Fresh Air
Weekdays at 7:00pm
Opening the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics.
Remembering novelist, screenwriter and memoirist Paul Auster
by Terry Gross
Auster, who died April 30, rose to fame in the 1980s with The New York Trilogy novels. His memoir, Winter Journal, focused on the history of his body. Originally broadcast in 1997, 2004 and 2012.
Remembering Grateful Dead Lyricist Robert Hunter
by Terry Gross
After Jerry Garcia formed the Grateful Dead in the mid '60s, Hunter wrote most of the lyrics for Garcia's songs, including "Truckin'" and "Uncle John's Band." Hunter spoke to Fresh Air in 1988.
Western Music Expert Doug Green Revisits The Era Of The Singing Cowboy
by Terry Gross
Green wrote a book on singing cowboys and is featured in Ken Burns' new PBS series about country music. He says he fell in love with Western music from an early age: "It completely entranced me."
'Ad Astra' Approaches The Sublime With Its Portrait Of Masculinity In Crisis
by Justin Chang
Brad Pitt is an astronaut who saves the world by traveling millions of miles to reunite with his long-absent dad. It's an unabashedly ridiculous premise, but somehow Ad Astra manages to pull it off.
'Downton Abbey' Creator Julian Fellowes And Star Maggie Smith
by Dave Davies
In honor of the Downton Abbey movie, which opens in theaters Sept. 20, we listen back to interviews with series creator Julian Fellowes and star Maggie Smith, who plays the Dowager Countess.
Racial Tensions Complicate The Search For A Missing Child In 'Heaven, My Home'
by John Powers
Attica Locke's new novel centers on a black Texas ranger's effort to find the vanished son of a white supremacist. Heaven, My Home offers an unsettling American spin on a complicated crime story.
Journalist Andrea Mitchell: Asking Tough Questions Is 'Very Empowering'
by Terry Gross
Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News and anchor of her own MSNBC show, looks back on her career in journalism. She's receiving a lifetime achievement Emmy on Sept. 24.
'Second Founding' Examines How Reconstruction Remade The Constitution
by Terry Gross
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner talks how the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments relate to current debates about voting rights, mass incarceration and reparations for slavery.