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Terry Gross at her microphone in 2018

Terry Gross

Terry Gross is the host and an executive producer of Fresh Air, the daily program of interviews and reviews. It is produced at WHYY in Philadelphia, where Gross began hosting the show in 1975, when it was broadcast only locally. She was awarded a National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2016. Fresh Air with Terry Gross received a Peabody Award in 1994 for its “probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insight.” America Women in Radio and Television presented her with a Gracie Award in 1999 in the category of National Network Radio Personality. In 2003, she received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Edward R. Murrow Award for her “outstanding contributions to public radio” and for advancing the “growth, quality and positive image of radio.” Gross is the author of All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, published by Hyperion in 2004. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and received a bachelor’s degree in English and M.Ed. in communications from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She began her radio career in 1973 at public radio station WBFO in Buffalo, NY.

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44:12

Julia Sweeney Discovers Comedy in Tragedy

The former Saturday Night Live performer was best known for, Pat, the gender-ambiguous character. Sweeney took the character the big screen, but the result was a flop. When her brother was diagnosed with cancer, she took him into her home to take care of him while he was getting treatment. Her parents also moved in. Sweeney began work on a performance piece as a way to deal with the situation. Her brother eventually died, and she herself was diagnosed with cancer. She's now in remission. Sweeney's one woman show is called "God Said, Ha!"

Interview
15:28

Novelist Sigrid Nunez on the Fantasy of Infidelity

Nunez's debut autobiographical novel was "A Feather on the Breath of God." Her newest is "Naked Sleeper." (HarperCollins). One reviewer calls it "a fine novel of maturing at 40." Another writes that it's "a steady, superbly insightful study of a life as quietly complex as the reader's own."

Interview
30:55

Intel President and CEO Andrew Grove on Building His Success

Intel is the world's largest manufacturer of microprocessing chips, and the seventh most profitable company among the Fortune 500. Grove was born in Hungary and emigrated to the United States in 1956. He spoke very little English when he arrived. In 1963, he received his Ph.D from the University of California, at Berkeley. Grove participated in the founding of Intel and became its president in 1979 and chief executive in 1987. His newest book "Only the Paranoid Survive" reveals some of the philosophy and strategy behind his success.

Interview
51:57

Dawn Upshaw Sings Rodgers and Hart

Opera soprano Dawn Upshaw performs a concert with jazz pianist Fred Hersch at WHYY. The program includes highlights from her just-released album "Dawn Upshaw sings Rodgers and Hart," as well selections by Leonard Bernstein, Mark Blitstein and George Gershwin. Upshaw joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1984. Later in the show, Upshaw will be accompanied by a 15-piece orchestra, led by Broadway music director Eric Stern, and singer David Garrison.

52:00

The Current Plight of Rwandan Refugees

Guest host Marty Moss-Coane speaks with two experts about the refugee crisis in Rwanda and Zaire. Chris Cushing is Regional Emergency Coordinator for Care International in Zaire. Journalist Philip Gourevitch is based in Rwanda. He writes frequently on the region for The New Yorker and is currently working on a book about Rwanda and the aftermath of the 1994 civil war.

27:22

Poet Philip Levine's Lesser Known Work

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet grew up in Detroit and worked in the factories as a young man. He's probably best known for his 1992 book of poems about the working class, "What Work Is," which won the National Book Award. He has several volumes of poetry as well as a memoir. His forthcoming book is called "Unselected Poems."

Interview
18:01

The Potential Pitfalls of HMOs

Senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal, George Anders. He's been covering the business side of medicine since 1993. His new book is "Health Against Wealth: HMOs and the Breakdown of Medical Trust." He's concerned with the lack of control individuals have within the health maintenance organization system.

Interview
34:00

Recent Government Housing Policies Assist Fewer Poor Families

New York Times writer Jason DeParle. He covers poverty and social welfare issues for the Times. Recently, DeParle has been writing about the disappearance of affordable housing. On top of that, government subsidies for low-income housing have all but disappeared. DeParle's New York Times Magazine cover story about housing appeared on October 20, 1996.

Interview

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