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
The podcast explores how fear has become a powerful force in American life, shaping policy and excusing violence, through the lens of the 1984 Bernhard Goetz shooting. Heather Ann Thompson, historian and author of "Fear and Fury," discusses how Goetz, who shot four black teenagers on a New York subway, became a celebra...
The podcast features interviews and reviews centered on literature and film. Rachel Eliza Griffiths discusses her memoir, The Flower Bearers, focusing on her wedding day marred by tragedy and the subsequent attack on her husband, Salman Rushdie. She also delves into her dissociative identity disorder and how she coped ...
This Fresh Air episode celebrates Mel Brooks with a review of the HBO documentary "Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man" and revisits two interviews with Terry Gross. The documentary, co-directed by Judd Apatow, features comedy luminaries reflecting on Brooks's impact. Bianculli highlights Brooks's seriousness behind the co...
The interview explores themes of motherhood, abandonment, and female agency through the lens of Quiara Alegría Hudes's new novel, The White Hot. Hudes discusses the double standards applied to mothers who leave their children versus fathers, referencing the character Siddhartha as an example of glorified male abandonme...
The Trump administration's actions regarding immigration and the use of federal power are examined, focusing on events in Minneapolis. Emmanuel Malion shares his personal experiences with racial profiling and ICE, while Elizabeth Goitein discusses the administration's deployment of federal resources against perceived p...
Writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths discusses her new memoir, The Flower Bearers, focusing on trauma, mental health, and resilience. Griffiths recounts her wedding day, marked by joy and the sudden death of her close friend, which triggered her dissociative identity disorder. She details her experience with DID, including th...
Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us, discusses the zero-sum lie, the idea that progress for people of color comes at the expense of white people, and its historical roots in the United States. McGhee argues this false narrative has been used to undermine public goods and economic solidarity. She points to the drain...
This episode of Fresh Air Weekend features interviews with Jodie Foster and Tessa Thompson. Foster reflects on her early career, including her role in Taxi Driver and an accident on set involving a lion, and discusses her new French-language film, A Private Life, and her experience with hypnosis. Thompson discusses her...
This Fresh Air episode features two segments: a 2016 interview with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, and a tribute to jazz singer Rebecca Kilgore, who recently passed away. Weir discusses his album "Blue Mountain," inspired by his cowboy summer at age 15, and his approach to storytelling in songwriting, contrasting it wi...
Julian Barnes discusses his new book, "Departures," a hybrid of memoir and fiction, reflecting on mortality, memory, and grief. Barnes shares his experience of being diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer and how it has shaped his perspective on life and death. He recounts the death of his first wife and how it led...
The interview explores Marco Rubio's transformation from a champion of democracy and human rights to an executor of Trump's foreign policy, particularly regarding Venezuela. Dexter Filkins, a staff writer at The New Yorker, discusses Rubio's need to abandon his principles to align with Trump's agenda, exemplified by Tr...
Jodie Foster reflects on her career, beginning with her early experiences as a child actor and the complexities of being a primary breadwinner for her family. She recounts a lion mauling incident at age nine and how her mother helped her process the event. Foster also discusses her role in "Taxi Driver," the controvers...
The podcast features an interview with writer Liz Moore, focusing on her novels Long Bright River and The God of the Woods. Moore discusses the setting of Long Bright River in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, inspired by her interactions with its residents and her family's history of addiction. She explains the ...
This episode of Fresh Air Weekend features filmmaker Craig Brewer, director of "Song Sung Blue," a film based on the true story of a Neil Diamond tribute band. Brewer discusses the process of casting Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, emphasizing how their chemistry developed during recording sessions in Memphis. He shares ...
This episode of Fresh Air features two interviews: one with Neil Diamond from 2005 and another with Noah Wyle from last year. Diamond discusses his early career, including writing songs for The Monkees and his breakthrough hit, "Solitary Man," reflecting on how it shifted his focus toward writing more personal songs. W...
Tessa Thompson, actor and producer, joins Fresh Air to discuss her roles that explore themes of identity, control, and public versus private struggles. Thompson details her preparation for her role as a news anchor in "His & Hers," including shadowing Atlanta-based anchors to understand the competitive dynamics of the ...
The episode explores the surge in white supremacist violence in America, particularly focusing on Orange County, California, as a microcosm of national trends. Investigative journalist Eric Lichtblau discusses how the rise of Donald Trump has emboldened the white supremacy movement, leading to record levels of hate cri...
Marjorie Taylor Greene's recent shift away from Donald Trump and the MAGA movement is examined, focusing on her motivations and potential future. Charles Bethea, a staff writer for The New Yorker, discusses Greene's evolving political positions, noting her early understanding of the MAGA base and her increasing critici...
The podcast features an interview with Jacob Soboroff, a correspondent for MSNOW, discussing his book "Firestorm," which chronicles the Los Angeles wildfires. Soboroff recounts his experience covering the fires in his hometown, including the destruction of his childhood home and the impact on his family. The conversati...
This edition of Fresh Air Weekend features two interviews: the first with Ben Stiller, who discusses his documentary "Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost" about his parents' comedy duo and their personal lives, including the impact of their careers on his childhood. The second interview is with Pedro Pascal, who reflect...
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