Fresh Air

Best Of: Jesse Eisenberg / Pamela Anderson

25 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jesse Eisenberg talks about writing, directing and starring in the film A Real Pain. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin play cousins who go to Poland on a Je...

Remembering David Lynch

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Filmmaker and painter David Lynch died January 15 at age 78. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1994 about making his surrealist first movie, Eraserhead, le...

Trump's Foray Into Cryptocurrency

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bloomberg investigative reporter Zeke Faux says the Trump family's new crypto businesses have earned them tens of millions, while raising questions ab...

Pamela Anderson Is Still Reinventing Herself

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pamela Anderson's role as a lifeguard on Baywatch made her a global sex symbol in the '90s. But she longed to be taken seriously as a performer and pe...

Jesse Eisenberg Hated Bar Mitzvahs As A Kid

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eisenberg's film, A Real Pain, follows two cousins on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland, which includes a stop at the Majdanek death camp. Eisenberg sp...

MLK, The Organizer & Radical Thinker

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

NYT columnist and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom and scholar Eddie Glaude Jr. reflect on the struggle for civil rights and what it means to celeb...

Best Of: Learning From Silence / Comic Roy Wood Jr.

18 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Pico Iyer lost everything in a 1990 California wildfire. After being rendered homeless and sleeping on a friend's floor, he was told about a B...

The True Story Of Abuse And Injustice Behind 'Nickel Boys'

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys has been adapted for the big screen. In 2019, Whitehead spoke with Dave Davies when...

The Secret History Of The Rape Kit

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rape kits were widely known as "Vitullo Kits" after a Chicago police sergeant. But a new book tells the story of Marty Goddard, a community activist w...

How Losing Everything In A Wildfire Led Pico Iyer To Seek Silence

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1990, writer Pico Iyer watched as a wildfire destroyed his mother's Santa Barbara home, where he also lived. In Aflame, he recounts the devastation...

Can The U.S. Aquire Greenland? & Other Q's About Trump Foreign Policy

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the past, Donald Trump talked about keeping America out of foreign conflicts — but lately he's talked about potentially using force or economic p...

Roy Wood Jr. Thinks Of Comedy As Journalism

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A good comedian has to "know what regular people are going through," Roy Wood Jr. says. In his new Hulu special, Lonely Flowers, Wood riffs on how iso...

Best Of: Tilda Swinton / Adrien Brody

11 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tilda Swinton stars as a woman with cancer who decides she wants to end her life in the new Pedro Almodóvar film The Room Next Door. She asks a frien...

Joan Baez / Suze Rotolo / Al Kooper On Dylan

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A Complete Unknown – the film about Bob Dylan is in theaters. We're featuring interviews with three people depicted in the film: Suze Rotolo was his...

Remembering Jimmy Carter (Part II)

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 39th president spoke with Terry Gross in 1995, 2001 and 2005 about poetry, Sept. 11 and his concerns about how intertwined politics and religion h...

Tilda Swinton Thinks About Her Death

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Pedro Almodóvar's film The Room Next Door, Tilda Swinton plays a woman with late-stage cancer who wants to end her life. She asks a friend, played...

Adrien Brody Was Made For 'The Brutalist'

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Adrien Brody won a Golden Globe for his role in The Brutalist, as a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who seeks a fresh start in post-...

Getting In Sync With Your Inner Clock

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In an experiment, science journalist Lynne Peeples spent 10 days in an underground bunker, with no exposure to sunlight or clocks. She wanted to see w...

Best Of: Comic Ronny Chieng / Writer Miranda July

04 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After Trevor Noah started anchoring The Daily Show in 2015, he brought on Ronny Chieng as a field correspondent who could offer a global perspective. ...

Comic Nikki Glaser On Roasts & Hurt Feelings

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The comic is hosting the Golden Globes this Sunday. She spoke with Terry Gross back in July about roasts, hurt feelings, and just wanting to be liked....

Alex Van Halen / Selena Gomez

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We continue our series featuring some of our favorite interviews from 2024, this time with Alex Van Halen and Selena Gomez. Alex Van Halen talks about...

Sterling K. Brown Was Told By Hollywood To Lose The "Smart-Guy Thing"

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Brown won an Emmy for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in The People v. O.J. Simpson, and another for This Is Us. He now appears in the film Americ...

Mark Ruffalo Hates The Hulk Suit

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ruffalo played a debauched cad in Yorgos Lanthimos' bawdy, dark comedy Poor Things. It was a big departure from his previous work playing real people ...

Remembering President Jimmy Carter (Part I)

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jimmy Carter died Sunday at age 100. The 39th president spoke with Terry Gross a few times over the years about growing up on a Georgia farm, entering...

Maggie Rogers / Kathleen Hanna

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, burnt out from the intensity of her early career, Maggie Rogers considered quitting music entirely. Instead, she took a detour — to Harvard...

