Shows / Fresh Air
Fresh Air
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.
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Episodes
Fresh AirWho benefits when massive AI data centers come to town?
From Virginia to Kansas, the battle over data centers has reached the ballot box this midterm election. Communities are voting on whether to limit or ban the…
Fresh AirHow the killing of Jordan Neely on the NYC subway divided America
Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused man in crisis, was frightening fellow passengers on the New York City Subway. A white former Marine named Daniel Penny put Neely…
Fresh AirLos Javis filmmakers fight fascism and homophobia with ‘La Bola Negra’
Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — known as "Los Javis" — have turned four pages of an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca into a sweeping epic about…
Fresh Air'New Yorker' cartoonists confess to nightmare kitchens
New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast and Jason Adam Katzenstein confess to the horrors lurking behind their kitchen cabinets and refrigerator doors – and the…
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Best Of: Meshell Ndegeocello / Betty Gilpin
Singer, songwriter, and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello helped define the sound of neo-soul, blending funk, jazz, and R&B into music that was unmistakably her own…
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Platinum songwriter Jimmy Webb
Hall of Fame songwriter Jimmy Webb talks about writing some of the 1960s songs he’s best known for: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” and…
Fresh AirBetty Gilpin is seeking anti-algorithm, weird roles – and it's working
"There's an understandable pull in my industry to make things that are kind of like a gleaming vanilla car commercial, like super safe, super familiar, appeal…
Fresh AirElection experts share concerns about the midterms
Ahead of the midterms, we talk with two election experts about President Trump’s efforts to interfere with voting. Richard Hasen, director of the Safeguarding…
Fresh AirDavid Treuer traces America's relationship with violence back to the frontier
Ojibwe writer David Treuer’s new book, The Savage Mind: An American Legacy, is written as a letter to his three children. It examines how the violence that…
Fresh AirMeshell Ndegeocello turns familiar songs inside out
Grammy-winning singer, bassist, and composer Meshell Ndegeocello helped shape the sound that became known as "neo-soul," but she's spent more than three…
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Best Of: Mahershala Ali / Writer Yiyun Li
In his new film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali plays a devout Muslim father and hit man whose life is upended when he…
Fresh AirRemembering Eva Marie Saint / 'Interview with the Vampire' turns 50
The actor Eva Marie Saint died last week at age 102. She won an academy award for her first film role in On the Waterfront opposite Marlon Brando, and in…
Fresh AirInside the Musk/Bezos space race
Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel says Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos each want to colonize the moon, mine its resources and launch thousands more satellites --…
Fresh AirWhy the Arctic is a new source of global tension
As polar ice melts in the Arctic, shipping lanes are opening up, making the region a new zone of super-power competition. Writer Rana Foroohar spoke with Dave…
Fresh AirAfter losing her sons, Yiyun Li learned to ‘suffer better’
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Li’s teenage sons both died by…
Fresh AirMahershala Ali
In his new action thriller, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Mahershala Ali plays a devout Muslim father and hit man whose life is upended when he suddenly…
Fresh AirA John Prine Appreciation
Prine, who died in 2020, would’ve turned 80 this weekend. A five-day event in and around his native Chicago is underway, including a tribute concert. The…
Fresh AirVeteran White House reporter April Ryan’s ‘Blacklash’
Ryan has spent decades pressing presidents for answers. She talks about access, power, race and how asking questions put her in President Trump's crosshairs…
Fresh AirHow Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brought the culture wars to the military
New York Times military and Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe says Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has disproportionately blocked promotions of Black and women…
Fresh Air‘Showbiz!’ entertainer Murray Hill became what he didn’t see
Murray Hill's character on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, Fred Rococo, is a soil scientist trans man who hosts a queer cabaret. “[He] is me dialed down to like a…
Fresh AirMichael Douglas
Michael Douglas is one of the most recognizable actors of our time, but in 1987, many still knew him as Kirk Douglas's son. That year, he starred in Fatal…
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Best Of: Kyle MacLachlan / Inside the ‘romance scam’
Kyle MacLachlan was just 23 when he auditioned for Lynch's adaptation of Dune. The two would go on to work together on the cult classics Blue Velvet and Twin…
Fresh AirCelebrating minimalist composer Steve Reich
Often called one of the fathers of minimalist music, Reich created a vocabulary that has influenced nearly every form of music: Classical, electronic, jazz…
Fresh AirSheryl Crow
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter has a new album, Pick You Up, out Oct. 9. She spoke with Fresh Air guest interviewer Sam Fragoso (Talk Easy) about touring…
Fresh AirNew drones, deadlier attacks: Dystopian reality in Ukraine
Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, is just back from her fourth visit to Ukraine. She says Russia has ramped up production of missiles and…
Fresh AirMahmoud Khalil’s 104 days in ICE Detention
Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and fled the country at 18. He had a green card to be in the United States, and had become one of the…
Fresh AirKyle MacLachlan was David Lynch’s ‘submersible’ into dark places
MacLachlan was just 23 when he auditioned for Lynch's adaptation of Dune. The two would go on to work together on the cult classics Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks…
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Best Of: Rhiannon Giddens / Investigating Diddy’s Rise & Fall
Rhiannon Giddens doesn’t usually make pop music, but she wrote and played the banjo riff on Beyoncé’s country single, “Texas Hold ‘Em.” She comes from the…
Fresh AirBluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings
The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist has one foot in traditional bluegrass and another in improvisational jam music. He has a new album, So Much…
Fresh AirInvestigating the system that protected Sean “Diddy” Combs
Sean Combs founded Bad Boy Records and spent three decades as one of the most powerful men in hip hop. Now he's serving a federal prison sentence. Rolling…
Fresh AirGlobal power, rivalry, and A.I.; a preview of the U.S./China summit
As President Trump and China's President Xi prepare to meet tomorrow, Rush Doshi of the Council on Foreign Relations explains the current state of US-China…
Fresh AirInside the 'modern slavery' where cyber scammers are victims themselves
WIRED’s Andy Greenberg explains how a cybercrime operation in Southeast Asia trapped computer engineers into defrauding victims of billions of dollars. Plus he…
Fresh AirRhiannon Giddens traces the banjo from her ancestors to Beyoncé
A self-described "folkie to the bone," Giddens talks with Terry Gross about channeling her ancestors through her instrument, playing on Beyoncé’s country…
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Best Of: Colin Kaepernick / Danielle Brooks
10 years ago, former 49ers NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence against Black people. After the…
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Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones / Remembering singer Cassandra Wilson
The new film Coyote vs. ACME is based on the classic Warner Bros. cartoons featuring the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. Today, we listen back to Terry’s 1989…
Fresh AirThe Roy Cohn Playbook, from McCarthyism to Trump
In a biography of Roy Cohn, Kai Bird looks at how the lawyer taught President Trump to deny, delay, attack, sue and countersue, never admit defeat, side step…
Fresh AirIs Jared Kushner a 'walking conflict of interest'?
Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins says while Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is a U.S. special envoy negotiating peace, he's also…
Fresh AirActor Danielle Brooks has blessings to count
Brooks grew up in a church where her mom was a minister and her dad a deacon. She went on to play Taystee in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. Now…
Fresh AirColin Kaepernick is still fighting – for justice and for his football career
It has been 10 years since former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, in protest of police brutality against Black…
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Best Of: Life in the Mojave Desert / Director of ‘The Uprising’
Author Claire Vaye Watkins lives in the Mojave Desert, just like the protagonist in her new novel, Yellow Pine. In the book, it’s an area being developed by an…
Fresh AirStories of survival & loss at Ground Zero
For the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we go into our archive for voices of those who were there. Deputy Fire Chief John “Jay” Jonas spoke with…
Fresh AirHow the WNBA became a political prop in the culture wars
Despite record viewership and attendance, and amazing talent across the league, the WNBA has been caught up in the national conversation about the culture…
Fresh AirHow Sept. 11 changed American life
In his book Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life, Richard Beck looks at how the Sept. 11 attacks led to the expansion of government surveillance and a…
Fresh AirCasey Gerald says ruining his reputation saved his life
A decade ago, Casey Gerald was running a celebrated nonprofit, giving TED talks, and on magazine covers as proof that the American dream still works. Then he…
Fresh AirRosanne Cash on the gift her father, Johnny Cash, gave her
For Labor Day, we’re listening back to our 2009 interview with Rosanne Cash. When she was 18, in 1973, her father Johnny Cash gave her a list of 100 essential…
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Best Of: ‘Wonder Man’ actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II / John Coltrane centennial
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is nominated for an Emmy for his performance in the Marvel series ‘Wonder Man,’ but two weeks after his nomination, Disney announced the…
Fresh AirFeminist Icon Gloria Steinem
Writer, activist and face of the women’s liberation movement Gloria Steinem died Wednesday at age 92. She spoke with Terry Gross several times over four…
Fresh AirFilmmaker Paul Greengrass on rage, rebellion and ‘The Uprising’
Paul Greengrass’ new film, The Uprising, stars Andrew Garfield as a 14th-century peasant who, in the wake of the Plague, leads a revolt against the king. It's…
Fresh AirBack-to-school with Big Tech
Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have been competing for years to get their devices, software and AI into public schools, even offering free training…
Fresh AirA centennial celebration of John Coltrane
Coltrane was one of the most influential musicians in the history of jazz, from his beautiful ballads, to his more spiritual music, and his role in the…
Fresh AirHow the government wastes our time
Atlantic journalist Annie Lowrey explores the administrative burdens people face applying for government benefits like unemployment and food assistance. It's…
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Best Of: Jason Segel / Lisa Kudrow
Jason Segel returns to talk with Terry Gross about his Emmy-nominated series Shrinking, in which he plays a therapist who suffered a nervous breakdown in the…
Fresh AirRemembering Tim Curry
Actor Tim Curry, best-known for playing mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, died this week at age 80. He spoke with Terry Gross…
Fresh AirRiz Ahmed takes on his inner critic
In his Prime Video series, Bait, Riz Ahmed plays an actor auditioning to be the next James Bond. Ahmed says Bond is a "symbol of aspiration, this unattainable…
Fresh AirDolly Parton
The beloved country superstar died Tuesday at age 80. Parton spoke with Terry Gross in 2001 about growing up in rural poverty with 11 siblings, leaving for…
Fresh AirThe story of the world's first super-terrorist
National security writer Joby Warrick tells the story of “Carlos the Jackal,” the world’s most notorious terrorist of the ‘70s and ‘80s. He became so famous…
Fresh AirLisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow is up for two Emmys for the final season of The Comeback, about an actress who will endure almost anything to keep working. She spoke with Tonya…
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Best Of: Colman Domingo / Writer Leïla Slimani
Colman Domingo is nominated for two Emmy Awards this year, for two very different roles: in the Netflix comedy The Four Seasons and in the final season of…
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‘The Dog Stars’ novelist Peter Heller / Remembering rock critic Dave Marsh
The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Josh Brolin and Jacob Elordi, is about two men who become unlikely compatriots when a pandemic wipes out…
Fresh Air‘Wonder Man’ star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on cancellation and confidence
Two weeks after being nominated for an Emmy for his leading role in Wonder Man, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II found out that the series had been cancelled. He says…