Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Writer John Ridley on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He wrote the screenplay for the film Undercover Brother, which began life as a web site animation. The film is an action comedy replete with seventies fashions. Concurrently, Ridley has just published a novel, A Conversation with the Mann, about a black comic in the civil rights era of the early sixties.

Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collinwood from the band "Fountains of Wayne" and novelist Scott Spenser are on this edition of Fresh Air. Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collinwood are co-founders of "Fountains of Wayne". Their new album Welcome Interstate Managers has just been released. Anchored by the song writing team of Chris and Adam , the New York-based band released its debut album Radiation Vibe in late 1996.

Drummer Ahmir Thompson, otherwise known as "?uestlove" of the hip-hop group The Roots and writer Gary Shtenyngart on this edition of Fresh Air. The Grammy award-winning sextet has six albums to its credit. Their latest CD is Phrenolog. Their first single from the album is "Break You Off." The group is just beginning a nationwide tour.

Wildlife conservationist Stephen Bognar and jazz pianist and singer Barbara Carroll on this edition of Fresh Air. Stephen Bognar is a field agent for the San Francisco-based international non-profit wildlife conservation group, WildAid. Bognar just returned from two months in Baghdad, where he helped with the effort to rescue and rehabilitate the animals at the Baghdad Zoo.

Religious scholar Elaine Pagels talks about the Gospel of Thomas and Middle East energy expert Youssef M. Ibrahim on this edition of Fresh Air. Elaine Pagels latest book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, is about a religious text that is little known - the secret Gospel of Thomas, rediscovered in Egypt in 1945. She will explain why it was suppressed by the church and kept out of the cannon.

In this edition of Fresh Air, Italian journalist Riccardo Orizio on disposed dictators and journalist Joyce Davis on the views of martyrdom among extremists in the Middle East on this edition of Fresh Air. Riccardo Orizio is the author of the book Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators. He interviewed deposed dictators who haven't apologized for their crimes and weren't rehabilitated.

Host Terry Gross talks with people involved with "Youth Portraits," a radio skills training program for ex-offenders released from Riker's Island prison in New York City on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Riker's Island is the biggest jail in North America.

Journalist James Bennet of The New York Times on this edition of Fresh Air. He's been in the Middle East covering how the crisis there is affecting both Israelis and Palestinians.

Staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer Thomas Ginsberg and Republican Convention protesters Michael Morill and Amy Kwasnicki on this edition of Fresh Air.

Stars of The Music Man Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker, and sales manager for Verizon Communications Frank Punzo on this edition of Fresh Air. The 1957 musical The Music Man by Meredith Wilson is currently being revived on Broadway. In his first Broadway appearance, Bierko plays the lead role of traveling salesman and conman Harold Hill originated by Robert Preston.

Professor Andre Aciman and comedian Margaret Cho on this edition of Fresh Air. Aciman's family was forced to leave Egypt when he was fourteen, during a long wave of anti-Semitism and Arab nationalism.

Writers Aleksander Hemon and Wayne Barrett on this edition of Fresh Air. Hemon was born in Sarajevo in 1964. While in his early 20s, he came to the United States as a tourist.

Journalist Dennis Covington and actor Nicholas Turturro on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Covington has written Salvation on Sand Mountain about the practice of snake handling in a Southern Appalachian church.

Film director Fred Schepisi and documentary film producer Lowell Handler and on this archival edition of Fresh Air. Along with fellow Australian directors Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford, Fred Schepisi was considered one of the leaders of the "Australian New Wave."

Journalist Gary Cohen and attorney Cass Sunstein on this edition of Fresh Air. Gary Cohen's article in this month's Atlantic Monthly is about the World War II case that the Bush administration says sets the precedent for use of military tribunals. Cohen studied 3,000 pages of trial transcripts at the National Archives and the Roosevelt Presidential Library, in Hyde Park, New York, for the article. Cohen is a former member of the investigative unit at U.S. News & World Report.

Doctor Mel Geaves on this edition of Fresh Air. Greaves is the author of Cancer: The Evolutionary Legacy. He is also professor of cell biology and director of the Leukemia Research Fund Centre for Cell and Molecular Biologoy at the Institute of Cancer Research in London.

Lieutenant Colonel Martha McSally and her lawyer, John Whitehead, on this edition of Fresh Air. Martha McSally is our nation's highest-ranking female fighter pilot. Last month, she sued the Defense Department for its policy toward women military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia. When traveling off-base women are required to wear traditional Islamic religious clothing, covering themselves from head to foot.

Actors Paul Giamatti and Mark Webber on this edition of Fresh Air. Paul Giamatti stars in the Todd Solondz film Storytelling. He plays an aspiring filmmaker who sets out to document the empty life of a New Jersey high school senior and his well-to-do parents. Giamatti's film credits include Planet of the Apes, Big Momma's House, Saving Private Ryan, and The Truman Show. Mark Webber, 21, is Giamatti's costar in Storytelling.

Voice artist and animation historian Keith Scott on this edition of Fresh Air. Scott has written the new book, The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose.

Journalists Michelle Slatalla and Joshua Quittner and former member of the Masters of Doom, John Lee on this archive edition of Fresh Air.