Showing results by narrator "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Hear singer Frankie Valli and comedian and actor Patton Oswalt on this edition of Fresh Air. There's a new four-CD box set of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons called Jersey Boys. Valli helped bridge 50s doo-wop and 60s rock-and-roll with two dozen top 40 hits, including "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Sherry", and "Walk Like a Man". Jersey Boys is also the name of a Tony award winning Broadway musical based on the lives of the Four Seasons.

Historian Stephen E. Ambrose. His new book is The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys who Flew the B-24s Over Germany.

Hear Pulitzer prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston and TV critic David Bianculli on this edition of Fresh Air. David Cay Johnston is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. In his new book, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill), Cay Johnston explores how government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and middle class to the rich and politically connected.

Actress Jodie Foster and radio personality Garrison Keillor on this edition of Fresh Air. Jodie Foster's film Panic Room is now on video and DVD. Recently she produced and acted in the film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Foster has won two Oscars for performances in The Silence of the Lambs and The Accused. She was also nominated for her work in Taxi Driver and Nell. She's also served as producer or director on numerous films.

Artistic director for the Houston Ballet, Ben Stevenson, dancer Lauren Anderson, and Dr. Zahi Hawass on this edition of Fresh Air. Stevenson has been with the ballet for over 25 years, turning it into a premiere dance company. The New York Times' dance critic said of Stevenson, "[he] is one of the most original figures in the development of regional ballet in America."

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.

Author Paul Auster on this edition of Fresh Air. His new book is Oracle Night. Auster is the author of 11 novels, three screenplays, five books of poetry, and seven works of nonfiction. His recent works include the best-selling novels The Book of Illusions and Timbuktu, and he also edited the NPR National Story Project anthology, I Thought My Father Was God.

Writer Paul Feig, history professor Lewis Gould, and film critic and historian David Thomson on this edition of Fresh Air. Paul Feig is the creator of the now defunct TV comedy series Freaks and Geeks. He wrote a book Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence.

Hear journalist Charlie Savage and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead on this edition of Fresh Air. The Boston Globe's Charlie Savage received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize award for National Reporting for his series of articles in the Globe about revelations that President Bush often used "signing statements" to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws. Savage has written a new book that describes how the Bush-Cheney administration has expanded executive power.

Creator of the TV series Law & Order Dick Wolf and Actor Robert Downey, Jr. on this edition of Fresh Air. Dick Wolf's Law & Order is the longest running drama on network television. After more than 300 shows and thirteen years the "ripped from the headlines" half cop-half law show is still going strong. It's also inspired two other series: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Hear Haitian-born writer Edwidge Danticat, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, and critic-at-large John Powers on this edition of Fresh Air. Edwidge Danticat was raised in Haiti by her uncle until the age of 12, when she came to New York to live with her parents who had immigrated to the US She's the author of a number of novels, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Farming of Bones, and The Dew Breaker, as well as the short-story collection Krik? Krak!.

Hear U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl, former Iraqi government official Ali Allawi, retired British Army General Sir Michael Rose, professor Kanan Makiya, and former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith on this edition of Fresh Air.

Hear author and TV executive Bill Flanagan, TV critic David Bianculli, and British singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson on this edition of Fresh Air. Bill Flanagan is executive vice president of MTV Networks. His new novel New Bedlam skewers the cable TV business. Flanagan is also the author of A&R (another funny book) about the music industry.

On this edition of Fresh Air, the focus is the work of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar and the new film based on his life and work, American Splendor. Harvey has been described as "working-class Everyman," and "first-class curmudgeon."

Hear Pulitzer prize-winning historian Garry Wills and epidemiologist Devra Davis on this edition of Fresh Air. Garry Wills' new book is about the separation of church and state written into the Constitution by our founding fathers, and the challenges to it through the rise of evangelical fervor over the years. His new book is Head and Heart: American Christianities. Wills says that, contrary to the popular notion, the separation of church and state is "the great protector of religion, not its enemy."

Authors Peter Huchthausen and Gary Shteyngart on this edition of Fresh Air. Peter Huchthausen is the author of K19: The Widowmaker: The Secret Story of the Soviet Nuclear Submarine. The true story of a barely averted catastrophe aboard the nuclear powered submarine has been adapted into a film of the same name starring Harrison Ford. Huchthausen served as technical director on the film. On July 4, 1961, the sub was taking part in a military exercise in the North Atlantic.

Financial investigative reporter Alex Berenson and writer, actor, director, and comedian Harry Shearer on this edition of Fresh Air. Alex Berenson is a financial investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Actors Edward Norton and Sidney Poitier on this edition of Fresh Air as they both discuss their careers. Norton is co-starring in the film The Score along with Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando.

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."

Journalist Robert Kaplan and Peter W. Galbraith, former U.S. amassador to Croatia, on this edition of Fresh Air. Robert Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. His story in the April edition of magazine is "A Tale of Two Colonies." Kaplan traveled to Yemen and Eritrea to investigate how the war on terrorism is forcing the U.S. to be involved with each. Yemen is believed to have the largest Al-Qaeda presence outside of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.