Showing results by narrator "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Writer Max Allan Collins and director Sam Mendes on this edition of Fresh Air. Max Allan Collins' graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis for the film of the same name. Mickey Spillane said of the novel, "I know mysteries, and I know comics - and Road to Perdition is one great ride!" Collins twice won the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus award for his Nathaniel Heller historical thrillers, True Detective and Stolen Away.

The host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon and remembering dancer Gwen Verdon on this edition of Fresh Air. Simon's written a memoir, Home & Away: Memoir of a Fan. Fresh Air remembers dancer Gwen Verdon. She died today at the age of 75. She became an overnight Broadway sensation in 1953 as a dancer in Can Can, for which she won her first Tony Award.

Cartoonist Daniel Clowes, director Terry Zwigoff, and remembering country music star Waylon Jennings on this edition of Fresh Air.

Hear former Vice President Al Gore, book critic Maureen Corrigan, lead singer and songwriter of Radiohead Thom Yorke, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. Al Gore has just been given the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for fighting global warming. His Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, aims to get the message out to the masses.

Ruth Kluger is the author of the new memoir, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. Kluger was 10 years old when she and her mother were deported to the Jewish "ghetto" Theresienstadt. From there they were sent to Auschwitz and the young Kluger survived to go to the work camp Christianstadt by lying about her age. Her memoir Still Alive was published in Germany in 1992 and has just been published in the US.

Todd Gitlin, Mara Verheyden Hillard, and Bob Edgar discuss the peace movement on this edition of Fresh Air. Todd Gitlin was a leader of the peace movement in the 1960s. He is a former president of Students for a Democratic Society, and author of a number of books including The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, and Media Unlimited.

Hear music-comedy duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of the group Flight of the Conchords, writer Reynolds Price, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie hail from New Zealand and were named Best Alternative comedy Act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on this edition of Fresh Air. He's written eight books since his presidency, including several memoirs. His newest book is a collection of his poems, Always a Reckoning. Terry will talk with him about his poetry, and about his diplomacy work, most recently, negotiating agreements in Bosnia and Haiti.

Singers Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green on this edition of Fresh Air Teddy Pendergrass was a popular soul singer in the group "Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes.

Fifth Beatle Pete Best on this edition of Fresh Air. He was the drummer for the Beatles in their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. His mother, Mona Best, was the owner of The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool.

Writer Benson Bobrick on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the author of the recently published Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired. The book chronicles the difficulties scholars had in translating the Bible into English - efforts that culminated in the King James Version.

Comedian and political commentator Al Franken on this edition of Fresh Air. His new book is Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Franken recently made headlines when the Fox News Channel tried to sue him over the phrase "fair and balanced," which Fox claimed as its own. Fox lost, and Franken got lots of publicity for the book, and it is now a best seller.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, religion scholar and former nun Karen Armstrong, the religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Detroit, Iman Sayed Hassan Qazwini and American Muslim Asma Gull Hasan on this edition of Fresh Air. Thomas Friedman covered the Middle East for many years, work that won him two Pulitzer Prizes. He's also the author of the book, From Beirut to Jerusalem.

Novelists Paul Auster and Michael Cunningham on this edition of Fresh Air. New York based writer Paul Auster is the author of ten novels. His latest is The Book of Illusions. For a year beginning October 1999, Auster gathered stories sent to him by men and women across the United States. The stories were all true, short, and personal. As part of NPR's "National Story Project" Auster read them over the air. Those stories were collected in the book, I Thought My Father Was God.

Religion scholar Karen Armstrong on Islamic fundamentalism on this edition of Fresh Air. She's the author of the best selling books The Battle for God, Jerusalem, and The History of God. She's also the author of Islam: A Short History. (Broadcast Date: October 17, 2001)

Fresh Air celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by talking with Shirley Ann Barnhard, Clayborne Carson, and James Farmer. Shirley Ann Barnhard is a staff member and tour guide at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, where Martin Luther King, Jr., was once co-pastor with his father. Clayborne Carson is founding director of the King Papers Project. James Farmer is the co-founder of CORE, the Congress On Racial Equality.

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss on this edition of Fresh Air. His book Reaching for Glory: The Secret Lyndon Johnson Tapes, 1964-1965 is now out in paperback. It is Beschloss's second volume on the LBJ tapes. Beschloss will talk about the tapes, and we will hear excerpts, including some recordings of conversations about Vietnam, Civil Rights, and with Jackie Kennedy.

Museum director Gretchen Worden and actress Mary Louise Parker on this edition of Fresh Air. Gretchen Worden is the director of the Mutter Museum. She's just put together a book of photographs of and from the museum's collection of human oddities and outdated medical models. The Mutter Museum is in Philadelphia, PA. It is one of the last medical museums from the nineteenth century. It originated with the collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter who gathered unique specimens for teaching purposes.

British actress Charlotte Rampling and actor Chris Cooper on this edition of Fresh Air. Charlotte Rampling is known for her great beauty. She was a model before beginning her film career in the sixties with hits such as Georgy Girl and The Damned.

Actor John Travolta on this edition of Fresh Air. Travolta plays an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent in the new film Basic. He became a star in the 1970s with the films Saturday Night Fever, and Grease.