Fresh Air

Fresh Air

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. Subscribe to Fresh Air Plus! You'll enjoy bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening - all while you support NPR's mission. Learn more at plus.npr.org/freshair 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

Episodes

Will Sharpe imagines Mozart's day-to-day in 'Amadeus'

May 11, 2026 • 46 mins
Sharpe played a newly rich tech bro on vacation in Italy the second season of ‘The White Lotus.’ Now he's starring as Mozart, a musical genius who struggles to "read the room" in the new STARZ limited TV series ‘Amadeus.’ He spoke with Fresh Air producer Ann Marie Baldonado about studying piano, acting opposite Kieran Culkin in ‘A Real Pain,’ and feeling like an outsider as a kid. 


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Best Of: Novelist Douglas Stuart / ‘Half Man’ Actor Richard Gadd

May 9, 2026 • 47 mins
Like the main character in his Booker Prize-winning novel 'Shuggie Bain,' writer Douglas Stuart grew up in Glasgow, working class, queer, and with a mother addicted to alcohol. His first career was in fashion, designing underwear for Calvin Klein. “Sometimes when I’m in an audience now and I feel a little nervous, I have a joke to myself and think, how many people in this audience have worn the underwear that you designed?” He spok...
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Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, from ‘RENT’ to ‘Hamilton’

May 8, 2026 • 46 mins
Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller played a key role in the production of RENT, Hamilton, In the Heights, Avenue Q, and the revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd that starred Josh Groban. His memoir traced his path from ‘Theater Kid’ to producer of Broadway mega-hits.

Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews ‘Silent Friend.’ 


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Nathan Lane is being tested (and he loves it)

May 7, 2026 • 44 mins
Nathan Lane just received a Tony nomination for his starring role as Willy Loman in ‘Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.’ He’s a veteran of the stage – often in comedic and musical roles. But in the role of Loman, which he does eight times a week, he’s noticed something different in the audience. “There’s an old joke – my job is just to keep 1600 people from coughing. It's kind of true, but when you hear what we hear during ‘Sales...
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How Silicon Valley has profited by aligning with MAGA

May 6, 2026 • 44 mins
Atlantic writer George Packer discusses how tech venture capitalists, who are heavily invested in AI and cryptocurrency, aligned with Trump and influenced policies related to their own investments. 

Also, David Bianculli reviews the new Netflix/BBC miniseries adaptation of ‘Lord of the Flies.’ 


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Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s path from ‘Backtalker’ to legal scholar

May 5, 2026 • 44 mins
Crenshaw named two of the most contested ideas in American politics: intersectionality and critical race theory. Her new book is called ‘Backtalker: An American Memoir.’ It takes us to her childhood in Canton, Ohio, and along her path through Cornell, Harvard Law, and the University of Wisconsin, where, in 1988, as a graduate student, she sketched a diagram of an intersection to explain how race, class, and gender overlap. She spok...
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Scottish novelist Douglas Stuart on the isolation of secret-keeping

May 4, 2026 • 45 mins
Like a number of his characters, Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart grew up working class and queer in Glasgow. He went on to have a career in fashion, which plays into his latest novel, John of John. “It's hard to tell people about grief. It’s hard to talk to people about poverty... and so I’d got very used to the silence in my own life, and my writing is the only thing that allows me to connect with myself,” Stuart told...
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Best Of: Flea / Nick Offerman

May 2, 2026 • 48 mins
Flea co-founded the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1982. The bass/trumpet player spoke with Terry Gross about how his music and his life have changed. “Thank God I've changed. I was a lunatic. I was 19 going on 10.” He has a new solo jazz album called ‘Honora.’ 

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Remembering symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas

May 1, 2026 • 44 mins
We remember conductor, composer and musician Michael Tilson Thomas, who died April 22 at age 81. He was a longtime music director of The San Francisco Symphony, known for his innovation, his ability to translate classical music for the general public, and for fostering contemporary music. He founded the New World Symphony for young players. He got his musical inheritance from his grandparents, who were stars of the Yiddish theatre....
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Richard Gadd is looking at the ‘dangers of repression’

April 30, 2026 • 43 mins
‘Baby Reindeer’ was an unexpected hit on Netflix in 2024. Now its creator and star is back with ‘Half Man,’ an HBO series about two boys who become brothers after their mothers fall in love in 1980s Scotland. Gadd spoke with Tonya Mosley about exploring toxic masculinity, becoming famous overnight, and bombing stand-up sets. 

