Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Because Audible was not granted digital audio rights to today's issue of Fresh Air, we have selected a great interview with the late writer Carol Shields from the Fresh Air archive. In this interview, 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. She died on July 16, 2003. Her last novel, Unless was written after her diagnosis.

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.

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ron Suskind on this edition of Fresh Air. The two have collaborated on the new book, The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill. The book chronicles his nearly two years with the Bush administration.

Joey Ramone, the lead singer of the punk band the Ramones, died earlier this month. He had lymphoma. From their start in 1974, the Ramones combined fast, deafening guitar with precise drumming to create a hurricane of sound. Their songs had titles like "Beat on the Brat," "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." This edition of Fresh Air features an archive interview with Ramone from 1988.

Tammy Faye Messner and record executive Simon Cowell on this edition of Fresh Air. Tammy Faye Messner, along with her ex-husband Jim Bakker, built the Praise the Lord televangelist network. Record executive Simon Cowell is one of the judges on the talent show, American Idol, a spin-off of the show he co-created in Britian, Pop Idol.

Singer and songwriter Aimee Mann on this edition of Fresh Air. Mann is best known for her work on the soundtrack for the film Magnolia. Her song "Save Me" from the film was nominated for an Oscar. Her new release is Bachelor No. 2. Previously the album was available over her Web site, Aimeemann.com, and at her concert performances. Now it is available in stores.

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.

The HBO hit series Sex and the City, begins a new season July 21st. On this edition of Fresh Air, we'll hear from two people involved with the show: actress Sarah Jessica Parker and writer and executive producer Michael Patrick King. Sarah Jessica Parker was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She's been acting for most of her life, including playing Annie on Broadway, the young bimbo in L.A. Story, and a fed-up fiancee in Honeymoon in Vegas.

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.

Lennard Davis, author and head of the English department at University of Illinois at Chicago, on this archival edition of Fresh Air.

Hear Combatants for Peace co-founders Bassam Aramin and Zohar Shapira, and conductor/composer Lorin Maazel, on this edition of Fresh Air. Bassim Aramin and Zohar Shapira are the cofounders of the Combatants for Peace, a group of Israeli and Palestinian individuals who were once involved in the cycle of violence in their area. Aramin was a member of the Fattah movement, and at the age of 17 began a seven-year sentence in an Israeli prison.

Hear film director Paul Thomas Anderson, film director David Cronenberg, actor Viggo Mortensen, writer/director Brad Bird, comedian/actor Patton Oswalt, writer/director Tamara Jenkins, director Jason Reitman, screenwriter Diablo Cody, and film critic David Edelstein on this edition of Fresh Air.

Hear writer Dan Koeppel and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead on this edition of Fresh Air. Dan Koeppel has written stories for National Geographic Adventure, Wired, Audobon, and Popular Science. He'll talk about the world's most popular fruit - the banana. His book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, tells how banana companies brought the banana from Central America to the United States and how an epidemic is threatening the future of the fruit.

Actor and comedian Martin Short and British journalist and documentarian John Ronson on this edition of Fresh Air. Martin Short's TV series.

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.

Hear journalist Charlie Savage and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead on this edition of Fresh Air. The Boston Globe's Charlie Savage received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize award for National Reporting for his series of articles in the Globe about revelations that President Bush often used "signing statements" to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws. Savage has written a new book that describes how the Bush-Cheney administration has expanded executive power.

Authors David Frum and Richard Perle on this edition of Fresh Air. They have collaborated on the new book, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror.

Author Martin Amis on this edition of Fresh Air. Amis is considered one of the leading British writers of the late twentieth century and one of the most controversial.