Fresh Air

Weekdays from 2-3 PM
Hosted by: Terry Gross

Fresh Air opens the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics. Terry Gross hosts this multi-award-winning daily interview and features program. The veteran public radio interviewer is known for her extraordinary ability to engage guests of all dispositions. Every weekday she delights intelligent and curious listeners with revelations on contemporary societal concerns.

In addition to Terry's fascinating interviews and features, Fresh Air's stellar roster of contributors includes classical music reviewer Lloyd Schwartz of The Boston Phoenix, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism; language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg, usage editor of The American Heritage Dictionary; rock critic reviewer Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly; John Powers of Vogue; Maureen Corrigan, book reviewer and professor of literature at Georgetown University; David Bianculli, TV critic for the New York Daily News; and critic-at-large Gerald Early.

Visit Fresh Air at NPR.org

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Movie Interviews
8:01 am
Thu April 19, 2012

The Stooges Are Back, And Nyuk-ing Things Up Again

Originally published on Thu April 19, 2012 9:11 am

The Farrelly brothers have long been known for their gross-out humor and their shocking comedies. After writing and directing movies like Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary and Shallow Hal -- where agreeable idiots get caught up in all sorts of trouble — Peter and Bobby Farrelly decided to tackle another set of goofy doofuses: The Three Stooges.

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Animals
7:31 am
Thu April 19, 2012

Following The Lives Of Chimpanzees On Screen

Originally published on Thu April 19, 2012 8:49 am

The new Disneynature film Chimpanzee started off the way most movies do. Co-producers and directors Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill, who had previously worked together on the documentary film Earth, approached Disney with a 70-page script about a group of chimpanzees living in Western Africa. There was just one problem: Chimps don't take direction — or read scripts.

So Fothergill and Linfield teased out a narrative from more than three years' worth of footage they took in Western Africa while observing a large clan of chimpanzees.

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Movie Reviews
9:29 am
Wed April 18, 2012

In 'Monsieur Lazhar,' Grief Lingers In The Classroom

Credit Music Box Films
Fellag, an Algerian comedian, plays the title character in the Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar, who steps in to teach a class of middle school students after tragedy has struck their classroom.

Originally published on Wed April 18, 2012 9:36 am

Teacher movies tend to be more alike than unalike, but Monsieur Lazhar makes the familiar unusually strange. The note on which it opens is shocking, tragic: A Montreal middle school student, Simon, enters his classroom ahead of the other kids and finds his teacher hanging from a pipe, dead by her own hand.

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Music Reviews
7:46 am
Wed April 18, 2012

Jenny Scheinman's 'Mayhem' Hard To Pin Down

Credit Michael Gross
Jenny Scheinman's (left) quartet represents players raised on and used to playing all kinds of music.

Originally published on Wed April 18, 2012 9:24 am

Violinist Jenny Scheinman's band and new album are both called Mischief and Mayhem. The record was made just after her quartet played a week at the Village Vanguard, but despite the jazz cred of regular Vanguard appearances, their stylistically fluid music draws on a lot of traditions.

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Music Interviews
9:16 am
Tue April 17, 2012

The Jazz Drummer Who Makes Music Out Of Everything

Originally published on Tue April 17, 2012 12:04 pm

Health
9:04 am
Tue April 17, 2012

The Race To Create The Best Antiviral Drugs

Originally published on Tue April 17, 2012 12:42 pm

If you've ever had a bacterial infection like staph or strep throat, your doctor may have prescribed penicillin. But if you've had the flu or a common cold virus, penicillin won't work. That's because antibacterials only kill bacteria, and both the flu and the common cold are viruses. So for illnesses like the flu, doctors prescribe antiviral drugs, which target the mechanisms that viruses use to reproduce.

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Music Reviews
8:41 am
Mon April 16, 2012

Loudon Wainwright III Looks Back At His 'Old Man'

As Loudon Wainwright III says in his song "In C," he likes to sing about "my favorite protagonist — me."

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Religion
8:26 am
Mon April 16, 2012

Interpreting Shariah Law Across The Centuries

Sadakat Kadri is an English barrister, a Muslim by birth and a historian. His first book, The Trial, was an extensive survey of the Western criminal judicial system, detailing more than 4,000 years of courtroom antics.

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Fresh Air Weekend
9:42 pm
Fri April 13, 2012

Fresh Air Weekend: R.A. Dickey, Carole King

Credit Jim McCrary
Carole King was in a doo-wop group called the Co-Sines when she was a teenager.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:


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Television
7:40 am
Fri April 13, 2012

Lena Dunham's 'Girls' Navigate New York City Life

Credit HBO
Girls has been compared to Sex and the City. The characters, played by Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Lena Dunham and Zosia Mamet, navigate the ups and downs of life in New York City.

This Sunday, HBO premieres a new comedy series that's written and directed by Lena Dunham, who grabbed the media spotlight in 2010 with her film Tiny Furniture. She's 25 years old now, and stars in this new TV series as well.

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Podcasts

  • Saturday, May 18, 2013 6:33pm
    In Frances Ha, a 27-year-old (Greta Gerwig) navigates New York City — and the transition from prolonged adolescence to proper adulthood. Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script. Dawes has a new album, Stories Don't End. In a documentary, Sarah Polley turns the camera on her own family.
  • Friday, May 17, 2013 6:33pm
    In 1958, Lewis suffered a precipitous decline in popularity when people learned that his new wife was not only 13, but also his cousin. Nobody would touch his records. Then, in 1963, he signed a deal with Smash and it looked like things were getting better.
  • Friday, May 17, 2013 6:33pm
    This weekend will be Hader's final romp on Saturday Night Live. He joined the cast in 2005 and has been nominated for an Emmy for his character Stefon, an obsessive clubgoer. Hader talks about not understanding how people do standup and about watching old films, which sparked his interest in Hollywood.
  • Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:33pm
    The 12th film based on Gene Roddenberry's '60s sci-fi TV show is the second to star a new group of actors as Kirk, Spock and their crew. J.J. Abrams returns as director, and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch plays the memorable villain.
  • Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:33pm
    In a career that ran from the 1930s into the 1980s, and included work in big bands and rock 'n' roll, the clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader changed to reflect the times. Herman would have turned 100 on May 16.