Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries. Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including weekly bonus episodes and curated playlists of archive interviews from Fresh Air. And subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Fresh Air Weekly, to get interview highlights, staff recommendations, gems from the archive, and the week's interviews and reviews all in one place. Sign up at www.whyy.org/freshair
John Prine’s legacy as a seminal singer-songwriter takes center stage as the program honors his life and music on the eve of his 80th birthday. Prine reflects on his transition from a Chicago mailman to a celebrated artist, detailing how his early shyness, his discovery by critic Roger Ebert, and his battle with cancer...
Journalist April Ryan details the systemic hostility and personal trauma faced by Black women in the White House press corps, a phenomenon she terms "Blacklash." This targeted harassment, which included her receiving a pipe bomb from Cesar Sayoc, reflects a broader, calculated effort by political administrations to dis...
Pete Hegseth’s tenure as Secretary of Defense has triggered unprecedented institutional turmoil within the U.S. military, characterized by the systematic removal of senior leadership and the imposition of ideological purity tests. New York Times Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe highlights that Hegseth has sidelined or fire...
Murray Hill, a veteran drag king and performer, reflects on his journey from a suppressed, traumatic childhood to embracing his identity as a middle-aged man in his memoir, Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man. He discusses his transition from a visual artist to a prominent figure in the queer cabaret scene, emphasizi...
Michael Douglas navigates the complexities of his life and career, tracing his evolution from the son of an iconic movie star to an independent artist. He examines how playing flawed characters in films like Wall Street and Fatal Attraction mirrored his own struggles with ambition, addiction, and personal instability. ...
Actor Kyle MacLachlan reflects on his memoir, Fictional Selves, detailing his transformative collaboration with director David Lynch and the psychological complexity of inhabiting diverse roles across his career. Literary critic Maureen Corrigan examines Min Jin Lee’s American Hagwon, a sweeping narrative exploring the...
Minimalist composer Steve Reich’s 90th birthday serves as the focal point for a career retrospective, tracing his evolution from early tape manipulation experiments like It's Gonna Rain to his innovative use of speech patterns as musical foundations in Different Trains. Reich explains how his study of African drumming ...
Sheryl Crow reflects on her creative evolution and the personal experiences that define her latest album, Pick You Up. Moving beyond the pressures of pop stardom, she now writes from a place of introspection, exploring themes of humanity and connection from her home in Nashville. Her journey includes navigating early c...
The war in Ukraine has entered a more lethal phase, characterized by intensified Russian bombardment of civilian centers and the deployment of advanced, jet-propelled drone technology. With U.S. financial support effectively halted, Ukraine relies heavily on European funding to maintain its defense and scale its own do...
Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and protest negotiator, recounts his 104-day detention in an immigration facility following his arrest in March 2025. Labeled a foreign policy threat by the government, Khalil faced imprisonment despite having no criminal record. His experience highlights th...
Kyle MacLachlan reflects on his lifelong creative partnership with director David Lynch and the evolution of his acting career as detailed in his memoir, Fictional Selves. He discusses the unique, dreamlike atmosphere of Twin Peaks and the challenges of portraying diverse characters, including the transition into darke...
Rhiannon Giddens reclaims the banjo’s African diasporic origins, challenging the myth of it as a white mountain instrument while discussing her work on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and the Black string band tradition. Film critic Justin Chang reviews the action thriller Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother, highlighting it...
Billy Strings, a Grammy-winning bluegrass innovator, reflects on his musical evolution, citing Doc Watson as the foundational influence that shaped his career. He discusses his transition from playing heavy metal to returning to his acoustic roots, emphasizing the role of songwriting as a tool for processing deep-seate...
Sean Combs’ decades-long career as a hip-hop mogul and cultural influencer relied on a calculated strategy of reinvention that effectively shielded him from persistent allegations of violence and abuse. Investigative reporter Cheyenne Roundtree details how Combs leveraged his status as a gatekeeper to create a culture ...
The upcoming summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping highlights the precarious state of US-China relations, defined by intense economic and technological rivalry. China’s strategic use of rare earth mineral controls has successfully pressured American policy, signaling a shift in global manufacturing do...
Cyber scams, particularly "pig butchering" romance schemes, have evolved into a highly lucrative global industry, often fueled by human trafficking in Southeast Asian compounds. Victims are ensnared through long-term emotional manipulation, with AI tools now enabling scammers to scale operations, polish language, and c...
Rhiannon Giddens, a multi-instrumentalist and artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble, examines the intersection of music, history, and cultural identity. Her work challenges the white-centric mythology surrounding country music by highlighting the banjo’s African diasporic origins and the historical significance o...
Colin Kaepernick and Danielle Brooks examine the complexities of navigating systemic racism and institutional expectations within the NFL and the entertainment industry. Kaepernick details his memoir, The Perilous Fight, reflecting on childhood encounters with racial hostility and the motivations behind his 2016 protes...
Looney Tunes cartoons, once celebrated for their anarchic humor, face modern scrutiny regarding aggressive character dynamics and outdated tropes, as exemplified by the history of the film Coyote vs. ACME. Animator Chuck Jones highlights the necessity of establishing rigid character rules—such as the Roadrunner’s elusi...
Roy Cohn’s legacy as a ruthless legal strategist and mentor to Donald Trump reveals the enduring, destructive influence of McCarthy-era tactics on American democracy. Cohn’s operational playbook—characterized by relentless denial, strategic delay, and the avoidance of paper trails—directly shaped Trump’s approach to bu...
Follow this podcast in Podwise
Sign in to get AI summaries, transcripts and mind maps for any episode, including new ones.