Connie Chung Regrets Being A Good Girl

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This year TV news journalist Connie Chung wrote a new tell-all memoir. It's about breaking into the boys club of her industry, her marriage to Maury P...

Jeremy Strong Sees Acting As An Escape From Self

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Strong is nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as lawyer and political hitman Roy Cohn in The Apprentice. The movie, he says, "explores es...

Pete Seeger / Bruce Springsteen

25 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The new biopic A Complete Unknown follows a young Bob Dylan as he arrives in New York and changes American folk music forever. Edward Norton plays fol...

David Byrne's Christmas Playlist

24 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The singer-songwriter and Talking Heads frontman presents some of his favorite holiday music — including songs by The Pogues, James Brown, LCD Sound...

Jon Batiste, Holiday Edition / Questlove Christmas

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Batiste joins us from the piano and plays some of his favorite Christmas songs. It's part two of our recent session with him. Batiste is the forme...

Best Of: Billie Eilish & Finneas / The Colbert Cookbook

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning sister-brother duo Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell talk about their songwriting process, her changing voice, and their new album, Hi...

Bonnie Raitt / Francis Ford Coppola

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This month, musician Bonnie Raitt and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola were both honorees of the Kennedy Center for their contributions to American cult...

Miranda July Wants Women To Read Their Inner Lives In 'All Fours'

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Filmmaker and writer Miranda July, whose novel All Fours is on many best books of the year lists, and was described in the New York Times as "the year...

The Looming TikTok Ban

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new law gives TikTok a January 19 deadline to sell to a non-Chinese company or face a nationwide ban. Law professor Alan Rozenshtein delves into wha...

Billie Eilish & Finneas

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Grammy Award-winning singer says working with a vocal coach "honestly changed my life." Eilish and her brother/collaborator Finneas talk with Terr...

Comedian Ronny Chieng Didn't Tell His Parents He Got A 'Daily Show' Job

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Ronny Chieng got a job as a correspondent and then anchor at The Daily Show, he kept the news to himself. "I didn't want to brag," the Malaysia-b...

Someone Once Told Elton John He Would Never Be A Pop Star

15 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pop sensation Elton John wrapped up his farewell tour in 2023, only to pop up in a surprise concert at the October 2024 New York City premiere of the ...

Best Of: Jon Batiste's 'Beethoven Blues' / Visual Artist Mickalene Thomas

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Batiste joins us at the piano to play his reimaginings of Beethoven, and more. His new album is called Beethoven Blues.Also, we hear from visual a...

Cynthia Erivo Sings With 'A Bit Of A Smile'

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The British actor and singer played abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet, and Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha. Now she's defying gravity as Elphab...

Cynthia Erivo Sings With 'A Bit Of A Smile'

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The British actor and singer played abolitionist Harriet Tubman in Harriet, and Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha. Now she's defying gravity as Elphab...

Stephen & Evie Colbert Share The Taste Of Home

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Late Night host Stephen Colbert and his wife Evie McGee Colbert join Terry Gross to talk about family recipes. They have a new cookbook of South Carol...

The Housing Shortage, Explained

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The U.S. is short approximately 4 million homes. Wharton professor Ben Keys traces the beginning of the housing crisis to the 2008 financial meltdown ...

Actor Danielle Deadwyler 'Overprepared' For 'The Piano Lesson'

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Danielle Deadwyler stars in the Netflix adaptation of the August Wilson play The Piano Lesson. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about her journey from the ...

Jon Batiste Almost Got Kicked Out Of Juilliard

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The former band leader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert returns to talk with Terry Gross about his new album, Beethoven Blues. We also talk abou...

Werner Herzog Isn't The 'Wild Guy' You Think He Is

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Herzog reflects on the curiosity that's fueled his career in the memoir, Every Man for Himself and God Against All, now out in paperback. The filmmake...

Best Of: Folk Musician Jerron Paxton / Lyricist Ira Gershwin's Legacy

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Musician Jerron Paxton is known for performing music from the 1920s and '30s. He just came out with an album of his own songs, called Things Done Cha...

A Cultural History Of Hypochondria

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are you hyper-vigilant about your health, constantly monitoring yourself and panicking when you feel the slightest symptom? You're not alone. Writer C...

Trump's 2nd Term & The Economy

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Economist David Wessel talks about Trump's plans on tariffs and tax cuts, and the potential economic impact of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Departm...

Artist Mickalene Thomas Gives Black Women Their Flowers

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Mickalene Thomas' work, Black women are front and center. "We've been supportive characters for far too long," she says. "I would describe my art a...

Folk Musician Jerron Paxton Transports Us To the '20s

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're going to hear from a musician whose music is vibrant, exciting and new — even if it sounds like it could have been found on a scratchy record ...

