Showing results by narrator "Terry Gross" in All Categories

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.

Children's TV host Fred Rogers on this edition of Fresh Air. Rogers died of stomach cancer on February 27, 2003, at the age of 74. His popular show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, was the longest-running program on public television. It ended in 2001 after 33 years on the air. Last year, Rogers was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor the nation can bestow. (Original Broadcast Date: November 13, 2002)

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.

Computer programmer Linus Torvalds on this edition of Fresh Air. He is the creator of Linux, a computer operating system intended to improve upon Unix. When Torvalds wrote the original code in 1991, he sent it out on the Internet to allow anyone to make changes and improvements.

Hear an in-studio performance and interview with British singer/songwriter Nick Lowe and rock historian Ed Ward on this edition of Fresh Air. Nick Lowe's best known songs include "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding", "Cruel to be Kind", and "The Beast in Me" (which Johnny Cash recorded). Lowe's new album is At My Age.

Economist Paul Krugman on this edition of Fresh Air. He's collected the last three years of his New York Times Op-ed columns in the new book, The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century.

Singapore's first Prime Minister and its current Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and journalist Stan Sesser on this edition of Fresh Air. A very controversial figure, Lee Kuan Yew formed the People's Action Party and won the first Singapore general election in 1959. Since it was granted independence in 1965, Singapore has gone from British colony to Asian economic powerhouse.

Religion scholar Bart D. Ehrman on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of Religious Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. His new book, Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, chronicles the period before Christianity as we know it came to be, when conflicting ideas about the religion were fighting for prominence in the second and third centuries.

Writer David Sedaris on this edition of Fresh Air. Sedaris is best known for his contributing work with Public Radio's This American Life. He's written three books of essays, Barrel Fever, Naked, and his latest Me Talk Pretty One Day.

On this edition of Fresh Air, host Terry Gross speaks with Michael Pollan. To learn more about the meat industry in the US he bought a calf, and then followed the process from fattening it to slaughter. He wrote about it in the Sunday, March 31st issue of The New York Times Magazine. The article "Power Steer" is the cover story. Pollan is also the author of the book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World.

Writer Neil Baldwin and remembering poet Lucy Grealy on this edition of Fresh Air. Baldwin is executive director of the National Book Foundation and author of the book, Henry Ford and the Jews, in which he details Ford's early obsession with moralistic writings condemning Jews for not accepting Christ. Grealy died in December 2002 at the age of 39. As a child, she spent five years being treated for cancer, which left her face disfigured.

Musician Bootsy Collins and author Linday Gray Sexton, on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Bootsy Collins got his start with James Brown, where he "defined the finger-popping funk bass style" (Rolling Stone). He went on to work with George Clinton as part of the Parliment-Funkadelic tribe, before forming Bootsy's Rubber Band. On stage, he created alter egos, including Bootzilla, Boot-Tron, and King of the Geepies.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the film West Side Story, Fresh Air speaks with cast members.

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett on this archival edition of Fresh Air.

Hear actor Sidney Poitier, TV critic David Bianculli, and film critic David Edelstein on this edition of Fresh Air. Sidney Poitier was the leading African-American actor of his generation. His Academy Award winning classic film In the Heat of the Night is now out in a 40th anniversary edition DVD.

Hear shock-rock icon Alice Cooper on this edition of Fresh Air. During his heyday in the early 1970s, Alice Cooper appeared on stage dressed like a ghoul, with a gaunt face and mascara streaked eyes, and performed cartoonish, violent stunts. His hits included "I'm Eighteen", "School's Out", and "Welcome to My Nightmare".

Non-proliferation expert Joseph Cirincione and The Weekly Standard's William Kristol on this edition of Fresh Air. He specializes in defense and proliferation issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is senior associate and director of the Non-Proliferation Project. He will discuss the evolution of the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq.

NPR's senior foreign correspondent Anne Garrels and her husband Vint Lawrence on this edition of Fresh Air. She was one of few journalists still in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq. Often she reported from her room at the Palestine Hotel, as bombs flew overhead.

Humorist Fran Lebowitz and writer Anne Lamott on this archive edition of Fresh Air. The Washington Post called Fran Lebowitz "The funniest woman in America." Humorist Lebowitz has come out with her first children's book, Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet The Pandas. In 1978, she wrote the critically acclaimed book Metropolitan Life a collection of witty essays on life. Writer Anne Lamott's new book is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

Hear The Simpsons executive producer and writer Al Jean, and actress Nancy Cartwright, on this edition of Fresh Air. Al Jean has been with the TV show since it began, first as a writer, then as executive producer. He has said the new Simpsons movie is about "what happens when a man doesn't listen to his wife."