Fresh Air

Hall of Fame songwriter Jimmy Webb talks about writing some of the 1960s songs he’s best known for: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “MacArthur Park.” Now 80, he’s got a new album of unreleased songs titled Yours for the Taking . He spoke with Terry Gross in 2004.  Also, Justin Chang reviews the new film Possible Love , South Korea’s official Oscar submission for Best Interna...

"There's an understandable pull in my industry to make things that are kind of like a gleaming vanilla car commercial, like super safe, super familiar, appeal to the masses. And [then there are] people that are out there who are like, I'm actually going to go the other way,” she tells Fresh Air ’s Ann Marie Baldonado. Gilpin won an Emmy for her guest role in the horror-comedy Widow’s Bay, and now...

Ahead of the midterms, we talk with two election experts about President Trump’s efforts to interfere with voting. Richard Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project, and Pennsylvania’s lead election official, Al Schmidt. Both are hoping the states, the courts and the public will ensure free and fair elections. They spoke with Fresh Air 's Dave Davies. Subscribe to our free weekly newsl...

Ojibwe writer David Treuer’s new book, The Savage Mind: An American Legacy , is written as a letter to his three children. It examines how the violence that shaped America's founding still influences who we are today. Treuer has spent much of his career challenging the idea that Native American history is a story of tragedy and disappearance, and that Native culture is a thing of the past. He spok...

Grammy-winning singer, bassist, and composer Meshell Ndegeocello helped shape the sound that became known as "neo-soul," but she's spent more than three decades resisting the labels placed on her and her music. Now, on her new album, Synonym , she's reimagining familiar songs, including duets made famous by Sonny and Cher and the Human League. But these aren't simply new arrangements. “This album...

In his new film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother , Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali plays a devout Muslim father and hit man whose life is upended when he suddenly has to care for his children on his own. The role brings together a lot of what has shaped Ali as an actor, including an attraction to characters who live in morally complicated places. “That’s why I think someone like myself sign...

The actor Eva Marie Saint died last week at age 102. She won an academy award for her first film role in On the Waterfront opposite Marlon Brando, and in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest she co-starred with Cary Grant. She said Hitchcock didn't give her much direction. “Things like lower your voice, don't use your hands… and look directly into Cary Grant's eyes at all times – which was not di...

Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel says Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos each want to colonize the moon, mine its resources and launch thousands more satellites -- but their only real competition is each other. “Ordinarily, we have entrusted the future of our civilizations to people we elect to office,” Tyrangiel tells Terry Gross. “We now have folks with a tremendous amount of power over our future, pa...

As polar ice melts in the Arctic, shipping lanes are opening up, making the region a new zone of super-power competition. Writer Rana Foroohar spoke with Dave Davies about the stakes. Her book is in Sea Change . Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the new graphic book The Saddest Kitchens , by New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast and Jason Adam Katzenstein. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter   Follow...

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline . Li’s teenage sons both died by suicide six years apart, Vincent in 2017 at age 16, and James in 2024 at age 19. Her Pulitzer-Prize winning 2025 memoir, Things in Nature Merely Grow , chronicled the loss of her sons and her effort to go on. Her new novel is about two pian...

In his new action thriller, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Mahershala Ali plays a devout Muslim father and hit man whose life is upended when he suddenly has to care for his children on his own. The role brings together a lot of what has shaped Ali as an actor, including an attraction to characters who live in morally complicated places. He spoke with Tonya Mosley about why the script blew h...

Prine, who died in 2020, would’ve turned 80 this weekend. A five-day event in and around his native Chicago is underway, including a tribute concert. The beloved folk singer-songwriter spoke with Terry Gross in 2018 about how throat and neck surgery affected his voice, getting discovered by Roger Ebert, and his songwriting process.  Film critic Justin Chang reviews the new film Fjord . Subscribe t...

Ryan has spent decades pressing presidents for answers. She talks about access, power, race and how asking questions put her in President Trump's crosshairs. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about her book, Notes on a Blacklash . Also, TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new CBS legal drama set in Silicon Valley, Cupertino .  See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of persona...

