Terry Gross

Screenwriters RASHIDA JONES and WILL MCCORMACK. They're the writing team behind the new film The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton. They've been creative partners for more than two decades, first as co-writers of Celeste and Jesse Forever. JONES is an actor, writer, producer, and director. She won a Grammy for co-directing the documentary Quincy, about her father, Quincy Jones, and recently earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in Black Mirror. MCCORMACK is an Academy Award-winning writer, director, and actor.

(1.) ROBERT KIMBALL, the musical historian who rediscovered and rescued music and manuscripts by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and others – and who co-wrote important books about George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Eubie Blake – died last week, at the age of 86. He was the artistic advisor to the Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin estates.

(1.) LENNY KAYE. He’s Patti Smith's longtime guitarist and his first solo album, called Goin’ Local will be released next week. It features his own songs. He’s written several books related to rock n roll history, including his latest, Lightning Striking, about ten transformative periods in rock history and the cities they originated in. His record anthology Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era,1965-68, inspired many first generation punk rockers.Early in his career, Kaye was a rock critic. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES THROUGH TO THE END OF THE SHOW).

(1.) Journalist ARI BERMAN. For more than a decade, he's covered voting rights and election law in America. He'll talk about a series of recent changes to how elections are run: a Supreme Court decision upholding states' power to count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, another striking down limits on coordinated party spending, a ruling that narrowed the Voting Rights Act, and redrawn congressional maps in several Southern states.

(1.) Music producer PETER ASHER. In the 1960s he was part of the duo Peter and Gordon whose hits included A World Without Love, Nobody I Know, I Don’t Want to See You Again and I go to Pieces. After the duo split up, in 1968 Peter became the first A&R man at the Beatles new Apple Record Label. The first person he signed was James Taylor. ASHER soon after moved to LA, produced and managed Taylor and helped turn him into a star. He introduced Taylor to Carole King, and launched King’s performing career. He produced and managed Linda Rontadt.

(1.) Journalist BURKARD BILGER is a staff writer for The New Yorker. In a new article titled The Tick That Hunts Down its Hosts, Including Us, he reports on what we know about how the tick operates, how it has multiplied and vastly extended its territory and how it affects the people it feeds on, and the latest ideas about how to limit the infestation and treat people with alpha gal syndrome which the tick causes. BILGER is also the author of the 2023 book Fatherland, about his German grandfather, who joined the Nazi Party, but worked with the French resistance.

ISAAC BUTLER is the author of The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars. It focuses on the religious right attacks on certain books, art and film of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. His previous books The World Only Spins Forward - about the play Angels in America. And The Method, about the history of the acting technique known as the method. We recorded the interview last Thursday. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

(1.) Tennis champions CHRIS EVERT and MARTINA NAVRATILOVA. The new documentary Chris and Martina the Final Set is about their friendship, their tennis rivalry, and having cancer at the same time in the 2020’s. It's on Netflix. They were in remission when the interview was couple of weeks ago. But last week, Evert disclosed she’d just been diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

Smith's new show is about her great-great-grandfather, a free Black man who reburied the Union dead at Gettysburg and prepared the ground for Lincoln's most famous speech.

Masculinism is a belief that feminism emasculates men, and men should be in control while women stay at home raising children. The Atlantic writer Helen Lewis says the movement is becoming mainstream.