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
Lisa Kudrow reflects on her multifaceted career, highlighting her role in the final season of The Comeback, which satirizes the integration of AI in television writing. The discussion delves into the enduring legacy of Friends, emphasizing the cast's genuine chemistry and the personal process of revisiting the show aft...
Colman Domingo reflects on his career evolution from theater to Hollywood, highlighting his recent Emmy nominations for The Four Seasons and Euphoria alongside his transition into directing and producing with projects like Sing Sing. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining agency and curiosity throughout his profes...
Author Peter Heller details the creative process behind his post-apocalyptic novel The Dog Stars, drawing on his background as an outdoorsman and pilot to explore themes of survival, grief, and the human need for connection in a collapsed world. The program also honors the late rock critic Dave Marsh, whose career as a...
Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II reflects on his unconventional path from architecture and city planning to a successful acting career defined by roles in Watchmen, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and the Marvel series Wonder Man. He details his rigorous preparation process, which involves deep study followed by a surrender to ...
Five months into the conflict with Iran, the U.S. military faces severe strategic limitations, as airpower alone struggles to produce durable political outcomes against an adversary with existential stakes. Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, highlights that crit...
The series Shrinking challenges traditional therapeutic boundaries by depicting clinicians who provide direct, actionable advice to patients, reflecting a shift toward hope-based intervention. Jason Segel, who stars in and co-created the show, draws on his own experiences with therapy and sobriety to portray a psychoth...
Evolutionary biology explains why modern weight loss is inherently difficult: human bodies evolved to store fat as a survival mechanism, triggering metabolic resistance and increased hunger when caloric intake drops. Restrictive, singular-focus diets often fail because they ignore the complexity of human physiology, wh...
Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton explores the intersection of personal experience and narrative storytelling, detailing how his early work in group homes informs his direction of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Just Mercy. He emphasizes the necessity of emotional resonance and empathy in character development, reflecting ...
Historical and personal reckonings with the legacy of slavery in America define the work of author and poet Clint Smith. Public monuments and historical narratives, particularly in New Orleans and Monticello, often obscure the brutal reality of chattel slavery, necessitating a more honest engagement with the past. Smit...
Colman Domingo reflects on his expansive career across theater, television, and film, detailing his recent Emmy-nominated performances in The Four Seasons and Euphoria. He describes his "hyper-organized" approach to acting and directing, which allows him to manage complex emotional work while maintaining a comprehensiv...
China is aggressively pursuing technological supremacy in fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and robotics, aiming to establish a global lead that challenges American influence. Beijing views current U.S. preoccupation with Middle Eastern conflicts and internal political volatility as a strategic openin...
Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton discusses his directorial approach to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, emphasizing the importance of grounding massive franchise stories in relatable human experiences. Drawing from his early career at a group home for at-risk teenagers, Cretton explores themes of loneliness, community, and th...
Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures are actively working to dismantle democratic institutions, viewing them as obstacles to their pursuit of absolute control. Journalist Gil Duran argues that a small circle of billionaires, led by Peter Thiel, has spent decades cultivating an ideology that favors corporate-run gover...
The modern era of cosmetic enhancement and digital surveillance is fundamentally altering the human face, transforming it from a repository of life experience into an optimized, algorithmically approved product. This shift toward invisible, extreme procedures—ranging from deep-plane facelifts to "looks-maxing"—reflects...
Monty Roberts revolutionized horse training by replacing traditional, pain-based "breaking" techniques with "Join Up," a method rooted in the non-verbal communication observed in wild mustangs. This approach prioritizes trust and mutual respect, allowing horses to choose cooperation over submission. Roberts’ career, sp...
Claire Vaye Watkins explores the environmental and personal stakes of living in the Mojave Desert, the setting for her new novel, Yellow Pine. The desert functions as a "sacrifice zone," where corporate solar projects and historical nuclear testing exploit both the land and its inhabitants. Protesting such developments...
President Trump’s administration exhibits a recurring pattern of intertwining public policy decisions with the private financial interests of his family and his cabinet members. Investigative reporter Eric Lipton details how the President and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have leveraged their positions to influence...
Jean Smart reflects on her career-defining role as Deborah Vance in the HBO series Hacks, highlighting the character’s emotional evolution and the complex, often fraught bond with her protege, Ava. She discusses the creative freedom found in roles like the matriarchal crime boss Floyd Gerhardt in Fargo, where physical ...
The 1968 Miss America protest serves as a foundational moment for modern American politics, where the media-manufactured myth of "bra-burning" effectively caricatured the women's liberation movement before it could define itself. Historian Micki McElya examines how this event brought together three distinct factions: f...
Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of The Odyssey serves as a focal point for examining the challenges of translating ancient epic poetry and the demands of modern screen acting. Classical scholar Emily Wilson critiques the film for stripping away the psychological and emotional depth inherent in Homer’s original text...
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