Terry Gross

And I want to say to our listeners, we covered several aspects of Fela's life in this interview, but there's really so much more and so much fascinating detail that we couldn't possibly fit into one less than an hour episode when Jed's series is, what, 12 episodes?

To me, certainly.

So thank you so much.

It's been a pleasure to talk with you again.

Jad Abumrad's new podcast is called Fela Kuti, Fear No Man.

After we take a short break, we reluctantly say goodbye to our long-term executive producer, Danny Miller.

He's retiring.

This is Fresh Air.

Today marks a turning point in Fresh Air history.

Our longtime executive producer Danny Miller is retiring.

We've been celebrating how he's led the show through good times and hard times and what he's done professionally and personally for each of us who's ever been part of the Fresh Air team.

But we're all so sad he's leaving.

I'd like to take a moment to speak personally about what Danny means to me.

Fresh Air started as a local program on WHYY in Philadelphia.

Back in 1975, when I became the host, it was a live three-hour show five days a week, and the staff was me.

In 1978, when Danny applied to be an intern on the show, he was studying film and music therapy at Temple University and was the pianist in a local salsa band.

I interviewed him for the intern position and we hit it off.

He bummed a cigarette from me and I was happy to give him one since I had bummed cigarettes each time I had tried to quit.

As we talked, we realized we shared a sense of humor, we both loved and listened to a lot of jazz, and liked a lot of the same movies, most especially Taxi Driver.

It was clear we'd have similar judgment in who we should book on the show.