Showing results by narrator "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Political satirist Bill Maher on this edition of Fresh Air. He's just published When you ride ALONE you ride with bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism.

Hear former presidential hopeful and best selling author of Great Political Wit, Senator Bob Dole, talk about his new book, Great Presidential Wit (I Wish I was in the Book), a collection of funny anecdotes and quotations by or about American presidents.

One of the founders of Apple Computers, Steven Jobs, talks about the future of computer technology on this edition of Fresh Air. Jobs led the development of the Macintosh computer and in 1985 he founded NeXT Computer. NeXT's mission is to develop customized software for businesses; two of their applications are OPENSTEP and NEXTSTEP.

In honor of his upcoming 65th birthday, jazz bassist Charlie Haden is on this edition of Fresh Air. As a child he sang with his family on their country music radio show. Later he worked with Ornette Coleman when Coleman's music created controversy and sometimes provoked a violent response by listeners. Haden has also worked with Art Pepper, and Paul Bley, and he's recorded with many artists including Abbey Lincoln, Bill Frisell, Joshua Redman, Rick Lee Jones, and more.

Journalists Charlie Savage and Lawrence Wright, and linguist Geoff Nunberg are guests on this edition of Fresh Air. Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe has been awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his "revelations that President Bush often used 'signing statements' to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws."

Because Audible was not granted digital audio rights to today's issue of Fresh Air, we have selected a great interview with film critic and historian David Thomson and sleight of hand expert and actor Ricky Jay British from Audible's Fresh Air archive.

Director Mike Nichols on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He directed the new HBO movie Wit based on the Pulitzer-prize winning off-Broadway play.

Actor Jeff Bridges and singer and songwriter Joe Pernice on this edition of Fresh Air. Jeff Bridges has starred in The Last Picture Show, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Tucker, The Big Lebowski, Seabiscuit and other films. On each of his movie sets he's photographed the action behind the scenes.

Satirist Al Franken and actor Michael J. Fox on this edition of Fresh Air. Al Franken's new book spoofs how-to-succeed books. It's called Oh, The Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or, Failing That, Happiness. Franekn is former co-producer of Saturday Night Live where he created the self-help guru Stuart Smalley ("I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"). He's also the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.

Musician Ravi Shankar, actors Vince Vaughn and Gene Hackman on this edition of Fresh Air. Today, we learned that former Beatle George Harrison has died.

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.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and playwright, actor and director Sam Shepard on this edition of Fresh Air. Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize this week, and was only the third President to do so. We listen back to several of his interviews: in which he talks about his work as a mediator his life in the Whitehouse and his spiritual life. Sam Shepard won a Pulitzer for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff.

Former U.S. ambassador to Croatia Peter W. Galbraith and professor of psychiatry and psychology Robert Jay Lifton on this edition of Fesh Air. Peter W. Galbraith is now professor of national-security studies at the National War College in Washington D.C. Since the late 1980s he's been tracking Iraqi war crimes. He has also worked closely with the Kurds - who govern a small territory in Iraq. He'll talk with Terry about what a post-Saddam Iraq might look like.

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 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.

The fourth season of HBO's critically acclaimed series, The Sopranos, starts this Sunday, September 15, 2002. On this edition of Fresh Air, TV critic David Bianculli talks about the new season and host Terry Gross talks two of the show's actors, Steven Van Zandt and Edie Falco. Steve Van Zandt is the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. He's also recorded solo and has produced a number of records for other bands.

Voice and acting coach Patsy Rodenburg and New York City Police Detective Dave Fitzpatrick on this edition of Fresh Air. Patsy Rodenburg's worked with some of the world's leading English-speaking actors, including Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith and Nicole Kidman. Rodenburg is the Director of Voice at London's National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Hear writer Alice Sebold and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. Alice Sebold's new book is called The Almost Moon. It's about a middle aged woman who murders her ailing, elderly mother. Sebold is also the author of Lucky, an account of her own rape, and The Lovely Bones, about a 14-year-old girl looking down from heaven after her own rape and murder. The Lovely Bones is about to be made into a film directed by Peter Jackson.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the film West Side Story, Fresh Air speaks with cast members.