Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Writer and radio personality Garrison Keillor on this edition of Fresh Air. Garrison Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion, broadcast from Minnesota and heard weekly on public radio stations nationwide. Last year, Keillor published two new books. One is a semi-autobiographical novel, called Lake Wobegon Summer 1956. The other is in collaboration with photographer Richard Olsenius: In Search of Lake Wobegon.

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and actor Greg Kinnear on this edition of Fresh Air. Sondheim was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein, and went on to revolutionize musical theatre. His first major success was writing lyrics for West Side Story. He also composed the music and wrote the lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Follies, and A Little Night Music to name a few.

Voice and acting coach Patsy Rodenburg and fashion journalists Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine on this edition of Fresh Air. Rodenburg has worked with some of the world's leading English-speaking actors, including Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith, and Nicole Kidman.

Religious scholar Elaine Pagels talks about the Gospel of Thomas and Middle East energy expert Youssef M. Ibrahim on this edition of Fresh Air. Elaine Pagels latest book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, is about a religious text that is little known - the secret Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945. She will explain why it was suppressed by the church and kept out of the cannon.

Computer programmer Linus Torvalds on this edition of Fresh Air. He is the creator of Linux, a computer operating system intended to improve upon Unix. When Torvalds wrote the original code in 1991, he sent it out on the Internet to allow anyone to make changes and improvements.

Hear Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, on this edition of Fresh Air. His show parodies, and is modeled after, The O'Reilly Factor. In fact, in a New Yorker review, Nancy Franklin writes, "Colbert resembles nobody more than he does Bill O'Reilly, and like O'Reilly, he conveys fake humility and easy rage toward inappropriate targets."

Actor/comedian/screenwriter/playwright and novelist Steve Martin on this edition of Fresh Air. His new novel The Pleasure of My Company follows his best selling novella Shopgirl (which he is making into a new film). He wrote the play Picasso at The Lapin Agile and is the author of a collection of short stories, Cruel Shoes. Martin's screenwriting credits include L.A. Story, and Roxanne.

Singer Emmylou Harris and horror writer Peter Straub on this archive edition of Fresh Air.

Hear conservative William F. Buckley, musicians Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, on this edition of Fresh Air. William F. Buckley died on Wednesday. Buckley is often cited with bringing conservative thought into the mainstream in liberal post-war America. He was the founder of the conservative magazine the National Review and for many years, the magazine's editor-in-chief. His popularity as a public intellectual increased through his television appearances, particularly as the host of the long-running television show Firing Line.

Comic Bob Newhart on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He's been a part of the American comedy landscape since 1961 when his debut comedy album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart became a surprise hit. Since then he's starred in three TV shows, including the Peabody award winning original The Bob Newhart Show, and appeared in numerous films. There's a new Rhino anthology of his classic routines, Something Like This...The Bob Newhart Anthology.

Soviet born journalist Masha Gessen and poet Li-Young Lee on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Masha Gessen edited a collection of post-Soviet fiction by women, Half a Revolution: Contemporary Fiction by Russian Women. Gessen says that most of the writers in the collection belong to the "mute generation" that came of age under Brezhnev.

Audible® was not granted digital rights to today's program. We bring you comedian George Carlin on this edition of Fresh Air. George Carlin, whose "seven dirty words" routine was the center of a famous obscenity case in the 1970s, talks about his book When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? His other books include Napalm & Silly Putty and Brain Droppings.

Hear comic and actor Jerry Seinfeld and journalist James Fallows on this edition of Fresh Air. Jerry Seinfeld stars in Bee Movie, an animated feature. Seinfeld began his career as a stand-up comic and went on to star in the NBC hit television show Seinfeld, which ran from 1989 to 1998. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his work on the show.

Hear the late writer and editor William Maxwell, classical-music critic Lloyd Schwartz, and film critic David Edelstein on this edition of Fresh Air. In honor of the centennial of William Maxwell's birth, and his contribution to American writing, the Library of America is publishing a two-volume collection of his novels and short stories. The first, which collects his early work, is out now.

Robert Plant, former lead singer of the band Led Zeppelin, on this edition of Fresh Air. Plant has a new solo CD that includes tracks he recorded before Zeppelin and after. It's called Sixty-Six to Timbuktu.

Musicians Ray Davis, Marianne Faithfull, Pete Townsend, and Colin Blunstone on this special edition of Fresh Air, "The British Invasion." Ray Davies started The Kinks in 1964 with his brother. They are said to be the pioneers of the rowdy garage band genre of rock music. Their many hits included: "You Really Got Me," "Lola," "All Day and All of the Night," and "Tired of Waiting for you."

Hear business columnist Gretchen Morgenson and classical-music critic Lloyd Schwartz on this edition of Fresh Air. Gretchen Morgenson has covered the financial markets for The New York Times since 1988. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her "trenchant and incisive" coverage of Wall Street.

Professor and writer Azar Nafisi on this edition of Fresh Air. Nafisi taught English literature at the University of Tehran and Free Islamic University and Allameh Tabatabai University in Iran. She was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil. She left Iran in 1997 and is now a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Singer and Songwriter Tom Waits on this edition of Fresh Air. Since the 1973 release of his first album, Closing Time, Waits has won over fans with his original songwriting and distinctive, gravely vocal style. One reviewer calls Waits "the Ultimate hobo boho, a Jack-in-the-box cum storyteller." Musicians including Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart have recorded covers of his songs.

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.