Showing results by author "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.

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.

Audible presents a special collection of recent Fresh Air interviews with actors Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Nicolas Cage, and Cherry Jones, as well as Navajo code talker Rev. Roy Hawthorne, screenwriter John Ridley, directors Paul and Chris Weitz, and cartoonist Stan Lee.

Audible® was not granted digital rights to today's entire program. Instead, we bring you cartoonist, writer, and Simpsons creator Matt Groening on this edition of Fresh Air. Matt Groening began his career as a rock critic before going on to create the much-loved cartoon series The Simpsons.

Son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jay Bakker and remembering code breaker Leo Marks on this edition of Fresh Air. In 1989 Jay Bakker's father, Jimmy, was convicted of defrauding his followers at the Praise The Lord ministry, and sent to prison. Then his parents divorced. Bakker was 13 years old at the time.

Actress Cherry Jones and hip hop forefather Grand Master Flash on this edition of Fresh Air. Cherry Jones is currently appearing in Lysistrata at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia. Jones is a founding member of the American Repertory Theatre and has appeared in 23 A.R.T. productions. She's won Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards. Jones has starred or appeared in many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

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."

Hear professor Linda J. Bilmes, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. Linda J. Bilmes is professor of public finance at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She has collaborated on a new book with Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist who teaches at Columbia University: The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.

Hear The Wire creator and executive producer David Simon and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead on this edition of Fresh Air. David Simon is the creator and executive producer of HBO's acclaimed series The Wire. He also wrote many of the episodes. The series finale airs on Sunday.

Hear journalists Michael Specter and Edward Lucas, and classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz, on this edition of Fresh Air. Michael Specter is a staff writer for The New Yorker, where he writes about science and technology. In the current edition of the magazine, he writes about the difficulties of measuring carbon footprints. His article is "Big Foot: In Measuring Carbon Emissions, It's Easy to Confuse Morality and Science".

Hear investigative reporter for The New York Times Philip Shenon and the first director of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, John DiIulio, Jr. In his new book, Philip Shenon looks into the missed evidence and the ignored clues as well as the political considerations that interfered with the 9/11 Commission's work. His book is The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.

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.

Writer Jim Knipfel on this edition of Fresh Air. Knipfel's first book, the acclaimed memoir Slackjaw, is his funny, irreverent account of loosing his sight and trying to take his life. In his new book, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, he writes about the time he spent in a psychiatric ward. The New York Times says Knipfel is "blessed with a natural, one might even say reflexive, knack for telling stories."

Crime writer James Ellroy and poet Maxine Kumin on this edition of Fresh Air. Ellroy sets his novels in 1950's L.A., where he grew up. His series of novels, L.A. Quartet was a best seller. His latest novel is called Hollywood Nocturnes. When he was ten, his mother was murdered near their L.A. home. He wrote an article about returning to L.A. to go through the police files on his mother in Gentleman's Quarterly.

Hear the late Beverly Sills and filmmaker Werner Herzog on this edition of Fresh Air. First, classical-music critic Lloyd Schwartz pays tribute to opera singer Beverly Sills, who died Monday at the age of 78 from lung cancer. Then, we feature a 1985 interview with Sills. Also, film critic David Edelstein reviews Rescue Dawn, the first Hollywood feature film by Werner Herzog.

Actors Morgan Freeman and Tim Roth on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Morgan Freeman is one of the stage and screen's most acclaimed actors for his ability to immerse himself in different roles. He originated the role of the chauffeur in the Broadway production of Driving Miss Daisy. Later he revived the role in the movie version, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Hear author Martha Weinman Lear and authors Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson on this edition of Fresh Air. Martha Weinman Lear's new book is called Where Did I Leave My Glasses? The What, When and Why of Normal Memory Loss. She explores the increasingly common phenomenon among baby boomers of memory loss associated with aging. She is also the author of the best-selling memoir Heartsounds.

Hear novelist and screenwriter Richard Price and book critic Maureen Corrigan on this edition of Fresh Air. Richard Price's new novel is Lush Life, about the repercussions of a shooting on the Lower East side. Price has also written for HBO's The Wire, which ends a five-year run on Sunday.

Hear musicians Zac and Ethan Holtzman, TV critic David Bianculli, and book critic Maureen Corrigan on this edition of Fresh Air. The Holtzman's band is Dengue Fever. They have a new album, Venus on Earth. Their music is inspired by Cambodian pop of the sixties and seventies, which itself was inspired by American pop played over U-S Armed Forces Radio during the Vietnam War.