New York Times military and Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe says Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has disproportionately blocked promotions of Black and women senior officers, and he’s also been purging the military of transgender people. “Usually Secretaries of Defense do everything they can to protect the military from our divisive politics and those culture wars,” Jaffe tells Dave Davies. “Hegset...

Murray Hill's character on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere , Fred Rococo, is a soil scientist trans man who hosts a queer cabaret. “[He] is me dialed down to like a 2,” he tells Terry Gross. In real life, Murray has hosted drag king shows, queer cabarets, burlesque shows and performed his own act. He spoke with Terry Gross about finding and building his community, forgiveness, and how anti-trans rhetoric...

Michael Douglas is one of the most recognizable actors of our time, but in 1987, many still knew him as Kirk Douglas's son. That year, he starred in Fatal Attraction and Wall Street , and his role as Gordon Gekko won him the Oscar for Best Actor. "When I went up and received my Oscar for Wall Street , I thanked my father because I finally felt I was out of his shadow. And those two pictures in tha...

Kyle MacLachlan was just 23 when he auditioned for Lynch's adaptation of Dune . The two would go on to work together on the cult classics Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks . “The worlds that [Lynch] creates are real in his mind — they exist,” he tells Terry Gross. MacLachlan's new memoir is Fictional Selves . Also, Wired reporter Andy Greenberg describes the story he broke about a cyber crime operation i...

Often called one of the fathers of minimalist music, Reich created a vocabulary that has influenced nearly every form of music: Classical, electronic, jazz, and pop. To commemorate his 90th birthday, there are worldwide performances and festivals in his honor, including an upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall. Reich spoke with Terry Gross in 1989 and 1999. We’ll listen back to his compositions, and h...

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter has a new album, Pick You Up , out Oct. 9. She spoke with Fresh Air guest interviewer Sam Fragoso ( Talk Easy ) about touring with Michael Jackson in her 20s as a back-up singer, depression, and Bob Dylan’s advice for writer’s block.  Also, John Powers reviews the Spanish language Netflix miniseries My Sad Dead .  Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter   Follo...

Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist , is just back from her fourth visit to Ukraine. She says Russia has ramped up production of missiles and deadly drones, while Ukraine is desperately short of interceptors to resist the onslaught. “[Kyiv] has been under really extraordinary bombardment from the Russians, and they are basically trying to make life unlivable in a city of several...

Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and fled the country at 18. He had a green card to be in the United States, and had become one of the most visible faces of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, where he had been a graduate student and a negotiator between the protesters and the administration. In 2025, he was arrested by ICE and sent to a detention center in L...

MacLachlan was just 23 when he auditioned for Lynch's adaptation of Dune . The two would go on to work together on the cult classics Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks . “The worlds that [Lynch] creates are real in his mind — they exist,” he tells Terry Gross. MacLachlan's new memoir is Fictional Selves . Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the novel American Hagwon , by Min Jin Lee. Subscribe to our free week...

Rhiannon Giddens doesn’t usually make pop music, but she wrote and played the banjo riff on Beyoncé’s country single, “Texas Hold ‘Em.” She comes from the Black string band tradition, is the artistic director of the Silk Road Ensemble, and studied opera in college. Giddens spoke with Terry Gross about channeling her ancestors through her instrument. Also, Rolling Stone investigative reporter Cheye...

The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist has one foot in traditional bluegrass and another in improvisational jam music. He has a new album, So Much for Goodbyes , inspired by his late mother. He spoke with producer Sam Briger about healing himself through songwriting, performing the day his mom died, and how being a father has changed him as a musician. "I sing now from a place of free...

Sean Combs founded Bad Boy Records and spent three decades as one of the most powerful men in hip hop. Now he's serving a federal prison sentence. Rolling Stone reporter Cheyenne Roundtree spent years talking to the people who worked for him, many of them trying to break into the music business. In her new book, Bad Boy for Life: The Rise and Fall of Sean Combs , she lays out what those jobs actua...