Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Hear United Nations official Jan Egeland and actor Chris Cooper on this edition of Fresh Air. Jan Egeland is the former United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and the former UN emergency relief chief. He's written a new memoir about his experiences negotiating with tyrants and murderers, and addressing the humanitarian crisis around the world: A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity.

Writer Michael Pollan. His book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World takes a look at four plants cultivated by humans: the apple, the tulip, potatoes and marijuana. Pollan demonstrates that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship: Do we plant potatoes, or do potatoes seduce us into planting them? Pollan questions the assumption that we are in charge of our agriculture.

Writer David Rakoff on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He's a regular contributor to Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and public radio's This American Life. One of his peers, writer Paul Rudnick says of him, "Rakoff is a comic saint, an ideal mix of the crabby and the debonair." Rakoff has a new collection of essays, Fraud. He's also appearing in Amy & David Sedaris' new off-broadway show.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen on this edition of Fresh Air. His critically acclaimed new novel The Corrections is a saga.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner and multi-ethnic author Greg Sarris on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Congress has decided to conduct a study of the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-Cold War world. The agency suffered a shake-up following the discovery of the double agent Aldrich Ames. Weiner, who writes about the CIA for The New York Times, talks about what changes may take place in the agency as a result of the investigation.

Hear investigative reporter Mark Schapiro and book critic Maureen Corrigan, on this edition of Fresh Air. Mark Schapiro's new book is called Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, and What's at Stake for American Power.

Neal Conan, host of NPR's Talk of the Nation, on this archive edition of Fresh Air. During the summer of 2000, Conan took a hiatus from his duties at NPR to follow the fortunes of the Aberdeen Arsenal, a minor league baseball team.

Hear David Chase, the creator and executive producer of the HBO hit series The Sopranos, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. The last gasp of The Sopranos is Sunday night, when the final episode of its seven-year run is broadcast. (Original Airdate: 6/22/2000) Then, David Edelstein reviews Ocean's 13.

TV Producer Lawrence O'Donnell on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the creator and producer of NBC's new series Mr. Sterling about a freshman senator on Capitol Hill. Previously O'Donnell was a writer and producer for the first two seasons of NBC's The West Wing. Before his television career, O'Donnell was in politics himself.

Writer Laura Hillenbrand and Random House editor Jonathan Karp on this edition of Fresh Air. Laura Hillenbrand is the author of the best selling book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, about the horse who became a racetrack sensation in the 1930s.

Hear historian David W. Blight on this edition of Fresh Air. Blight is director of Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and a professor of American history. His new book A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation is based on the first-hand accounts, recently uncovered, of Wallace Turnage, a teenage field hand on an Alabama plantation and John Washington, an urban slave in Virginia.

Singer and songwriter Aimee Mann on this edition of Fresh Air. Mann is best known for her work on the soundtrack for the film Magnolia. Her song "Save Me" from the film was nominated for an Oscar. Her new release is Bachelor No. 2. Previously the album was available over her Web site, Aimeemann.com, and at her concert performances. Now it is available in stores.

Business journalist Dan Briody talks about the Carlyle Group on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the author of The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group is one of the most powerful and well-connected private equity firms in the world. Its investments - most notably - in timely defense and aerospace industries has made it highly profitable.

Writer Joyce Johnson talks about her relationship to Beat icon Jack Kerouac, and her new book, Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters on this edition of Fresh Air. In 1957, Johnson started a relationship with the then little-known writer Kerouac. Nine months later, Kerouac's Beat classic On the Road was published. Johnson will talk about her two-year, tumultuous love affair with Kerouac, how the publication of On the Road changed Kerouac, and she'll talk about what it was like being young and female and part of the Manhattan bohemian scene.

Writer Neil Baldwin and remembering poet Lucy Grealy on this edition of Fresh Air. Baldwin is executive director of the National Book Foundation and author of the book, Henry Ford and the Jews, in which he details Ford's early obsession with moralistic writings condemning Jews for not accepting Christ. Grealy died in December 2002 at the age of 39. As a child, she spent five years being treated for cancer, which left her face disfigured.

Oscar-winning animator John Lasseter and singer/guitarist Jon Langford on this edition of Fresh Air. John Lasseter is the Executive Vice President of Creative for Pixar, Inc. and one of the founding members of the computer animated filmmaking company. He served as Director and Animator of the feature films Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life.

Hear comedian and actress Sarah Silverman and British food critic Tom Parker Bowles on this edition of Fresh Air. The second season of The Sarah Silverman Show begins tomorrow on Comedy Central (Wednesdays @ 10:30). Silverman's one-woman off-Broadway show, Jesus is Magic, was made into a film. Silverman's satire is ribald and rude, controversial, and almost nothing is off limits, including jokes about September 11th, AIDS, and the Holocaust.

Jazz bassist Ron Carter and filmmaker Burr Steers on this edition of Fresh Air. Ron Carter has more than two thousand recordings to his credit. From 1963-1968 he was part of the Miles Davis Quintet with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Wayne Shorter. Over the years, he's played with Randy Weston, Herbie Mann, Betty Carter, Eric Dolphy, Sony Rollins, McCoy Tyner and others.

Writer Nick Hornby and sherpa Jamling Tensing Norgay on this archive edition of Fresh Air.

Wall Street Journal reporters Rebecca Smith and John R. Emshwiller and comic Bill Maher on this edition of Fresh Air. Rebecca Smith is a national energy reporter and John R. Emshwiller is a senior national correspondent who covers white-collar crime.