Fresh Air: This is Fresh Air

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ARTS

With more than 40 years of interviews and reviews, there's a lot of Fresh Air to listen to. Hear the staff's favorites interviews, selected by host Terry Gross and her team.

10/27/2025

Fresh Air: This is Fresh Air Trailer

With more than 40 years of interviews and reviews, there's a lot of Fresh Air to listen to. This collection comprises the staff's favorites interviews, selected by host Terry Gross and her team. Subscribe to Fresh Air+ now to get exclusive access to this and other collections. Plus, you'll get exclusive Fresh Air+ archive episodes every Sunday, and sponsor-free listening for all available episodes. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

27 sec
09/04/2022 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Musician and Actor David Bowie

It's been more than 40 years since David Bowie created the gender-bending Ziggy Stardust and released the now-classic album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. With it, Bowie helped invent glam-rock. In conversation with Fresh Air's Terry Gross from 2002, Bowie was in the midst of making the following year's Reality, and here talks about leaving characters in his songs, his love of Tibetan horns, and his childhood desire to write musicals and play saxophone in Little Richard's band.

40 min
01/03/2017 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Actor and Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda

The creator of the hit musical Hamilton, talks about his early love of musicals, and writing rhymes for Hamilton.

44 min
11/11/2016 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola was 29 years old and broke when he was asked to direct The Godfather, based on the bestselling novel by Mario Puzo. The notes he kept for himself during the making of The Godfather have been collected into a new book.

46 min
04/20/2015 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Writer Toni Morrison

It's not profound regret, Morrison tells Fresh Air. "It's just a wiping up of tiny little messes that you didn't recognize as mess when they were going on." Her latest book is God Help the Child.

44 min
05/08/2012 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Author and Illustrator Maurice Sendak

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, whose book Where the Wild Things Are became a favorite for generations of kids, died at age 83. Fresh Air remembers Sendak with excerpts from several interviews.

45 min
02/06/2012 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Actor Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep won a Golden Globe for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. She talks about preparing for that role, her other films and how her perceptions of herself have changed over the years.

47 min
10/19/1998 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Soul Singer Ray Charles

Singer and pianist Ray Charles has a new four CD box-set out that captures his contribution to country music. "Ray Charles: The Complete Country and Western Recordings 1959-1986. (Rhino) Charles may be best known for his blues, R&B and soul music. He has won 12 Grammy Awards.

49 min
12/01/1997 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Author James Baldwin

Legendary writer James Baldwin is the author of modern classics such as "Notes of a Native Son," "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone," and "Go Tell It On the Mountain." Here, Baldwin speaks with Terry Gross.

11 min
11/04/1997 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Musician Johnny Cash

Music legend Johnny Cash. Cash has been recording albums and performing since the 1950's. Representing Cash's varied musical styles, he has been inducted into the Songwriters, Country Music, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. He's just released an autobiography called "Cash" (Harper) The book tour for the memoir has been cancelled due to complications with Cash's Parkinson's disease.

44 min
02/11/1997 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Singer Rosemary Clooney: Live in Concert

A concert and interview with singer Rosemary Clooney taped before a live audience in San Francisco, January 18th, as part of the City Arts & Lectures series. Clooney sings some of her best known songs, accompanied by a quintet directed by John Oddo. She also talks with Terry about her life. Her 1996 album "Dedicated to Nelson" has been nominated for a Grammy.

49 min

TRAILER

Fresh Air: This is Fresh Air Trailer

With more than 40 years of interviews and reviews, there's a lot of Fresh Air to listen to. This collection comprises the staff's favorites interviews, selected by host Terry Gross and her team. Subscribe to Fresh Air+ now to get exclusive access to this and other collections. Plus, you'll get exclusive Fresh Air+ archive episodes every Sunday, and sponsor-free listening for all available episodes. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

10/27/2025

•

27 sec

Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries. Subscribe to Fresh Air Plus! You'll enjoy bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening - all while you support NPR's mission. Learn more at plus.npr.org/freshair And subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Fresh Air Weekly, to get interview highlights, staff recommendations, gems from the archive, and the week's interviews and reviews all in one place. Sign up at www.whyy.org/freshair

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With more than 40 years of interviews and reviews, there's a lot of Fresh Air to listen to. Hear the staff's favorites interviews, selected by host Terry Gross and her team.