powers reviews the films ‘Everybody Knows’ and ‘Cold War.’

Benjamin Dreyer is the copy chief for Random House. He talks with Terry Gross about Oxford commas, his problem with “very,” and gender neutral pronouns. His new book is ‘Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style.‘