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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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17:01

Novelist Paul Auster Tries His Hand at Film

Auster has been called "America's most spectacularly inventive writers." He recently "broadened his creative reach" with his work on two films, "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face,"in a double collaboration with director Wayne Wang , who also directed "The Joy Luck Club.” Auster's novels include "Moon Palace," "The Music of Chance," "Leviathan," and "Mr. Vertigo."

Interview
45:23

Training Teens to Solve Problems Without Violence

Child Advocate and Writer Geoffrey Canada's book, Fist Stick Knife Gun; A Personal History of Violence in America (Beacon Press), provides a look into the lives of children living in violence. Canada is President and CEO of Rheedlan Centers for Children and Families in New York. He is dedicated to serving at risk children in the inner-city.

Interview
21:28

Country Yodeler Don Walser

At age 60, Walser has retired from his job as a Texas state internal auditor to concentrate on his music, and has just released an album, "Rolling Stone From Texas" (Watermelon Records). He is "a middle-aged man with a potbelly and glasses" (Houston Chronicle) whose "yodeling is better than sex." (Playboy) (REBROADCAST FROM 12/13/94)

Interview
16:25

Remembering Novelist Stanley Elkin

Elkin was called "one of the most entertaining stylists in contemporary American fiction." His use of metaphor, "transforms grotesque situations and the drab vulgarity of popular consumer culture into comic affirmations of human existence." (from Contemporary Literary Criticism). His novels included, The MacGuffin, The Magic Kingdom, and others. Elkin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twenty years ago and died of heart failure on Wednesday, May 31, 1995. We replay our 1993 interview with him. (Rebroadcast)

Obituary
22:40

Comedian and Actor Martin Mull on His Art Career

Mull became known for his performance as the anchor man on "Weekend Update," the news parody on Saturday Night Live," and as talk show host for late night show "Fernwood Tonight." He recently released his book Paintings, Drawings and Words. It provides not only a generous survey of his enigmatic art works, but the process by which he creates them. Mull is presently a regular on the TV sitcom "Roseanne."

Interview

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