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How Trump's EPA head has transformed the agency — and sided with polluters

April 29, 2026 • 44 mins
‘New Yorker’ staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert says EPA chief Lee Zeldin has rescinded regulations, cut or eliminated departments and terminated the jobs of many scientists. Trump calls Zeldin "our secret weapon." The Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental journalist spoke with Terry Gross. 


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Flea’s wild path from childhood to Chili Peppers

April 28, 2026 • 44 mins
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold tens of millions of albums and taken home multiple Grammy Awards. Now in his 60s, more than four decades after that band formed, Flea is releasing his first solo album. ‘Honora’ is a jazz album that connects back to his childhood. The legendary bassist spoke with NPR’s Terry Gross about some of his wild antics, his “blood bond” with his band, and finding beauty in the world.


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Nick Offerman gets an emotional arc

April 27, 2026 • 45 mins
Best known for his role as Ron Swanson on ‘Parks and Recreation,’ Nick Offerman plays a former professional wrestler reconnecting with his estranged daughter in ‘Margo's Got Money Troubles.’ He spoke with producer Ann Marie Baldonado about transforming into a wrestler, his ‘Parks’ group chat, and advice for young woodworkers. 

Also, John Powers reviews ‘Big Mistakes,’ starring Dan Levy on Netflix.


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Best Of: Malala Yousafzai / Oscar Isaac

April 25, 2026 • 47 mins
Malala Yousafzai was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her for advocating for girls' education in her native Pakistan. She understood that she was a target. “I had pictured it many times that this could happen. I had pictured it at school. I had pictured it in my school bus. I knew that the Taliban could do anything,” she told Terry Gross. Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize when she was just 17 years old. In an interview from a live e...
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‘Schmigadoon!’ co-creator Cinco Paul satirizes Broadway

April 24, 2026 • 45 mins
‘Schmigadoon!’ is now on Broadway. Adapted from the Apple TV series that lovingly satirized musicals of the ‘40s and ‘50s, we’ll hear from the co-creator, co-writer and songwriter of the series, Cinco Paul, who also wrote the book and songs for the Broadway show. He spoke with Terry Gross in 2021. 

Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews ‘Blue Heron.’ 


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The spy network that took on America's Nazi groups

April 23, 2026 • 43 mins
In ‘The Secret War Against Hate,’ historian Steven J. Ross details the racist, anti-Semitic groups that sprung up after WWII, in the later half of the 20th century — and the spy network that worked to bring them to justice. He spoke with Terry Gross about that, and how it connects to the Dept. of Justice’s recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Inside Linda McMahon's effort to dismantle the Dept. of Education

April 22, 2026 • 44 mins
A former pro-wrestling executive, Linda McMahon is now the Education Secretary Trump tasked with abolishing her agency. ‘New Yorker’ staff writer Zach Helfand explains how her WWE experience led her to this role.


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Actor Oscar Isaac is ‘a vulture’ of his own life

April 21, 2026 • 44 mins
Oscar Isaac stars in season 2 of the Emmy-winning Netflix series ‘Beef,’ which is an anthology about the unexpected consequences of everyday conflict. Isaac plays Josh, the manager of an upscale Los Angeles country club, whose life is unraveling. He spoke with Tonya Mosley about the series, his friendship with ‘Frankenstein’ filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, and being a “‘vulture” of his own life. 

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Malala Yousafzai

April 20, 2026 • 45 mins
Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai spoke with Terry Gross about bravery, marriage, and defying cultural norms. She was 15 when a Taliban gunman shot her, in response to her advocacy for girls’ education. “When I look back, I'm like, yes, that was a crazy thing that I did. I put my life at risk. But, at the time, what scared me more was a life without an education as a girl. It terrified me.” 


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Best Of: Actor Amanda Peet / Re-examining Toni Morrison

April 18, 2026 • 47 mins
Amanda Peet is in the new film ‘Fantasy Life’ and the series ‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’ In a recent piece in ‘The New Yorker,’ she wrote about being diagnosed with breast cancer while both of her parents were in hospice. “I didn’t really have that ‘why me?’ thing. Maybe because I am Jewish and am always waiting for that other shoe to drop. In this case it was three shoes,” she told Terry Gross. 

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