Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Writer David Sedaris and actor Alan Cumming, on this edition of Fresh Air. Sedaris is best known for his contributing work with public radio's This American Life. He's written three books of essays, Barrel Fever, Naked, and his newest Me Talk Pretty One Day which was just released in paperback. Scottish actor Alan Cumming co-wrote, co-directed, and is co-starring in the new film The Anniversary Party, along with Jennifer Jason Leigh.

On this edition of Fresh Air, we remember stage actress and acting teacher Uta Hagen. She died on Wednesday at the age of 84. She taught acting for more than 40 years, teaching such actors as Jack Lemmon, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Broderick, and the late Geraldine Page.

Dr. Jerome Groopman and Saudi Arabian-born journalist Faiza Saleh Ambah on this edition of Fresh Air. Dr. Groopman is a Harvard Medical School Chair and is Chief of Experimental Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Voice and acting coach Patsy Rodenburg and fashion journalists Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine on this edition of Fresh Air. Rodenburg has worked with some of the world's leading English-speaking actors, including Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith, and Nicole Kidman.

Fresh Air rebroadcasts interviews with film editor and sound designer Walter Murch and inventor Robert Moog. Murch re-edited Orson Well's 1958 film Touch of Evil. At the time of the film's initial release the studio remixed the film to Well's displeasure. He fired off a letter with suggested changes. With those notes as their guide, Murch and Rick Schmidlin reconstructed the film to Well's intentions.

Novelists Richard Russo and Richard Price on this edition of Fresh Air. Russo won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls which was also a national best seller. His subject matter is working-class unpretentious people, but as one reviewer writes, he transforms "every day people and seemingly ordinary events - into the quintessential."

Writer and radio host Garrison Keillor and writer Jhumpa Lahiri on this edition of Fresh Air. Garrison Keillor's new book is Love Me: A Novel. It's about the ambitions of a frustrated writer who publishes a piece in the New Yorker, writes a disappointing debut novel, and ends up penning an advice column in the local newspaper.

Writer Deirdre Bair on this edition of Fresh Air. Her new book is Jung: A Biography. Bair chronicles the life and work of the influential Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Bair won the National Book Award for her biography of Samuel Beckett, and she's also written books about the lives of Anais Nin and Simone de Beauvoir.

Sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh on this edition of Fresh Air. Sudhir Venkatesh's an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of African American Studies at Columbia University in New York. His newest book, American Project: The Rise and Fall of the Modern Ghetto, was awarded the 2000 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award of the Association of American Publishers.

The HBO hit series Sex and the City, begins a new season July 21st. On this edition of Fresh Air, we'll hear from two people involved with the show: actress Sarah Jessica Parker and writer and executive producer Michael Patrick King. Sarah Jessica Parker was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She's been acting for most of her life, including playing Annie on Broadway, the young bimbo in L.A. Story, and a fed-up fiancee in Honeymoon in Vegas.

Poet and memoirist Mary Karr on this archive edition of Fresh Air. In a follow up to Liar's Club, what critics call "a hard scrabble childhood.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Norman Mailer and the stars of the Emmy Award-winning T.V. series Cagney and Lacey, Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly on this edition of Fresh Air. Mailer talks about his 1995 book Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery. The book profiles Lee Harvey Oswald's life. Mailer says we must ask "Who was Oswald?" as a prelude to asking "Who killed JFK?". This is Mailer's 28th book. Gless and Daly played New York City Police detectives in their series which aired on CBS from 1982 to 1988.

A compilation of Fresh Air celebrity interviews with host Terry Gross.

Because Audible was not granted digital audio rights to today's issue of Fresh Air, we have selected a great interview with record producer and songwriter Neil Innes and actress Joan Cusack for this edition of Fresh Air. Neil Innes is a founding member of the comedy-rock group "The Bonzo Dog Band". He's also a member of "The Rutles", the band that he and Eric Idle of Monty Python created as a spoof of the Beatles.

Bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs and actor Adrien Brody on this edition of Fresh Air. Bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs originated the staccato three-finger, five-string banjo technique that became known as the "Scruggs style." Actor Adrien Brody won the Oscar last year for his role in Roman Polanski's The Pianist.

Comedian and political satirist Al Franken and actor Benicio Del Toro on this edition of Fresh Air. In December, Franken was part of a USO tour performing for troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait. The tour lasted eight days, and he returned Christmas Day. He'll talk about the tour and do some of his routine from it. Franken's books include Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot.

Scottish actor Alan Cumming on this archive edition of Fresh Air.

Joey Ramone, the lead singer of the punk band the Ramones, died earlier this month. He had lymphoma. From their start in 1974, the Ramones combined fast, deafening guitar with precise drumming to create a hurricane of sound. Their songs had titles like "Beat on the Brat," "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." This edition of Fresh Air features an archive interview with Ramone from 1988.

"Queen of Disco" Donna Summer and actor Sean Penn on this edition of Fresh Air. Donna Summer grew up singing gospel in church choirs in Boston and in her teens joined the German cast of Hair. While abroad, she recorded "Love to Love You Baby", which became a huge hit. She returned to the United States a disco star.

Film director Barry Sonnenfeld on this edition of Fresh Air. His latest movie is Men in Black 2, the sequel to his film Men in Black. Both films star Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Sonnenfeld's other films include Wild Wild West, Get Shorty, and The Addams Family. Before directing, he worked as a cinematographer.