Terry Gross

Comedy writer Eddie Gorodetsky. He's written for SCTV, Saturday Night Live, and Late Night with David Letterman. His latest gig is with HBO's newly-launched Comedy Channel, where his job title is "head writer and original programming consultant," but his role is all-encompassing.

Composer John Adams. Although he comes out of the classical tradition, Adams is not afraid to use drum machines, synthesizers and silent-movie chord progressions in his music. His latest work, "The Wound Dresser", is a setting of a poem by Walt Whitman about the experience of tending wounded soldiers during the Civil War. For Adams, the work has connections to both the AIDS crisis and his father's recent battle with Alzheimer's disease. Adams also talks about his best-known work, the opera "Nixon in China".

Writer Stefan Kanfer. Kanfer's latest book is called "A Summer World: The Attempt to Build a Jewish Eden in the Catskills, from the Days of the Ghetto to the Rise and Decline of the Borscht Belt." The Borsht Belt nurtured a generation of comics and defined a culture. Kanfer talks about the lives of the people who frequented the Catskill resorts, and the reason those resorts are now in decline.

Terry and film critic Stephen Schiff look back on the movies of the 80s, and how the decade changed film making. Stephen also gives his picks for the best films of the 1980s.

Interviews with comics Phyllis Diller and Richard Lewis. For more than 40 years, Phyllis Diller has made a career out of her own poor looks, and the exploits of her bumbling, imaginary, husband, Fang. Diller paved the way for an entire generation of female comics. Terry's interview with Phyllis Diller first aired on the weekly version of Fresh Air on 7/1/86.

Interviews with comedians Richard Belzer and Robert Townsend. Belzer has been a professional comic for more than 15 years. For five years, he was the emcee at Catch a Rising Star, New York's best-known comedy club, and has appeared frequently on "Saturday Night Live" "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman." He's also written a book titled How To Be a Stand-up Comic. (Belzer first aired on Fresh Air on 12/31/87).

For the last word on the 80s, comedian Al Franken looks back on the Al Franken decade. It's from an interview Terry did with Franken on March 22, 1988.

Film critic Stephen Schiff picks the best movies of 1989.

Rock musician Elvis Costello. Since he debuted with "My Aim is True" ten years ago (for which he won a Grammy nomination as Best New Artist), Costello has been one of rock's most influential acts. His music has been praised for the wit and intelligence of his lyrics, and the inventiveness of the music. He spoke with Terry Gross last February, just after he released his 13th album, "Spike." Fresh Air's rock critic Ken Tucker described the album as "a thrilling example of a rock musician grown to maturity." (Originally broadcast 2/28/89).

Novelist and screenwriter Richard Price. Price lists as influences Lenny Bruce, Dion, James Brown, and movies and TV. His first two novels, "The Wanderers," and "Bloodbrothers" were both made into films. Price was disappointed with the screen adaptations of those stories, and that experience led him to try his hand at screenwriting.