Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Historian and journalist Hampton Sides on this edition of Fresh Air. Sides is reporting from Centcom in Qatar. Last week he wrote a piece in the New Yorker about his decision not to become "imbedded" with troops.

Abstract painter Frank Stella and remembering musician Juan Garcia Esquivel on this edition of Fresh Air. Frank Stella was first well known in the late 1950s for his Black Paintings series - striped monochrome works that helped touch off the minimalism movement. Over the years his work evolved from the canvas to colorful geometrical configurations of sculpture and architectural dimension.

Foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid and poet Harvey Shapiro on this edition of Fresh Air. Anthony Shadid is a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. Before working for the Post, he was a correspondent at The Boston Globe's Washington bureau. He spent nine years with Associated Press, five of them in Cairo.

Writer James Tobin on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the author of a biography of World War Two correspondent, Ernie Pyle who was beloved by the public, the G.I.'s and the Generals alike. He witnessed the great American campaigns of the war - North Africa, Sicily, Italy, D-Day, Normandy, the liberation of Paris, and Okinawa. Eleanor Roosevelt was a fan of his work.

Colombian senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and journalist Stephen Dudley on this edition of Fresh Air. In a country controlled by drug cartels and corrupt government officials, Betancourt has spoken out against corruption. Her efforts have earned her and her family death threats. She travels with as many as a dozen bodyguards and sent her children away. Bentancourt grew up in Paris, the daughter of Colombia's ambassador to UNESCO.

Russian expert William Taubman and film trailer creators Mark Woolen and Michael Greenfeld on this edition of Fresh Air. William Taubman is a Political Science Professor at Amherst College and he has written many books on the Soviet Union. His latest is a biography of the Russian ruler Nikita Khrushchev who led the country after Stalin's death and attempted to de-Stalinize the country. It's called Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.

Journalist Philip Taubman on this edition of Fresh Air. His new book is Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage. During the Cold War, a small group of scientists, engineers, businessmen and government officials developed spy planes and spy satellites to collect information about Soviet arms. Taubman is the deputy editorial page editor of The New York Times.

James Bennet, Jerusalem Bureau Chief of The New York Times, on this edition of Fresh Air. He'll tell us about the current state of affairs between Israel and Palestine, and the impact war would have on the region.

TV Producer Lawrence O'Donnell on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the creator and producer of NBC's new series Mr. Sterling about a freshman senator on Capitol Hill. Previously O'Donnell was a writer and producer for the first two seasons of NBC's The West Wing. Before his television career, O'Donnell was in politics himself.

Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine on this edition of Fresh Air. The design for the World Trade Center site has been chosen. Goldberger describes the selection process and comments on architect Daniel Libeskind's winning proposal.

Journalist David Remnick and former two-time heavyweight champion of the world George Foreman on this edition of Fresh Air. David Remnick is the author of the book King of the World, about heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Remnick is editor of The New Yorker Magazine and is also the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lenin's Tomb. In 1974, in what was called the "Rumble in the Jungle", Foreman took on Muhammad Ali in Zaire for the world heavyweight title.

Dragnet executive producer Walon Green on this edition of Fresh Air. Green is one of the executive producers of Dragnet - the remake of the 1950s crime drama set in Los Angeles. The new show revives the characters Detectives Joe Friday and Frank Smith. Green is a veteran producer and writer of other police dramas including Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, as well as the dramas ER and Law & Order.

Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy and composer Jerry Goldsmith on this edition of Fresh Air. Randall Kennedy's new book, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word is based on a series of classroom lectures he prepared exploring the history and use of the word nigger. He found the word in literature, political debates, cartoons, and songs. And he explores the use of the word from a hateful slur to a term of endearment.

Writer Aminatta Forna and composer John Kander on this edition of Fresh Air. When she was 10 years old, Aminatta Forna's father, a doctor and advocate for democracy in Sierra Leone, was executed for treason. As an adult, Forna returned to Sierra Leone to investigate the circumstances surrounding her father's death. Her memoir is The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest. Forna is a broadcast journalist living in London.

Musician, producer, arranger, composer Quincy Jones on this 70th birthday rebroadcast edition of Fresh Air. In his fifty year career he's worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16 year old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hampton's band beside Clifford Brown. He went on to work with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Lesley Gore and many others.

Former NASA flight director Chris Kraft and humanitarian aid worker Kenneth Gluck on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Chris Kraft was NASA's first flight director, from the first forays into space in the 1960s to after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969. Kraft also created Mission Control. He's written a new book, Flight: My Life In Mission Control. Kenneth Gluck was working with Doctors Without Borders in Chechnya when he was kidnapped and held for 26 days.

Author Jim DeRogatis on this archive edition of Fresh Air. DeRogatis is the author of Let It Blurt: The Life & Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic. Recently portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Cameron Crowe's movie Almost Famous, Bangs wrote about rock 'n' roll for Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice.

Filmmaker John Waters on this archive edition of Fresh Air. His film Cecil B. Demented has been released on video and DVD. It's about an underground filmmaker and his cult following who declare war on bad cinema by kidnapping a starlet and forcing her to star in their own film. Waters' other movies include Pecker, about a young amateur photographer who becomes the darling of the New York art world; and Cry Baby, a juvenile delinquent love story set in the 1950s.

Film critic John Powers talks with host Terry Gross about the holiday movies coming out and about his favorite films from the last year. (Broadcast Date: December 21, 2001)

Novelist Stephen King on this edition of Fresh Air. In 1999, the prolific and popular horror writer experienced something that could have come out of one of his books: he was struck by a car while walking along a rural road in Maine and nearly killed. Six operations and a long recovery followed. Five weeks after the accident, King started writing again and published the novella, The Plant over the Internet. His latest book is On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.