Best Of: Making 'The Piano Lesson' / Selena Gomez

30 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson play The Piano Lesson is now on Netflix. It's about a brother and sister battling ov...

Pharrell Thinks He Sounds Like Mickey Mouse

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The animated film Piece By Piece traces Pharrell Williams' early life as a boy growing up in Virginia Beach and follows his trajectory to a Grammy-win...

A Yo-Yo Ma Thanksgiving

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

About 25 years ago, the acclaimed cellist asked a high school student to help him name his instrument. Yo-Yo Ma brings his cello — aka "Petunia" —...

Canonical Lyricist Ira Gershwin Gets His Due

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics for some of the most enduring songs in the Great American Songbook, including "I Got Rhythm," "S'Wonderful," "Embraceabl...

The Washington Family Brings 'The Piano Lesson' To Film

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Piano Lesson is about a conflict in a Black family over whether to keep an exquisite heirloom piano —...

A Marine's Portrait Of Her Body At Extremes

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During her years as a military linguist, Bailey Williams pushed her body to extremes. She later learned that eating disorders are more prevalent in th...

Best Of: Comedy Writer Michael Schur / Actor Jimmy O. Yang

23 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Schur wrote for the The Office, and created The Good Place, and co-created Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. His new show for Netfl...

The Exile Of Charlie Chaplin

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Author Scott Eyman explains how silent film actor Charlie Chaplin was smeared in the press, scandalized for his affairs with young women, condemned fo...

'Parks And Rec'& 'Good Place' Creator Michael Schur On His New Show

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Schur wrote for the The Office, and created The Good Place, and co-created Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. His new show for Netf...

Trump, Journalism & The Rough Road Ahead

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump has called the press the "enemy of the people" and threatened retribution, including jailing reporters, investigating NBC for treason, and sugge...

Selena Gomez Has Found Her Balance

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The actor-singer-entrepreneur stars in Emilia Pérez, the new Spanish-language musical about a cartel boss who undergoes gender-affirming surgery. Gom...

Actor/Comic Jimmy O. Yang Breaks Out Of The Background

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In his new Hulu comedy series, Interior Chinatown, Jimmy O. Yang plays a waiter who inadvertently becomes central to a crime story. As an Asian Americ...

Best Of: Why Do We Itch? / Writer Richard Price

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowery suffers from a rare liver condition that causes severe chronic itch. It led her to look into the stigma of itchines...

Kerri Russell On 'The Diplomat'/ Remembering Dorothy Allison

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kerri Russell stars in the Netflix political drama The Diplomat as a foreign service officer tapped to become the American ambassador to the UK. Russe...

How Screenwriting Saved Novelist Richard Price

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Richard Price's new novel, Lazarus Man, a five-story building collapses, upending the lives of the building's residents. It's about second chances ...

What Trump's Foreign Policy Could Look Like

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine, and with high tariffs on the horizon, The Economist Editor-In-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes says president-elect...

Why Do We Itch?

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We've all had bug bites, or dry scalp, or a sunburn that causes itch. But what if you felt itchy all the time — and there was no relief? Atlantic jo...

Veteran Phil Klay On A 2nd Trump Administration & The Military

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Author Phil Klay says Trump has been willing to politicize the military to push his partisan agenda before, and is likely to further erode norms aroun...

Best Of: Al Pacino / Saoirse Ronan

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino talks with Terry Gross about growing up in the South Bronx with a single mother and The Godfather, and why he almost pas...

Jenny Slate Finds Strength In Sensitivity

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Comic Jenny Slate spoke with Terry Gross earlier this year about finding comedy in her feelings, motherhood, and growing up in a haunted house. Her la...

Freedman's Bank & Economic Disparities Today

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Savings and Trust, historian Justene Hill Edwards tells the story of the Freedman's Bank. Created for formerly enslaved people following the Civil ...

Saoirse Ronan Says Being A Child Actor Shaped Her — For The Better

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Irish actor Saoirse Ronan returns to Fresh Air to talk with contributor Ann Marie Baldonado about her two new films (The Outrun and Blitz) as well as ...

Remembering Quincy Jones

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We remember renowned composer, arranger and producer Quincy Jones and listen back to Terry Gross's 2001 interview with him. He died Sunday at the age ...

Al Pacino Looks Back On A Legendary Career

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino talks with Terry Gross about growing up in the South Bronx with a single mother, getting his start in Greenwich Village ...

Best Of: Alex Van Halen / Painter Titus Kaphar

02 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Van Halen has written a new memoir about forming the rock band Van Halen with his brother Eddie. It takes readers from their childhood to the wil...

Remembering 'Tootsie' Actor Teri Garr

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We remember actor Teri Garr, who died last week at age 79. She charmed audiences in her film roles and appearances on late night TV. She's best known ...

What About Foreign Interference In The 2024 Election?

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker journalist David Kirkpatrick says a government command hub is tasked with tracking and protecting U.S. elections from foreign adversaries w...

The Organization Ready To Help Trump Override The Federal Gov't

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger says the America First Policy Institute, which has nearly 300 executive orders ready to be signed, would influen...

Alex Van Halen On Eddie, Fire & 'Feeling It'

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Van Halen has written a new memoir about forming the rock band Van Halen with his brother Eddie, who died of cancer in 2020. The book, titled Bro...

How The Culture Wars Split A Church

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eliza Griswold says complaints about homophobia, white privilege and diversity are splintering progressive organizat...

Best Of: Bridget Everett / Nick Harkaway, John le Carré's Son

26 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The HBO series Somebody Somewhere is about a 40-something woman who returns home to Kansas to care for her dying sister, then stays, but feels like an...

Singer-Songwriter Randy Newman

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The witty, cynical and often tongue-in-cheek songwriter Randy Newman is the subject of a new biography. He also wrote a bunch of film scores, includin...

Painter Titus Kaphar On 'Exhibiting Forgiveness'

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When painter, sculptor, and installation artist Titus Kaphar's life was upended by his estranged father, he turned to film. First he decided to tell h...

John le Carré's Son Revives His Late Dad's Beloved Spy

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Nick Harkaway grew up hearing his dad read drafts of his George Smiley novels. He picks up le Carré's beloved spymaster character in the new n...

What Do Billionaires Like Elon Musk Want From Trump?

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker writer Susan Glasser says Musk has spent $75 million to support Trump. If elected, Trump promises to appoint Musk to head a commission to c...

Bridget Everett On Not Fitting In, Then Finding Her People

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up in Manhattan, Kansas, Bridget Everett and her "blue sense of humor" never quite fit in. After moving to New York City and developing a caba...

Best Of: Pharrell Williams / Lisa Marie Presley's Memoir

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Grammy-winning producer, singer, songwriter and rapper Pharrell Williams has a new animated biopic called Piece by Piece. He talks with Tonya Mosley a...

Tom Petty / 'Reservation Dogs' Co-Creator Sterlin Harjo

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're revisiting our interview with Tom Petty, whose hits include "American Girl," "Breakdown," and "I Won't Back Down." The soundtrack of the new App...

The Battle For Honest And Accountable Government

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Former Inspector General Glenn Fine oversaw investigations of the mishandling of documents in the Oklahoma bombing case, the treatment of detainees at...

An Unprecedented Moment For Abortion, IVF & Fetal Personhood

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Legal scholar Mary Ziegler talks about the legal battles shaping reproductive rights across the U.S. — including the scope of abortion access and th...

Palestinian Poet Reflects On A Life Of Loss

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mosab Abu Toha was able to escape Gaza, along with his wife and three young children. The award-winning poet talks about being detained at a check-poi...

Riley Keough Helps Mom Lisa Marie Presley Emerge From Elvis' Shadow

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, was working on a memoir when she died in 2023. In From Here to the Great Unknown, actor Riley Keo...

Best Of: Jeremy Strong / Will & Harper's Roadtrip Across America

12 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Strong played Kendall Roy on HBO's Succession. He's now starring in The Apprentice, as Donald Trump's unscrupulous lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn....

Remembering Gospel Singer Cissy Houston / MLB Legend Pete Rose

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We remember singer Cissy Houston, who died Oct. 7 at the age of 91. She got her start in gospel and sang backup vocals for Elvis, Dusty Springfield, W...

Israeli Writer Etgar Keret Reflects On A Year Of War

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Internationally-acclaimed writer Etgar Keret, who lives in Tel Aviv, reflects on the protests in Israel and the U.S. over the hostages and Gaza. The s...

Jeremy Strong On Delusion, Dreams and Doing What It Takes [Extended Version]

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Best-known for his role as Kendall Roy in HBO's Succession, Jeremy Strong now stars as lawyer and political hitman Roy Cohn in The Apprentice. The mov...

Pharrell Williams Sees Colors When He Hears Music

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The animated film Piece By Piece traces Pharrell's early life as a boy growing up in Virginia Beach and follows his trajectory to a Grammy-winning son...

Will Ferrell & Harper Steele's Roadtrip Across America

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Will Ferrell and his longtime friend and former SNL writing partner Harper Steele traveled from New York to California, talking along the way about St...

Best Of: Ta-Nehisi Coates / John Leguizamo

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about his trip to Senegal and reflects on his ancestors taken from that side of the ocean and sent to their enslavement in Amer...

Remembering Maggie Smith and Kris Kristofferson

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Beloved British actor of stage and screen Maggie Smith died last week at age 89. Though the Oscar-winner had a long and successful career, it wasn't u...