Terry Gross

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.

You know the expression that if you're an intern, make yourself indispensable?

Danny managed to do that pretty immediately, recommending guests, booking guests, organizing things.

He even invited me over to dinner and served what I like to think of as baked eggplant a la sponge.

But I forgave him for that.

Now he's a good cook, famous among other things for his chicken soup.

I remember we drove together to the bar at an inn in the Poconos so I could record an interview with the pianist John Coates for NPR to use in its concert program, Jazz Alive.

Before driving there, when Danny and I met at the radio station, he showed up in a bright yellow sports jacket that was also too large.

It made me wonder, maybe I misjudged his sensibility, until I realized he'd pranked me to see how I'd react, and then put on his real jacket.

After he graduated, our then station manager, Bill Seemering, understood how indispensable Danny was, and he kept managing to find hidden money to hire Danny part-time and eventually full-time as a producer.

When Fresh Air became a national show in 1987, Danny became its executive producer.

There were so many changes we had to make in the show, and then we faced so many changes in the world, all of which Danny led us through.

This included the first Gulf War, 9-11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, political crises.

He became a father not long after we went national.