Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Husband and wife song writing team, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil on this edition of Fresh Air. The duo is responsible for such songs as "You've Lost that Loving Feeling," "On Broadway," "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," "Here You Come Again," "Don't Know Much," and more.

Musician Al Kooper on this edition of Fresh Air. He turns 60 years old on February 5th. A benefit concert celebrating the event is set for the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on Jan 31. Kooper helped popularize the Hammond B3 organ as part of rock music, performing on recordings of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. He was a member of the legendary Blues Project, and later founded the group Blood Sweat and Tears.

Jeffrey Toobin, staff writer at The New Yorker and writer Ben Cheever on this edition of Fresh Air. Jeffrey Toobin's new book is an investigation.

Senior vice president and editorial director of VH1, Bill Flanagan on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He's the author of A&R, a satirical novel about the music industry. Prior to this, Flanagan wrote extensively about the business for Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Spy. He's also the author of Written in My Soul, a collection of conversations with songwriters.

Musician Ravi Shankar, actors Vince Vaughn and Gene Hackman on this edition of Fresh Air. Today, we learned that former Beatle George Harrison has died.

On this archival edition of Fresh Air, playwright and satirist from South Africa Pieter Dirk-Uys, and writer and director Todd Haynes. Dirk-Uys has a television talk show in South Africa that has an unusual twist. Instead of hosting his show as himself, he dresses drag as an Afrikaner dowager named Evita. His guests include such leaders as Nelson Mandela. His show is said to be "a way of making the country's leaders seem more human."

Veteran producer, pianist, singer, club owner George Wein on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the founder of the New Port Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In the early 1950s he founded the jazz clubs Storyville and Mahogany Hall in his hometown of Boston where jazz giants Art Tatum, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Miles Davis played.

From the Library of Congress, Recording Sound Specialist, Samuel Brylawski and acquisition specialist Cooper Graham and former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater on this edition of Fresh Air. The two compiled a collection of presidential speeches dating back 85 years Historic Presidential Speeches (1908-1993).

Former Washington deputy bureau chief for ABC News and award winning producer A'Lelia Bundles on this edition of Fresh Air. Her new book is a biography of her great-great-grandmother Madam C.J. Walker, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker. Walker was the daughter of slaves, and a widow at the age of 20.

Two of the most popular shows on television are U.S. versions of shows originated in Britain. Fresh Air's Terry Gross talks with the people behind them on this edition. David Briggs is the creator of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which premiered on British television in September 1998 and thereby set the phrase (or its translation) "Is that your final answer?" into orbit.

Former Clinton White House Press Secretaries Michael McCurry and Joe Lockhart on this edition of Fresh Air. From 1995-1998, Michael McCurry was press secretary when the Monica Lewinsky story first broke. Joe Lockhart was White House Press Secretary from 1998 to October 2000, during Clinton's impeachment trial.

Psychologist Judith Wallerstein and journalist Fred Schulte on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Judith Wallerstein interviewed over 50 couples about how and why their relationships work. She summaries her findings in her book The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts. Fred Schulte writes for the Ft. Lauderdale South Florida Sun Sentinel. He investigated the telemarketing industry for his latest book, Fleeced! Telemarketing Rip-Offs and How to Avoid Them.

Jazz musician James Moody and Screenwriter and novelist Richard Price. Just after World War II, Moody joined the bebop big band of Dizzy Gillespie and played with Milt Jackson. His most famous recording is of an improvisatory piece he performed in 1949, now known as "Moody's Mood For Love." Terry talked to him in 1996, about his CD, Young At Heart, which had just been released. It is a collection of Frank Sinatra tunes.

Reporter and author Stephen Handleman on this edition of Fresh Air. For the many bureaucrats, corrupt army generals, black market racketeers, and others who held power and wealth in the old Soviet system, making a buck has never been easier. Organized crime is in the downside of free enterprise in the new Russia.

Journalist John Hockenberry on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Hockenberry spent more than a decade with National Public Radio as a general assignment reporter, Middle East correspondent, and program host. Hockenberry is paralyzed from the waist down and he writes of his life's obstacles and accomplishments in his new book Moving Violations.

Author Lorenzo Carcaterra on this rebroadcast of Fresh Air. Carcaterra was the managing editor of the CBS weekly series Top Cops. He is the author of two memoirs, A Safe Place and Sleepers, about growing up in New York's Hell's Kitchen during the 50s and 60s.

Actress Christine Baranski and garbage expert Benjamin Miller on this edition of Fresh Air. Baranski is probably best known for her work on the TV series Cybill, in which she played Maryann, the best friend of Cybill Shepherd. She's currently starring in the TV sitcom Welcome to New York. She also plays Martha May Whovier in the new film Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Kirk Varnedoe on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Ed Harris is starring as Jackson Pollack in a new movie about the artist's life. We'll feature an interview from our archives about Pollock. Varnedoe was the chief curator for a major Jackson Pollock exhibit that ran last year at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Pollock is widely considered the most challenging and influential American painter of the twentieth century and one of the primary creators in modern art since 1945.

Reporter Eric Schmitt and historian Bernard Weissberger on this edition of Fresh Air. Schmitt covers Capitol Hill for The New York Times. He'll talk about the new Congress and power sharing in the 50/50 Senate. Schmitt will also talk about how the just resolved Presidential election - along with a truncated transition period for George W. Bush - may effect political decision making on the Hill.

Law professor Cass Sunstein and journalist Jefferey Toobin on this edition of Fresh Air. An expert in Constitutional interpretation, Sunstein explains the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore handed down last night. He talks about the legal difficulties of the case, what the final decision means for each candidate, and what sort of historical precedent a decision such as this one sets for the future.