60 episodes
Fresh Air, page 2
by NPR · English
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. Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including weekly bonus episodes and curated playlists of archive interviews from Fresh Air. And subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Fresh Air Weekly, to get interview highlights, staff recommendations, gems from the archive, and the week's interviews and reviews all in one place. Sign up at www.whyy.org/freshair
Ask in Claude
Ask in ChatGPTAll episodes, page 2
Inside the Musk/Bezos space race
Fresh Air interview about the “space race” now driven by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin—especially their plans to colonize the moon, build space-based supply chains, and create space…
15 Oct 2026 · 43m · 12 chapters
Why the Arctic is a new source of global tension
Rana Farouhar explains how Arctic climate change is opening new shipping routes and resource access, turning the region into a zone of great-power competition involving the U.S., Russia, and China.
14 Oct 2026 · 45m · 14 chapters
After losing her sons, Yiyun Li learned to ‘suffer better’
E. Yiyun Lee (Ian Lee) discusses grief and survival after her two sons died by suicide, and how that experience shaped her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Things in Nature Merely Grow and her new…
13 Oct 2026 · 44m · 14 chapters
Mahershala Ali
Fresh Air interview with Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali about his film Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother—an action-thriller/family drama about Black Muslim life.
12 Oct 2026 · 46m · 11 chapters
A John Prine Appreciation
Fresh Air honors John Prine on the eve of what would have been his 80th birthday, covering his life, songwriting, and a 2018 Terry Gross interview, plus excerpts and Prine’s final recorded song.
9 Oct 2026 · 45m · 11 chapters
Veteran White House reporter April Ryan’s ‘Blacklash’
April Ryan, a longtime White House correspondent, discusses her book Notes on a Blacklash, describing how going viral as a Black woman reporter can trigger backlash, threats, and “chilling”…
8 Oct 2026 · 44m · 10 chapters
How Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brought the culture wars to the military
Fresh Air interviews New York Times Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe about how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reshaping the U.S.
7 Oct 2026 · 45m · 15 chapters
‘Showbiz!’ entertainer Murray Hill became what he didn’t see
Murray Hill (Mr. Showbiz) discusses his memoir Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man, his evolution from drag-king persona to full identity, and how his life and trauma shaped his work and his role…
7 Oct 2026 · 44m · 16 chapters
Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas discusses his memoir One Hell of a Ride, connecting his on-screen roles to his off-screen life—family legacy, addiction, affairs, cancer, and his son Cameron’s drug troubles—while…
5 Oct 2026 · 45m · 12 chaptersBest Of: Kyle MacLachlan / Inside the ‘romance scam’
Fresh Air Weekend “Best Of” episode combining (1) an interview with actor Kyle MacLachlan about his memoir Fictional Selves and his work with David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune), (2) a book…
3 Oct 2026 · 49m · 16 chapters
Celebrating minimalist composer Steve Reich
Fresh Air retrospective on minimalist composer Steve Reich’s 90th birthday, featuring excerpts and Terry Gross’s 1999 interview plus earlier clips (1999, 1989).
2 Oct 2026 · 46m · 12 chapters
Sheryl Crow
Fresh Air interview with award-winning musician Sheryl Crow about her new album Pick You Up, her life and mental health, and key moments shaping her songwriting.
1 Oct 2026 · 46m · 19 chapters
New drones, deadlier attacks: Dystopian reality in Ukraine
Zannie Minton-Bedos reports from Ukraine on how drone warfare and dwindling missile defenses are making life in Kyiv and other cities increasingly unlivable, and how these tactics could spread beyond…
30 Sep 2026 · 46m · 15 chapters
Mahmoud Khalil’s 104 days in ICE Detention
Fresh Air episode “Mahmoud Khalil’s 104 days in ICE Detention” is about Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student and Columbia/Barnard protest negotiator, who was arrested by plainclothes…
29 Sep 2026 · 45m · 13 chapters
Kyle MacLachlan was David Lynch’s ‘submersible’ into dark places
Actor Kyle MacLachlan discusses his memoir Fictional Selves and his long creative relationship with David Lynch, focusing on how Lynch “submerses” actors into dark material—especially through Twin…
28 Sep 2026 · 46m · 12 chaptersBest Of: Rhiannon Giddens / Investigating Diddy’s Rise & Fall
Fresh Air Weekend’s episode is a “best of” compilation featuring three segments.
26 Sep 2026 · 48m · 14 chapters
Bluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings
Fresh Air interview with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter/guitarist Billy Strings, focused on his bluegrass roots, innovation, and grief after his mother’s overdose death; includes discussion of live…
25 Sep 2026 · 47m · 19 chapters
Investigating the system that protected Sean “Diddy” Combs
Fresh Air interview about Rolling Stone investigative reporter Cheyenne Roundtree’s book Bad Boy for Life, examining how Sean “Diddy” Combs’ reinventions and celebrity power may have helped him avoid…
24 Sep 2026 · 46m · 15 chapters
Global power, rivalry, and A.I.; a preview of the U.S./China summit
Preview of the U.S.-China summit between Trump and Xi, focusing on AI safety controls, cybersecurity, rare earths and tariffs, Taiwan and arms sales, and China’s leverage in the Iran war and Strait…
23 Sep 2026 · 46m · 15 chapters
Inside the 'modern slavery' where cyber scammers are victims themselves
Cyber scams driven by AI, including “Fresh Air”/author impersonation scams and “pig butchering” romance-investment scams run from forced-labor compounds in Laos/Cambodia/Myanmar; also discusses…
22 Sep 2026 · 46m · 16 chapters
Rhiannon Giddens traces the banjo from her ancestors to Beyoncé
Rhiannon Giddens discusses her new album Hope is the Thing with Feathers and how her music traces Black string-band history, especially the banjo’s African-Caribbean origins, while also connecting to…
21 Sep 2026 · 47m · 25 chaptersBest Of: Colin Kaepernick / Danielle Brooks
This Fresh Air Weekend episode is a “best of” featuring two interviews. Topic 1: Colin Kaepernick’s memoir The Perilous Fight and his anthem protest.
19 Sep 2026 · 49m · 12 chaptersLooney Tunes animator Chuck Jones / Remembering singer Cassandra Wilson
The episode is a two-part Fresh Air tribute: it first revisits Looney Tunes through an interview with animator Chuck Jones, then remembers jazz singer Cassandra Wilson.
18 Sep 2026 · 47m · 14 chapters
The Roy Cohn Playbook, from McCarthyism to Trump
Roy Cohn’s “playbook” and how it shaped Donald Trump, from McCarthyism to Trump-era politics, plus Cohn’s hypocrisy and legacy for American democracy.
17 Sep 2026 · 46m · 13 chapters