Terry Gross

When Cash was 18, her father (you know him as Johnny) gave her a list of 100 essential country songs to help the budding singer-songwriter understand the music that came before her. After holding on to it for decades, Rosanne Cash has turned that gift into an album. This interview first aired on Oct. 5, 2009.

What does it mean to be Good Without God? Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, asks this question in his new book, which explores the faith of the nonreligious. It may sound like a contradiction, but Epstein believes that human ethics are independent of belief in a supernatural power.

Bob Hunter, a member of the secretive religious group The Family, responds to a November Fresh Air interview about the group's role in both U.S. and Ugandan politics. Hunter is credited as the liaison between the Family and leaders of the current Ugandan administration, which has proposed a brutal anti-gay law.

Even before he had a band, Jon Bon Jovi delivered demos with the confidence of a superstar. He joins Terry Gross for a conversation about his new album, The Circle, and a companion book and movie.

The influential photographer died of cancer Sunday. He was 63. In remembrance, we listen to a 1989 interview with him about his Pictures from Home, a decade-long project in which he observed the effects of his father's job loss on his family — a poignant topic once more.

This interview was originally broadcast July 12, 1989.

McKay's songs lean on influences like vaudeville and hip-hop, and they display a sharp wit: Her debut album was called Get Away From Me. McKay has a new album of songs originally recorded by Doris Day, titled Normal as Blueberry Pie.

This interview first aired on Nov. 21, 2007.

New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg has reported that human excrement and dangerous chemicals are making their way into our waterways and then into our drinking water. Duhigg returns to Fresh Air to talk the problems with our nation's sewer system.

In his new album, If It Wasn't For the Irish and the Jews, Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney celebrates the musical collaboration of the Irish and Jewish songwriters and performers of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley.

Jeremy Scahill has been investigating Blackwater, a military contractor with a long involvement in the Iraq war. His latest story, published Nov. 23 in The Nation, uncovers the contractor's involvement in a covert program in Pakistan run by the U.S. Joint Special Command.

The actor and director shares memories and discusses the work of his late father, journalist and novelist Dominick Dunne, who became famous for covering the lives and trials of celebrities. He died in August at the age of 83.