Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Hear shock-rock icon Alice Cooper on this edition of Fresh Air. During his heyday in the early 1970s, Alice Cooper appeared on stage dressed like a ghoul, with a gaunt face and mascara streaked eyes, and performed cartoonish, violent stunts. His hits included "I'm Eighteen", "School's Out", and "Welcome to My Nightmare".

Hear actor Steve Carell and music critic Milo Miles on this edition of Fresh Air. Steve Carell is starring in the new comedy film Dan in Real Life. Carell is best known for his role as Michael Scott in NBC's The Office. His other film roles include The 40 Year Old Virgin and Little Miss Sunshine. He rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he was part of the team from 1999 to 2004.

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.

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."

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.

Playwright and actor Wallace Shawn and actor Andre Gregory on this archival edition of Fresh Air. Shawn and Gregory star in the film Vanya on 42nd St, directed by Louis Malle, screenplay adapted by David Mamet from Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. The two also co-wrote and co-starred in the 1981 film, My Dinner with Andre. They have since both worked on many other projects individually in television, theater, and film. Shawn was an obscure playwright until 1981, when his movie, My Dinner With Andre appeared.

Actor B.D. Wong and film director John Waters on this edition of Fresh Air. B.D. Wong has starred on Broadway in M. Butterfly, and in the TV series Law & Order: SVU, and HBO's Oz. He's the author of the new book: Following Foo (the electronic adventures of the Chestnut Man). It's about the premature birth of his twin sons in August 2000. The babies were born three months early to a surrogate mother. Wong and his partner, Richie were the parents. The twins suffered a rare medical disorder.

On this edition of Fresh Air, host Terry Gross speaks with screen writer and director Chris Nolan. Nolan's latest film is Memento, about a man set on avenging his wife's murder. Plus, reviews of a new CD set from Buffalo Springfield and of Woody Allen's latest.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson on this edition of Fresh Air. Jackson stars in the new film Shaft, a sequel/update of the 1970s blaxploitation films starring Richard Roundtree. Jackson's performance in Pulp Fiction (1994) earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

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.

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.

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.

Hear journalist Fred Kaplan, actor Bryan Cranston, and classical-music critic Lloyd Schwartz on this edition of Fresh Air. Fred Kaplan is the "war stories" columnist for Slate, where he covers military issues. In his new book, he looks at the loss of prestige and power of the U.S. abroad and what went wrong and why. It is entitled Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power.

The Broadway musical The Producers has opened on Broadway, based on the Mel Brooks movie. It stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

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.

British novelist Martin Amis and actress Lauren Bacall on this edition of Fresh Air.

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.

Writer Neil Baldwin and remembering poet Lucy Grealy on this edition of Fresh Air. Baldwin is executive director of the National Book Foundation and author of the book, Henry Ford and the Jews, in which he details Ford's early obsession with moralistic writings condemning Jews for not accepting Christ. Grealy died in December 2002 at the age of 39. As a child, she spent five years being treated for cancer, which left her face disfigured.

Writer Jon Krakauer talks about his new book about Mormon Fundamentalism, Mormon practitioner Richard Turley and Nigerian-born actor Chiwetel Ejiofor on this edition of Fresh Air. Jon Krakauer is the author of the book Into Thin Air about the disastrous Mt Everest Climb in 1996 in which eight climbers were killed.