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Terry Gross at her microphone in 2018

Terry Gross

Terry Gross is the host and an executive producer of Fresh Air, the daily program of interviews and reviews. It is produced at WHYY in Philadelphia, where Gross began hosting the show in 1975, when it was broadcast only locally. She was awarded a National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2016. Fresh Air with Terry Gross received a Peabody Award in 1994 for its “probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insight.” America Women in Radio and Television presented her with a Gracie Award in 1999 in the category of National Network Radio Personality. In 2003, she received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Edward R. Murrow Award for her “outstanding contributions to public radio” and for advancing the “growth, quality and positive image of radio.” Gross is the author of All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, published by Hyperion in 2004. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and received a bachelor’s degree in English and M.Ed. in communications from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She began her radio career in 1973 at public radio station WBFO in Buffalo, NY.

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46:24

Journalist Christopher Dickey's Troubled Relationship with His Poet Father

Dickey has written a new memoir about his relationship with his father, the late poet and novelist James Dickey. It's called "Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son" (Simon & Schuster). Dickey writes that his father was "a great poet, a famous novelist, a powerful intellect, and a son of a bitch I hated." But Dickey writes that he also loved his alcoholic, abusive father. And as an adult, he picked up his relationship with his father again, after a 20 year absence.

Interview
20:49

Tom Hanks and Andrew Chalkin Go "From the Earth to the Moon'

Actor, director and producer Tom Hanks and writer Andrew Chaikin collaborated on the HBO mini-series "From Earth to the Moon" which ran in April and has been nominated for seventeen Emmys. Hanks was the executive producer for the project. Chaikin, a consultant on the series, wrote the book "A Man on the Moon" which the program is largely based on. Hanks also starred in the film "Apollo 13." He received Academy Awards for his roles in "Forrest Gump," and "Philadelphia." (REBROADCAST from 4/2/98)

21:06

Tracey Ullman Takes On a New Television Show

Comedienne and actress Tracey Ullman. Her HBO series "Tracy Takes On" has been nominated for seven Emmys. Each week on her show she features a gallery of characters talking about a topic, such as families, sex, money and crime. She also has a companion book "Tracey Takes On" (Hyperion), and there's an HBO home video release of her previous shows. Ullman is a native of England. She got her start in the U.S. with The Tracey Ullman Show, and has since won several Emmys and Cableace awards.

Interview
20:42

Poet Arthur Sze on His Many Cultural and Scientific Influences

Sze has a new collection of poems, "The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998" (Copper Canyon Press) Sze is second-generation Chinese-American. His poems reflect his many different influences: science and math, Asian ancestry, Buddism, and the American Southeast were he lives. Sze is a Professor of Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Interview
16:04

What the Rise of Ritalin Says About Views of Children's Behavior

Pediatrician Lawrence Diller specializes in child development and behavior. He's evaluated hundreds of patients for attention deficit disorder, for which the drug Ritalin has often been prescribed. His new book "Running on Ritalin: A Physician Reflects on Children, Society, and Performance in a Pill." (Bantam Books). After seeing more and more parents come into his practice asking for Ritalin for their children, Diller became concerned, and wrote an article in 1996 that started a national debate about the use of the drug.

Interview
45:33

The "Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism" in the Congo's Colonial History

Journalist Adam Hochschild is the author of "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa" (Houghton Mifflin) about the brutal reign of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo in the 1880s. His regime sparked the creation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." Leopold plundered the Congo's rubber, instituted forced labor, and reduced the population by half, committing mass murder. All the while, Leopold cultivated a reputation as a humanitarian.

Interview
44:10

Film Editor and Sound Designer Walter Murch

Murch re-edited Orson Well's 1958 film "Touch of Evil." At the time of the film's initial release, the studio remixed the film to Well's displeasure. He fired off a letter with suggested changes. With those notes as their guide, Murch and re-edit producer Rick Schmidlin have reconstructed the film to Well's intentions. Some of the other films he's edited and/or mixed are "The Conversation," "American Graffiti," "Apocalypse Now," "The Godfather (II, and III)"and "The English Patient."

Interview
16:39

Cissie Blumberg On Revitalizing the Catskills

Esterita "Cissie" Blumber writes a monthly column for the Catskill/Hudson Jewish Star. She grew up in a hotel in the Catskills, and later owned and operated it with her husband. Last year her book "Remember the Catskills: Tales by a Recovering Hotelkeeper" was published. (Purple Mountain Press)

Interview

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