Terry Gross
Stories
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'I wanted to buy her time': A mother looks back on her daughter's terminal cancer
Sarah Wildman's daughter Orli died at age 14. "She would sometimes ask me, 'What do you think I did to deserve this?' And of course, that's not an answerable question," Wildman says.
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How Louis Armstrong became the first Black pop star
Author Ricky Riccardi says Armstrong's innovations as a trumpeter and vocalist helped set the entire soundtrack of the 20th century. His new book about Armstrong's early life is Stomp Off, Let's Go.
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Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
Questlove's documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music, highlights the show's most iconic musical performances and comedy sketches — and addresses the show's "unhummable" theme song.
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Remembering Oscar-nominated filmmaker David Lynch
We listen back to a 1994 interview with Lynch, who died Jan. 14. His credits include Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. Plus, Isabella Rossellini and Nicolas Cage remember the director.
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Remembering Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer
Feiffer, who died Jan. 17, first published his self-titled comic strip in The Village Voice in 1956. Later syndicated, Feiffer went on to run for more than four decades. Originally broadcast in 1982.
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In 'A Real Pain,' Jesse Eisenberg asks: What is the purpose of 'tragedy tourism'?
Eisenberg's film follows two cousins on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland, which includes a stop at the Majdanek death camp. The story draws on his own family history — and his struggle with OCD.
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Years ago, writer Pico Iyer lost everything in a wildfire. This is what he learned
After a 1990 wildfire destroyed his home and possessions, Iyer started over. The loss led him to a Benedictine monastery, where he found comfort and compassion in solitude. His new memoir is Aflame.
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'Fresh Air' speaks with 3 people depicted in the Dylan biopic 'A Complete Unknown'
In 2008, Suze Rotolo reflected on being Dylan's girlfriend and muse. Folk singer Joan Baez spoke to Terry Gross in 1987. In 1998, Al Kooper looked back on his time as a session musician with Dylan.
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Former President Jimmy Carter: The 'Fresh Air' interviews (Part 2)
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 had become. Carter died on Dec. 29 at age 100.
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Tilda Swinton thinks about death and says you should, too
Swinton plays a woman dying of cancer in Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door. "A life spent considering how we're going to spend our end is not wasted time," Swinton says.
