Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Writer Michael Lewis illustrator and author James Warhola on this edition of Fresh Air. Michael Lewis' recent book is Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It's the story of how the Oakland A's turned their team around and made history, winning 20 games in a row to set a new American League record. Lewis goes behind the scenes and finds a new kind of baseball knowledge.

Writer John Ridley on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He wrote the screenplay for the film Undercover Brother, which began life as a web site animation. The film is an action comedy replete with seventies fashions. Concurrently, Ridley has just published a novel, A Conversation with the Mann, about a black comic in the civil rights era of the early sixties.

Film director and writer Todd Solondz, film critic David Edelstein and music journalist and film maker Robert Gordon on this edition of Fresh Air. Todd Solonz's recent film Storytelling, inflamed some critics more than his previous two features, Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness.

Wildlife conservationist Stephen Bognar and jazz pianist and singer Barbara Carroll on this edition of Fresh Air. Stephen Bognar is a field agent for the San Francisco-based international non-profit wildlife conservation group, WildAid. Bognar just returned from two months in Baghdad, where he helped with the effort to rescue and rehabilitate the animals at the Baghdad Zoo.

Veteran producer, pianist, singer, club owner George Wein on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the founder of the New Port Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In the early 1950s he founded the jazz clubs Storyville and Mahogany Hall in his hometown of Boston where jazz giants Art Tatum, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Miles Davis played.

Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collinwood from the band "Fountains of Wayne" and novelist Scott Spenser are on this edition of Fresh Air. Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collinwood are co-founders of "Fountains of Wayne". Their new album Welcome Interstate Managers has just been released. Anchored by the song writing team of Chris and Adam , the New York-based band released its debut album Radiation Vibe in late 1996.

Writer and producer Chris Albertson and performance artist and writer Rhodessa Jones on this edition of Fresh Air. Chris Albertson is considered an authority on blues singer Bessie Smith. His 1971 biography of Smith has been reissued in a new revised and expanded edition. It's called Bessie and it contains new details on Smith's early years, new interview material, and a chapter devoted to responses to the original publication.

Drummer Ahmir Thompson, otherwise known as "?uestlove" of the hip-hop group The Roots and writer Gary Shtenyngart on this edition of Fresh Air. The Grammy award-winning sextet has six albums to its credit. Their latest CD is Phrenolog. Their first single from the album is "Break You Off." The group is just beginning a nationwide tour.

Religious scholar Elaine Pagels talks about the Gospel of Thomas and Middle East energy expert Youssef M. Ibrahim on this edition of Fresh Air. Elaine Pagels latest book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, is about a religious text that is little known - the secret Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945. She will explain why it was suppressed by the church and kept out of the cannon.

In this edition of Fresh Air, Italian journalist Riccardo Orizio on disposed dictators and journalist Joyce Davis on the views of martyrdom among extremists in the Middle East on this edition of Fresh Air. Riccardo Orizio is the author of the book Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators. He interviewed deposed dictators who haven't apologized for their crimes and weren't rehabilitated.

Host Terry Gross talks with people involved with "Youth Portraits," a radio skills training program for ex-offenders released from Riker's Island prison in New York City on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Riker's Island is the biggest jail in North America.

Journalist James Bennet of The New York Times on this edition of Fresh Air. He's been in the Middle East covering how the crisis there is affecting both Israelis and Palestinians.

Actor Joe Pantoliano on this edition of Fresh Air. He plays Ralph Cifaretto on the HBO series The Sopranos. He has also appeared in more than 60 films, including Memento, The Matrix, and The Fugitive. He has a new memoir called Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-Up Guy. Pantoliano talks about growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, and about his acting career. (Broadcast Date: October 1, 2002)

Librettist and New York University professor of theatre Larry Maslon and playwright and actor Vernel Bagneris on this edition of Fresh Air.

Staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer Thomas Ginsberg and Republican Convention protesters Michael Morill and Amy Kwasnicki on this edition of Fresh Air.

Professor Andre Aciman and comedian Margaret Cho on this edition of Fresh Air. Aciman's family was forced to leave Egypt when he was fourteen, during a long wave of anti-Semitism and Arab nationalism.

Stars of The Music Man Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker, and sales manager for Verizon Communications Frank Punzo on this edition of Fresh Air. The 1957 musical The Music Man by Meredith Wilson is currently being revived on Broadway. In his first Broadway appearance, Bierko plays the lead role of traveling salesman and conman Harold Hill originated by Robert Preston.

Journalist Dennis Covington and actor Nicholas Turturro on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Covington has written Salvation on Sand Mountain about the practice of snake handling in a Southern Appalachian church.

Writers Aleksander Hemon and Wayne Barrett on this edition of Fresh Air. Hemon was born in Sarajevo in 1964. While in his early 20s, he came to the United States as a tourist.

Film director Fred Schepisi and documentary film producer Lowell Handler and on this archival edition of Fresh Air. Along with fellow Australian directors Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford, Fred Schepisi was considered one of the leaders of the "Australian New Wave."