Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Singapore's first Prime Minister and its current Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and journalist Stan Sesser on this edition of Fresh Air. A very controversial figure, Lee Kuan Yew formed the People's Action Party and won the first Singapore general election in 1959. Since it was granted independence in 1965, Singapore has gone from British colony to Asian economic powerhouse.

Hear former Vice President Al Gore, book critic Maureen Corrigan, lead singer and songwriter of Radiohead Thom Yorke, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. Al Gore has just been given the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for fighting global warming. His Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, aims to get the message out to the masses.

Psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela on this edition of Fresh Air. Her new book is A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness. It's about Eugene de Kock, the commanding officer of state-sanctioned apartheid death squads.

Hear music-comedy duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, singer songwriter Nellie McKay, and musical group Los Straitjackets. Emaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are with the group Flight of the Conchords. They join us in the studio for a concert. Clement and McKenzie hail from New Zealand and were named Best Alternative comedy Act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. They star in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, which begins its second season in 2008.

Hear British scientist Richard Dawkins and geneticist Francis Collins on this edition of Fresh Air. Richard Dawkins is a professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University. The New York Times has hailed him as a writer who "understands the issues so clearly that he forces his reader to understand them too". In his latest book, he writes about what he sees as the irrationality of a belief in God and sets down his arguments for atheism.

Writer Michael Pollan. His book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World takes a look at four plants cultivated by humans: the apple, the tulip, potatoes and marijuana. Pollan demonstrates that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship: Do we plant potatoes, or do potatoes seduce us into planting them? Pollan questions the assumption that we are in charge of our agriculture.

Author Martin Amis on this edition of Fresh Air. Amis is considered one of the leading British writers of the late twentieth century and one of the most controversial.

Actor Michael C. Hall and director and screenwriter Hal Hartley on this edition of Fresh Air. Michael C. Hall plays David Fisher, the gay brother who co-runs a funeral home on the HBO hit Six Feet Under. The American Film Institute has nominated Hall for Best Male TV Actor-Drama for his role in the series. Hall comes to TV from the stage. Most recently, he was on Broadway as the emcee in Cabaret. Prior to that role, he was in a number of off-Broadway productions.

Actors Christopher Reeve and Martin Donovan on this edition of Fresh Air. A 1995 horseback riding accident left Christopher Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. Recently, with intensive physical therapy, Reeve announced that he has regained motion and feeling in his fingers and in other parts of his body. This is incredible news to scientists, who assumed he would never move again. Reeve was totally paralyzed for five years. Then, one morning two years ago, he found he could move one finger.

Hear artist Chuck Close, actor Richard Gere, rock historian Ed Ward, and film critic David Edelstein on this edition of Fresh Air. Chuck Close has been called "the most methodical artist that has ever lived in America" and the "reigning portraitist of the Information Age". He creates jumbo-size faces on canvas (8 or 9 feet high), copying them from photographs. They are painted in a dotted faux-pointillist style.

Hear authors David and Nic Sheff, and critic at large John Powers, on this edition of Fresh Air. David Sheff and his son, Nic, have both written memoirs. David's new book is called Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction. Nic's book is called Tweak. Nic became addicted to meth and was in and out of rehab. David and Nic join us to talk about doing drugs, getting over them, and the effect on family.

Writer Michael Patrick Hearn and columnist Stanley Bing on this edition of Fresh Air. Michael Patrick Hearn is the editor of The Annotated Wizard of Oz: A Centennial Edition. The book commemorates the 100th anniversary of the publication of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Back in 1900, the first 10,000 copies printed of Baum's book sold out in two weeks. Baum wrote fourteen Oz books in all.

Actress, writer, comedians Ellen Degeneres and Andy Richter on this edition of Fresh Air. Ellen Degeneres will soon begin a comedy tour. Her five-year sit-com Ellen won an Emmy for her much anticipated coming-out episode. She and her character came out at the same time. This was followed by a very public relationship with actress Anne Heche, which eventually ended.

Comic Bob Newhart on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He's been a part of the American comedy landscape since 1961 when his debut comedy album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart became a surprise hit. Since then he's starred in three TV shows, including the Peabody award winning original The Bob Newhart Show, and appeared in numerous films. There's a new Rhino anthology of his classic routines, Something Like This...The Bob Newhart Anthology.

Hear British musician Jarvis Cocker, book critic Maureen Corrigan, and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, on this edition of Fresh Air. Jarvis Cocker has just released The Jarvis Cocker Album, his first solo effort. Cocker founded his band Pulp at age 15. Cocker made headlines in 1996 when he stormed the stage in protest at a Michael Jackson concert in London at the BRIT awards.

Hear comic Don Rickles, documentary producer Huw Cordey, and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. He's known for insulting his audiences on stage, but Don Rickles doesn't consider himself an insult comic. His heyday was in the 1950s and 60s, on TV and in Vegas. Frank Sinatra was an early fan and helped get him noticed. Rickles has a new memoir, Rickles' Book: a Memoir.

Middle East historian David Fromkin on this edition of Fresh Air. David Fromkin is a professor of International Relations, International Law, and Middle Eastern Politics at Boston University. He's also the author of the best selling book, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East 1914-1922.

Former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration David Kessler on this edition of Fresh Air. As head of the FDA, Kessler took on one of the country's most powerful foes: the tobacco industry. He led an investigation of tobacco makers to determine whether nicotine was a drug, and if so, how it should be regulated by the FDA. Kessler's book is A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle with a Deadly Industry.

Actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Nicolas Cage on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Philip Seymour Hoffman's one of the stars of Punch Drunk Love. Hoffman also had parts in the films Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Happiness, and Next Stop Wonderland.

Actress Jodie Foster and radio personality Garrison Keillor on this edition of Fresh Air. Jodie Foster's film Panic Room is now on video and DVD. Recently she produced and acted in the film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Foster has won two Oscars for performances in The Silence of the Lambs and The Accused. She was also nominated for her work in Taxi Driver and Nell. She's also served as producer or director on numerous films.