Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Writer Max Allan Collins and director Sam Mendes on this edition of Fresh Air. Max Allan Collins' graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis for the film of the same name. Mickey Spillane said of the novel, "I know mysteries, and I know comics - and Road to Perdition is one great ride!" Collins twice won the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus award for his Nathaniel Heller historical thrillers, True Detective and Stolen Away.

The host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon and remembering dancer Gwen Verdon on this edition of Fresh Air. Simon's written a memoir, Home & Away: Memoir of a Fan. Fresh Air remembers dancer Gwen Verdon. She died today at the age of 75. She became an overnight Broadway sensation in 1953 as a dancer in Can Can, for which she won her first Tony Award.

Hear German writer and director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, film critic David Edelstein, actor David Duchovny, and musician Ben Vaughn on this edition of Fresh Air. Von Donnersmarck's film The Lives of Others won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It's coming out on DVD August 21, 2007. It's a spy film set in the former East Germany in 1984.

Audible® was not granted digital rights to today's entire program. Instead, we bring you a conversation with documentary filmmaker Michael Moore on this edition of Fresh Air. Moore talks about his controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11, which won best picture at Cannes and broke box-office records for a documentary in 2004. His books include Stupid White Men and Will They Ever Trust Us Again? His new film, Sicko, opens at the end of the month. (Original Airdate: 10/18/2004)

Hear former Vice President Al Gore, book critic Maureen Corrigan, lead singer and songwriter of Radiohead Thom Yorke, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. Al Gore has just been given the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for fighting global warming. His Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, aims to get the message out to the masses.

Ruth Kluger is the author of the new memoir, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. Kluger was 10 years old when she and her mother were deported to the Jewish "ghetto" Theresienstadt. From there they were sent to Auschwitz and the young Kluger survived to go to the work camp Christianstadt by lying about her age. Her memoir Still Alive was published in Germany in 1992 and has just been published in the US.

Hear all about actor John Cusack's prolific acting career on this edition of Fresh Air.

Former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration David Kessler on this edition of Fresh Air. As head of the FDA, Kessler took on one of the country's most powerful foes: the tobacco industry. He led an investigation of tobacco makers to determine whether nicotine was a drug, and if so, how it should be regulated by the FDA. Kessler's book is A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle with a Deadly Industry.

Singers Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green on this edition of Fresh Air Teddy Pendergrass was a popular soul singer in the group "Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes.

Fifth Beatle Pete Best on this edition of Fresh Air. He was the drummer for the Beatles in their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. His mother, Mona Best, was the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool.

Writer Benson Bobrick on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the author of the recently published Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired. The book chronicles the difficulties scholars had in translating the Bible into English - efforts that culminated in the King James Version.

Comedian and political commentator Al Franken on this edition of Fresh Air. His new book is Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Franken recently made headlines when the Fox News Channel tried to sue him over the phrase "fair and balanced," which Fox claimed as its own. Fox lost, and Franken got lots of publicity for the book, and it is now a best seller.

Religion scholar Karen Armstrong on Islamic fundamentalism on this edition of Fresh Air. She's the author of the best selling books The Battle for God, Jerusalem, and The History of God. She's also the author of Islam: A Short History. (Broadcast Date: October 17, 2001)

Journalist Gabrielle Glaser and singers Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang on this edition of Fresh Air. Gabrielle Glaser's new book is The Nose: A Profile of Sex, Beauty, and Survival. The book is a history of the nose (and smell), its science, biology and cultural significance. Host Terry Gross will talk with her primarily about how the nose and sinuses work.

Hear political scientist Jonathan Oberlander and Canadian actor/comic Mark McKinney on this edition of Fresh Air. Jonathan Oberlander's expertise is in health politics and policy. He'll discuss the problems with our health-care system and tell us how each of the presidential candidates approaches the issue of health care. Oberlander is associate professor of social medicine and health policy and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fresh Air celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by talking with Shirley Ann Barnhard, Clayborne Carson, and James Farmer. Shirley Ann Barnhard is a staff member and tour guide at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, where Martin Luther King, Jr., was once co-pastor with his father. Clayborne Carson is founding director of the King Papers Project. James Farmer is the co-founder of CORE, the Congress On Racial Equality.

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss on this edition of Fresh Air. His book Reaching for Glory: The Secret Lyndon Johnson Tapes, 1964-1965 is now out in paperback. It is Beschloss's second volume on the LBJ tapes. Beschloss will talk about the tapes, and we will hear excerpts, including some recordings of conversations about Vietnam, Civil Rights, and with Jackie Kennedy.

Museum director Gretchen Worden and actress Mary Louise Parker on this edition of Fresh Air. Gretchen Worden is the director of the Mutter Museum. She's just put together a book of photographs of and from the museum's collection of human oddities and outdated medical models. The Mutter Museum is in Philadelphia, PA. It is one of the last medical museums from the nineteenth century. It originated with the collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter who gathered unique specimens for teaching purposes.

British actress Charlotte Rampling and actor Chris Cooper on this edition of Fresh Air. Charlotte Rampling is known for her great beauty. She was a model before beginning her film career in the sixties with hits such as Georgy Girl and The Damned.

Comedian and political satirist Al Franken and actor Benicio Del Toro on this edition of Fresh Air. In December, Franken was part of a USO tour performing for troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait. The tour lasted eight days, and he returned Christmas Day. He'll talk about the tour and do some of his routine from it. Franken's books include Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot.