Fresh Air

Merle Haggard On Hopping Trains And Doing Time

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Before he became a musician, Merle Haggard lived the kind of life that's often mythologized in song: Hopping freights and doing prison time. When he b...

Are Kids With ADHD Being Treated Effectively?

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

ADHD has been considered a medical disorder, treatable with drugs like Ritalin, but New York Times Magazine writer Paul Tough says recent studies ques...

Ryan Coogler Paid A Steep Price For The Films He Made

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The director of Black Panther and Creed talks about his new genre-bending vampire movie that takes place in the Jim Crow South. It's called Sinners an...

America's Path To 'Competitive Authoritarianism'

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Harvard professor of government Steven Levitsky studies how healthy democracies can slip into authoritarianism. He says the Trump administration has a...

Noah Wyle Is At Home In 'The Pitt'

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After 11 seasons on ER, Noah Wyle thought he was finished with medical dramas: "I spent 15 years avoiding — actively avoiding — walking down what ...

Best Of: Richard Kind / Melinda French Gates

19 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You've seen Richard Kind on countless TV shows and films during his 40-year career — Only Murders in the Building, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Spin City, ...

A Love Story At The Center Of The Civil Rights Movement

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid tells the story of Medgar Evers and his wife Myrlie. Medgar was the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, a state that lynched...

Starvation In American Jail Cells

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker staff writer Sarah Stillman says she's discovered dozens of cases where people in county jails across the U.S. have died of starvation, deh...

The Real-Life Russian Spies Who Inspired 'The Americans'

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West, journalist Shaun Walker shares how agents were t...

Melinda French Gates On Giving Away Her 'Absurd' Wealth

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a new memoir, billionaire Melinda French Gates writes about the end of her marriage to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and her ongoing philanthrop...

Richard Kind Is Glad He's Not That Famous

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kind is the announcer and host sidekick on the Netflix show Everybody's Live with John Mulaney. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing. You must unders...

Best Of: Jason Isbell / David Tennant

12 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Isbell sings about his split from musician Amanda Shires on his latest album, Foxes in the Snow. "What I was at...

'Hacks' Returns! With Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning comedy series returns for a fourth season this week. It's about two women — a successful comic/TV personality in ...

The Dark Secrets Of Johnson & Johnson

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Johnson & Johnson recently lost a bid to settle lawsuits that claimed its talc powder products, including baby powder, caused cancer. Author Gardiner ...

Trump's Tariffs & The Radical Remaking Of The Global Economy

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

President Trump's sweeping tariff policy has upended the global economy. Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, likens it to The ...

The 'Fog Of Delusion' In Biden's Inner Circle

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Author Chris Whipple says Biden's family and closest advisors operated in denial regarding his ability to serve another term: "There's no doubt that t...

At 3 Years Old, David Tennant Knew He Wanted To Be Doctor Who

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When David Tennant was three, he told his parents he wanted to grow up to play Doctor Who on TV. As a teen, he held onto that dream: "I was quite weed...

Best Of: Amanda Knox / 'Adolescence' Co-Creator & Actor Stephen Graham

05 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Knox was convicted — and ultimately exonerated — for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy. Now in a n...

Celebrating 20 Years Of 'The Office'

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's been 20 years since the debut of NBC's hit mockumentary sitcom The Office. To celebrate the anniversary, we're listening back to Terry Gross' arc...

Jason Isbell On Love, Heartbreak & Songwriting

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Isbell sings about his split from musician Amanda Shires on his latest album, Foxes in the Snow. "What I was attempting to do is document a very speci...

ICE Campus Arrests & The 'Struggle For The Soul' Of America

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As ICE agents arrest international students at campuses across the U.S., immigration law professor Daniel Kanstroom discusses the human cost. He says ...

Writer, Critic & Curator Hilton Als Looks For The Silences

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, Hilton Als's essays and profiles of figures like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Richard Pryor have rede...

'Adolescence' Co-Creator/Actor Asks Not Whodunnit, But Why

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Netflix miniseries follows a 13-year-old accused of murdering a girl from his school. Co-creator and star Stephen Graham says he read about simila...

Best Of: A Writer Grapples With A Life-Changing Accident / The Post WWII 'Red Scare'

29 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hanif Kureishi began his new memoir just days after a fall left him paralyzed. He describes being completely dependent on others — and the sense of ...

After A Friend's Suicide, A Writer Inherits His Grieving Dog

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sigrid Nunez's 2018 novel The Friend won the National Book Award. It's now a film, starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, about a woman who inherits a ...

The Former Jihadist Trying To Remake Syria

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Atlantic writer Robert Worth talks about Syria's transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. He was the founder of the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, but is ...

Amanda Knox Is 'Free,' But Is That Enough?

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison for a murder she didn't commit. After her exoneration, she reached out to the man who prosecu...

Inside The 'Mad House' Of Congressional Disfunction

25 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The MAGA-controlled 118th House passed only 27 bills that became law — the lowest number since the Great Depression. Journalists Annie Karni and Luk...

A Legal Scholar On 10 Laws 'Ruining America'

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Legal scholar Elie Mystal talks about his new book, Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. From the Hyde Amendment's impact on reproducti...

Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?

22 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seth Rogen created a new AppleTV+ series, The Studio, which is a satirical look at how executives in Hollywood make decisions on what movies get made....

50 Years Of 'Rocky Horror'

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is 50 years old, and still going strong in midnight theaters. We're listening back to Terry's 2005 interview with Tim Cu...

The Political Battle For The Bros

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Popular podcasts in the "manosphere" helped sway young men to go MAGA in the 2024 election. New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz explains how Democrats ca...

The Promise & Peril Of AI

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Rivlin says regulation can help control how AI is used: "AI could be an amazing thing around health, medicine, ...

Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In his new Apple TV+ series The Studio, Seth Rogen plays an anxious Hollywood executive desperate to not get fired. Studio heads are charged with deci...

The Red Scare & America's Conspiratorial Politics

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Clay Risen describes a political movement which destroyed the careers of thousands of teachers, civil servants and artists whose beliefs or ass...

Best Of: Comic Bill Burr / Actor Simu Liu

15 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Burr knows exactly where his sense of humor comes from. He learned at an early age that if he could make people laugh, then they'd be less likely...

Texan-Palestinian Comic Mo Amer

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Amer's Netflix comedy series about his life, Mo, is now in its second season. His family is Palestinian, and fled the first Gulf War, so Amer grew up ...

Remembering The South African Playwright Who Defied Apartheid

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Athol Fugard's plays, like Blood Knot and Master Harold and the Boys, were about the emotional and psychological consequences of Apartheid. He also fo...

Comic Bill Burr [Extended Version]

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Burr talks with Terry Gross about processing his abusive childhood, a therapeutic mushroom trip, and why he's angry at liberals. "You can get canceled...

The Gutting Of The Department Of Education

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Department of Education is reportedly eliminating 50% of its workforce. Washington Post writer Laura Meckler talks about the fallout, from the enf...

The Campaign To Silence Journalists & Undermine Free Speech

11 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning one of the most consequential free speech decisions ever made. New York Times Co. ...

Comic Bill Burr On Musk, Magic Mushrooms & Healing From His Childhood

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Burr knows exactly where his sense of humor comes from. He learned at an early age that if he could make people laugh, then they'd be less likely...

Best Of: Jazz Clarinetist Doreen Ketchens / 'White Lotus' Actor Natasha Rothwell

08 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We're joined by a New Orleans institution — clarinetist and vocalist Doreen Ketchens. She's got several nicknames — "Lady Louie," "Queen Clarinet...

Remembering New York Dolls Frontman David Johansen

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 1970s band The New York Dolls made only two studio albums, but the group was hugely influential, setting the stage for punk rock. We listen back t...

Actor Simu Liu On Diving In The Dark

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2012, three deep-sea divers were on a routine dive in the North Sea when one of the divers became trapped underwater. The harrowing story of that r...

How Did DEI Become Part Of A Political Agenda — And A Slur?

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Georgetown professor Ella Washington and Harvard professor Frank Dobbin discuss the beneficiaries and misperceptions of diversity, equity and inclusio...

Mardi Gras With New Orleans Jazz Clarinetist Doreen Ketchens

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Known as "Lady Louie," Doreen Ketchens has been a fixture of the French Quarter for nearly four decades. We talk about her classical training and her ...

How A Writer's Life Changed In A Second

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hanif Kureishi began his new memoir just days after a fall left him paralyzed. He describes being completely dependent on others — and the sense of ...

Best Of: Growing Up Murdoch / DOGE's Cuts To The Federal Workforce

01 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins describes the rivalry among the children of 93 year-old media titan Rupert Murdoch over who will control his busin...

Jeremy Strong / Sebastian Stan / Adrien Brody

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Academy Awards are this Sunday. We hear from the two stars of the film The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. It's about how a young Do...

Natasha Rothwell Checks Back Into 'The White Lotus'

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the new season of The White Lotus, Natasha Rothwell reprises her role of spa manager Belinda, a woman "on the precipice of change" as she straddles...

The Ripple Effect Of Musk's Government Purge

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

DOGE has eliminated thousands of federal jobs and canceled more than 1,000 contracts. Harvard professor Elizabeth Linos warns, "We're seeing harms tha...

The Murdoch Family's Real-Life 'Succession' Rivalry

25 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rupert Murdoch and his oldest kids are battling over who controls his media empire when the 93-year-old media titan dies. The Atlantic staff writer Mc...

The Battle For The Soul Of The Catholic Church

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Jesus Wept, investigative journalist Philip Shenon examines the last seven popes, and how efforts to reform the Church with the Second Vatican Coun...

Best Of: Louis Armstrong's Early Years / Our Anti-Social Century

22 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We talk with author Ricky Riccardi about how Louis Armstrong became the first Black pop star and provided the foundation of improvisation for other mu...

Andrew Scott Doesn't See Ripley As A Monster

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the series Ripley, Andrew Scott plays a con artist with no conscience. The actor says it was important to humanize his character. "For me, I think ...

A Family Forged By Haiti's Coup

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rich Benjamin's grandfather, Daniel Fignolé, was a popular Haitian labor leader who became Haiti's president in 1957. After just 19 days in office, h...

How Regime Change Happens In America

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During President Trump's first term, journalist Anne Applebaum reported on how he was moving toward authoritarianism. Now she's describing Trump's act...

What Measles Outbreaks Tell Us About Public Health In America

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Measles thrives on being underestimated," Dr. Adam Ratner says. The highly infectious disease was thought to be a "solved problem," until a 2018 outb...

Are Trump's Executive Orders Legal?

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Constitutional scholar, historian, and New York Times staff writer Charlie Savage joins us this President's Day to talk about the scope of executive p...

Best Of: Sebastian Stan / Questlove On The Genius Of Sly Stone

15 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Musician and documentary filmmaker Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is back to talk about his new Hulu documentary about Sly Stone. It's called SLY LIVES! (...

'SNL' Turns 50: Aykroyd, Franken, Zweibel & Lovitz

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary, we're featuring interviews with some of the early cast members/writers. Dan Aykroyd talks about the moment...

'Nickel Boys' Director RaMell Ross Makes The Camera 'An Organ'

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

RaMell Ross's Oscar-nominated film, Nickel Boys, centers on two young Black men attempting to survive a brutal Florida reformatory school in the 1960s...

How Did Elon Musk Become So Powerful In The Trump Administration?

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New York Times journalist Eric Lipton explains how Musk's companies are benefiting as he cuts federal jobs and agencies, and reporter Teddy Schleifer ...

For Sebastian Stan, 'The Apprentice' Playing In Theaters Was The Win

11 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sebastian Stan is up for an Oscar for his portrayal of President Trump early in his career, when Roy Cohn was his lawyer and mentor. Stan says Cohn sc...

Questlove On Sly Stone & The Burden Of Black Genius

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Questlove is back to talk about his new documentary about Sly Stone and his band the Family Stone. They created a new sound with their mix of pop, so...

Best Of: Ariana Grande / Inside A Dominatrix's Dungeon

08 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We talk about the cultural phenomenon of Wicked with star Ariana Grande. She's nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Grande talks about ...

Remembering British Singer Marianne Faithfull

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Discovered at a Rolling Stones party at the age of 17, Marianne Faithfull broke out in the early '60s with the Jagger/Richards song "As Tears Go By." ...

A Dominatrix/Writer Takes Readers Into A Dungeon

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After publishing her first novel when she was 21, Brittany Newell started working as a dominatrix. The job gave her time to write — and plenty of ma...

Trump's Plan For Gaza / The U.S. Military's Recruiting Crisis

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last night, President Trump proposed a plan to displace all the Palestinians from Gaza, and get Jordan and Egypt to take them in, while the U.S. takes...

Ariana Grande Loves Being In A 'Beautiful Coven'

04 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a kid, Ariana Grande loved singing karaoke with her family. "I looked up to Whitney and Mariah and Celine endlessly," she says. "I think that's a l...

Parenting A Child With Terminal Cancer

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Wildman's daughter Orli died from cancer when she was 14. "She would sometimes ask me, 'What do you think I did to deserve this?' And of course,...

Best Of: 50 Years Of SNL Musical Guests / Black History Through Blues

01 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is the co-director of a new documentary about the music of Saturday Night Live over the last 50 years. It's called Ladies &...

For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Apple TV+ drama series Severance is back for its second season. It's a dystopian take on work-life balance — where characters have their persona...

How Louis Armstrong Became The First Black Pop Star

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Author Ricky Riccardi says Louis Armstrong's innovations as a trumpeter and vocalist helped set the entire soundtrack of the 20th century. His new boo...

This Anti-Social American Life

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Research shows we're spending more time alone than ever before. Atlantic writer Derek Thompson says all this "me time" has a profound impact on our re...

What The Color Blue Tells About Black History

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning author and scholar Imani Perry traces the history and symbolism of the color blue, from the indigo of the slave trade, to Coretta Scott ...

Questlove Digs Into 50 years Of 'SNL' Musical Hits (And Misses)

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Questlove's documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music, airs tonight on NBC. It highlights some of the show's most iconic musical perfor...

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...