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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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16:55

Illustrator and Comic-Book Artist Peter Kuper.

Illustrator and comic-book artist Peter Kuper. His work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, and his "Eye of the Beholder" was the first comic strip to regularly appear in The New York Times. He is also co-founder and co-editor of World War 3 an illustrated political comics magazine. He's illustrated a number of books. Most recently, Give it Up! And Other Short Stories by Franz Kafka, (NBM Publishers)

Interview
42:14

Country Music Legend Merle Haggard.

Country music legend Merle Haggard. Haggard has been on the country music scene since the early sixties and has more number one hits than any country music star except Conway Twitty. Recently two tribute albums of the songs of Merle Haggard were released: Mama's Hungry Eyes and Tulare Dust. Haggard was also recently inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. (On 4/6/1994 we boradcast a short interview with Haggard. Today's interview is the longer version.)

Country music legend Merle Haggard plays a fiddle in a cowboy hat
16:10

Writer Edmund White.

Edmund White has written about American gay culture for over two decades. White, who himself is gay, discusses the loss of a lover to Aids. White says he has tested positive for HIV. His essays chronicle the gay rights movement from the 1969 Stonewall riots to the present. His newest book, Skinned Alive was published last month by Knopf. White's next book is due out in November titled Our Paris: Sketches from Memory.

Interview
22:55

Writer Lucy Grealy on Finding Her Face.

Lucy Grealy had cancer in her jaw as a child, for which she underwent 5 years of treatment. The surgery and other therapy left her disfigured. Over the next 15 years she had about 30 reconstructive operations. Her memoir Autobiography of a Face is about her illness, and about the pain from feeling ugly, which she says made cancer seems minor in comparison. Her memoir is expanded from an article which won a National Magazine Award when it was published in Harpers. (Originally aired 9/26/94)

Interview
22:15

Richard Rhodes Discusses the Cold War Battle for the Hydrogen Bomb.

Author and Historian Richard Rhodes discusses the Cold War battle for the Hydrogen Bomb. His latest book is Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Simon & Shuster August 1995) Using recently declassified files in the United States and the Soviet Union he details the escalation of the Superpower arms race. He won a Pulitzer Prize for chronicling the Manhattan Project in The Making of the Atomic Bomb. He is the author of several other books including Nuclear Renewal: Common Sense about Energy, A Hole in the World, Sons of Earth, and Looking for America.

Interview
14:49

Williams Adler Discusses A Family Drug Empire.

Writer Williams Adler. His first book, Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest For The American Dream In The Age of Crack (Atlantic Monthly Press) tells the story of the Chambers brothers. The brothers moved to Detroit from Mississippi in the mid-80's in search of economic freedom and found it by setting up the biggest drug business in the city. It was run like a Fortune 500 company with quality control, discounts, employee bonuses and a dress code.

Interview
23:07

Paul Beaver Discusses Arms Sales and the War in Bosnia.

Paul Beaver is the editor of the British magazine Jane's Balkan Sentinel. The Sentinel is published by Jane's Information Group, which also publishes Jane's Defense Weekly. Beaver discusses the magazine's investigation into tracking the clandestine arms supply routes into Bosnia and the Balkan states. It has been reported that all of the warring factions in that region have been receiving weapons illegally. The United Nation's currently has an arms embargo on the six republics of the former Yugoslavia.

Interview
16:34

Film and Television's Garry Marshall.

TV producer, writer, director and actor Garry Marshall. He's considered a "One man Who's Who" of Television. He's written for The Lucy Show, The Danny Thomas Show, The Tonight Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jack Parr Show, and Love American Style. He created 14 prime time sitcoms including Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, The Odd Couple. During one week in 1979, Marshall boasted four of the top five rated TV shows.

Interview
16:28

Clifton Taulbert Discusses Growing Up with Segregation.

Writer Clifton Taulbert grew up in the segregated South in the 1950s. His experiences growing up black in America are chronicled in his two memoirs When We Were Colored and the Pulitzer Prize nominated The Last Train North, (Penguin Books). Taulbert lives in Tulsa Oklahoma where he is a businessman. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Interview

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