Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Artist, writer and designer Maurice Sendak and actress Patricia Clarkson on this edition of Fresh Air. Sendak's new book, Brundibar, is based on a Czech opera of the same name. It was set to music by Hans Krasa, who was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp Terezin and later killed in Auschwitz.

The late writer, Carol Shields on this edition of Fresh Air. Carol Shields discusses her life, her work, and her diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her best-selling novel The Stone Diaries. Her books are often about middle class people leading quiet lives.

Writer David Kertzer on this edition of Fresh Air. Kertzer is the author of The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism. In the book, he focuses on the time period from Napolean to Hitler, and how 'traditional' Catholic forms of dealing with Jews became transformed into modern anti-Semitism. Kertzer is Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Studies and a professor of anthropology and Italian Studies at Brown University.

Dr. Jerome Groopman and Saudi Arabian-born journalist Faiza Saleh Ambah on this edition of Fresh Air. Dr. Groopman is a Harvard Medical School Chair and is Chief of Experimental Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Former New York Times Balkans Bureau Chief and Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Hedges on this edition of Fresh Air. Hedges is currently living in New York. He's covered war zones in Central America, the Middle East, and the Balkans for more than 20 years and is the author of the new book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

Hear film director Paul Thomas Anderson, book critic Maureen Corrigan, and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. Paul Thomas Anderson's new release is There Will Be Blood. It's based on an Upton Sinclair novel and stars Daniel Day Lewis as an oil prospector in the earliest days of the industry. Anderson's other films are the Oscar nominated films Boogie Nights and Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love, starring Adam Sandler.

Hear novelist Junot Diaz, critic-at-large John Powers, and world-music critic Milo Miles on this edition of Fresh Air. Junot Diaz's new book is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The highly acclaimed novel tells both a family and a political story set in the Dominican Republic and the United States. The narrative trips along in a slangy style that mixes Spanish and English.

Remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis on this edition of Fresh Air. Head of the National Security Archive Tom Blanton helped research information for The Cuban Missile Crisis. In the book, released documents and top-secret files reveal how close the U.S. came to a nuclear entanglement. In 1987, the National Security Archive filed suit against the U.S. government for failing to produce the documents they requested.

Writer Andrew Solomon on this archive edition of Fresh Air. His book on depression, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, won a 2001 National Book Award. The work came out of a 1998 New Yorker magazine article. He drew on personal experience as well as interviews with patients, physicians, philosophers and drug designers. (Original Broadcast Date: June 11, 2001)

Jon Stewart, co-producer and anchorman of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Jim DeRogatis, author of Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic, on this edition of Fresh Air. Stewart's show is an alternative take on the news.

Hear Pulitzer prize-winning historian Garry Wills and epidemiologist Devra Davis on this edition of Fresh Air. Garry Wills' new book is about the separation of church and state written into the Constitution by our founding fathers, and the challenges to it through the rise of evangelical fervor over the years. His new book is Head and Heart: American Christianities. Wills says that, contrary to the popular notion, the separation of church and state is "the great protector of religion, not its enemy."

Remembering former publisher of The Washington Post, Katherine Graham and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead on this edition of Fresh Air. Graham died on July 17, at the age of 84. Graham's father owned The Washington Post in 1933 and later her husband, Phil Graham, took over. Following her husband's suicide in 1963, Graham became publisher, knowing little about the managerial or journalistic aspects of the job. But, learning while she worked, she transformed the paper into one of the country's most respected newspapers. The paper broke the Watergate scandal and published the...

Financial investigative reporter Alex Berenson and writer, actor, director, and comedian Harry Shearer on this edition of Fresh Air. Alex Berenson is a financial investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Chris Carter, creator of the popular Fox TV series, The X-Files, and novelist Alan Furst on this archive edition of Fresh Air. The X-Files - a series about a team of FBI agents investigating paranormal activity like alien abductions, telepathy, and the occult - has a cult following. This was its eighth and final season. Carter also created the series, The Lone Gunman, a spinoff of The X-Files featuring three computer-savvy conspiracy geeks.

Director Ridley Scott and journalist Martin Meredith on this edition of Fresh Air. Ridley Scott has received an Academy Award nomination.

Musician Al Kooper on this edition of Fresh Air. He turns 60 years old on February 5th. A benefit concert celebrating the event is set for the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on Jan 31. Kooper helped popularize the Hammond B3 organ as part of rock music, performing on recordings of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. He was a member of the legendary Blues Project, and later founded the group Blood Sweat and Tears.

Actor, singer, and drag queen Ru Paul and cartoonist Craig McCracken on this edition of Fresh Air. At 6'7", Ru Paul is even taller in heels and has fashioned for himself a supermodel persona. He attributes his mainstream appeal to his non-threatening sexuality and his "non-bitchy" drag queen personality. Ru Paul is appearing out of drag in the new comedy But I'm A Cheerleader.

Writer Marijane Meaker on this edition of Fresh Air. Her new book is about her two-year affair with the great writer Patricia Highsmith. The two met in the 1950s at a Greenwich Village lesbian bar. Both were writing lesbian pulp novels under pseudonyms. Meaker wrote Spring Fire (1952) under the pen name Vin Packer. It sold 1.5 million copies. She also wrote under the name Ann Aldrich.

Musician, producer, arranger, composer Quincy Jones on this 70th birthday rebroadcast edition of Fresh Air. In his fifty year career he's worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16 year old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hampton's band beside Clifford Brown. He went on to work with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Lesley Gore and many others.

Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Michael Baime, M.D. discuss God and the brain on this edition of Fresh Air. Newberg conducted brain scans while people prayed and meditated to see if he could locate the brain function that caused the feeling of oneness and the presence of God.