Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Hear presidential historian Robert Dallek and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. Dallek's new book is Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. He writes about two ambitious men who were very different in some ways but very similar in others, describing the two as "self-serving characters with grandiose dreams of recasting world affairs". Dallek is also the best-selling author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy.

Hear Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist David Halberstam and music critic Milo Miles on this edition of Fresh Air. Halberstam died yesterday from injuries received in a car crash. He was 73. We listen to his interviews on Fresh Air, from 1985 and from June 3, 1993, and January 21, 1999. Halberstam was part of the 1964 Pulitzer-prize winning team that covered the emerging war in Vietnam for The New York Times.

Hear writers Michael Chabon and Jon Savage on this edition of Fresh Air. Michael Chabon won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. His new novel is The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel. His other books include The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and a collection of stories entitled Werewolves in Their Youth. He has also written for many publications, including The New Yorker, Harpers,, and Esquire.

Hear former CIA chief George Tenet and comic writer John Ridley, on this edition of Fresh Air. George Tenet has a new memoir, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. Then, John Ridley, who has written a comic-book series, The American Way, has just had his works collected in a graphic novel.

Because Audible was not granted digital audio rights to today's issue of Fresh Air, we have selected a great interview with record producer and songwriter Neil Innes and actress Joan Cusack for this edition of Fresh Air. Neil Innes is a founding member of the comedy-rock group "The Bonzo Dog Band". He's also a member of "The Rutles", the band that he and Eric Idle of Monty Python created as a spoof of the Beatles.

Journalists Charlie Savage and Lawrence Wright, and linguist Geoff Nunberg are guests on this edition of Fresh Air. Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe has been awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his "revelations that President Bush often used 'signing statements' to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws."

The Shield creator Shawn Ryan, actress C.C.H. Pounder, and film critic David Edelstein are the guests on this edition of Fresh Air. Shawn Ryan is the creator and writer for the critically acclaimed FX drama The Shield. It just began its sixth season. (Original Airdate: 3/14/06)

Jimmy Wales; comics Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, and Paul Scheer; and music critic Milo Miles are the guests on this edition of Fresh Air. Jimmy Wales is the co-creator of the interactive online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which was founded in 2001. Readers of Wikipedia write and edit the entries themselves. The site also has its own editors. Some entries, including the one on the "2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict" have been edited more than 4,000 times.

Sari Nusseibeh and linguist Geoff Nunberg are the guests on this edition of Fresh Air. Sari Nusseibeh is the president of and a professor of philosophy at Al-Quds University, the only Arab university in Jerusalem. He has written a new memoir, Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life.

Listen to singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka and book critic Maureen Corrigan on this edition of Fresh Air. This year marks Neil Sedaka's 50th in the music business. He was part of the original creators of the "Brill Building sound" of the late 50s and early 60s. His early songs "Stupid Cupid" and "Where the Boys Are" were hits by Connie Francis.

Listen to filmmakers John Alpert and Matthew O'Neill, and film critic David Edelstein on this edition of Fresh Air. John Alpert's and Matthew O'Neill's new documentary, Baghdad ER, is a recipient of this year's coveted Peabody award and is out on DVD. The film looks inside the 86th combat support hospital, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq.

Listen to journalist Kenneth R. Weiss, Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. Kenneth Weiss writes for the L.A. Times and has covered the California coast and the oceans for the past five years. He's written (with co-author Usha Lee McFarling) a new five-part series, Altered Oceans, on the long-term health of the seas. The series received the George Polk Award for journalism.

Peter Landesman, contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, on this edition of Fresh Air. Landesman investigated the sex slave industry for this week's cover story, "The Girls Next Door."

Author Charles Lewis, and climber and author Joe Simpson on this edition of Fresh Air. Charles Lewis and a team of researchers at the Center for Public Integrity have investigated the financing of all of this year's presidential contenders in the new book The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers - and What They Expect in Return. Joe Simpson wrote the book Touching the Void about his ill-fated climb of Siula Grande mountain in Peru.

Journalist Peter Maass on this edition of Fresh Air. In this week's New York Times Magazine cover story, Maass writes about Major John Nagl, a professor at West Point and a counterinsurgency expert who's putting his theories about counterinsurgency into practice for the first time. He's in Iraq with a tank battalion in the Sunni Triangle.

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ron Suskind on this edition of Fresh Air. The two have collaborated on the new book, The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill. The book chronicles his nearly two years with the Bush administration.

Because Audible was not granted digital audio rights to today's issue of Fresh Air, we have selected a great interview with former major league umpire Ken Kaiser, filmmaker Helen Stickler, and former skateboarder Kenneth Park.

Political commentator and former Republican Strategist Kevin Phillips and Afghani filmmaker Siddiq Barmack on this edition of Fresh Air. Phillips is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio. And he's the author of nine books, including The Politics of Rich and Poor. In his new book, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, he takes a good look at the Bush family legacy.

Tammy Faye Messner and record executive Simon Cowell on this edition of Fresh Air. Tammy Faye Messner, along with her ex-husband Jim Bakker, built the Praise the Lord televangelist network. Record executive Simon Cowell is one of the judges on the talent show, American Idol, a spin-off of the show he co-created in Britian, Pop Idol.

On this edition of Fresh Air, we remember stage actress and acting teacher Uta Hagen. She died on Wednesday at the age of 84. She taught acting for more than 40 years, teaching such actors as Jack Lemmon, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Broderick, and the late Geraldine Page.