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. 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

Episodes

New drones, deadlier attacks: Dystopian reality in Ukraine

September 30, 2026 • 45 mins
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 million people,” she te...
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Mahmoud Khalil’s 104 days in ICE Detention

September 29, 2026 • 44 mins
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 Louisiana. He spoke with Tonya Mosle...
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Kyle MacLachlan was David Lynch’s ‘submersible’ into dark places

September 28, 2026 • 45 mins
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.


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Best Of: Rhiannon Giddens / Investigating Diddy’s Rise & Fall

September 26, 2026 • 47 mins
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 Ch...
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Bluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings

September 25, 2026 • 46 mins
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 freedom and joy in my belly," Strings sa...
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Investigating the system that protected Sean “Diddy” Combs

September 24, 2026 • 45 mins
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 actually required. "This was supposed to ...
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Global power, rivalry, and A.I.; a preview of the U.S./China summit

September 23, 2026 • 46 mins
As President Trump and China's President Xi prepare to meet tomorrow, Rush Doshi of the Council on Foreign Relations explains the current state of US-China relations and what to expect from this summit. 


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Inside the 'modern slavery' where cyber scammers are victims themselves

September 22, 2026 • 46 mins
WIRED’s Andy Greenberg explains how a cybercrime operation in Southeast Asia trapped computer engineers into defrauding victims of billions of dollars. Plus he discusses the scam involving Fresh Air.

Also, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reflects on John Coltrane for the centennial of his birth. 


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Rhiannon Giddens traces the banjo from her ancestors to Beyoncé

September 21, 2026 • 46 mins
A self-described "folkie to the bone," Giddens talks with Terry Gross about channeling her ancestors through her instrument, playing on Beyoncé’s country single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” and a connection between Irish folk music and Dolly Parton. Giddens also sings and plays banjo and fiddle throughout the interview. Her latest album, Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, takes its name from an Emily Dickinson poem.
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Best Of: Colin Kaepernick / Danielle Brooks

September 19, 2026 • 49 mins
10 years ago, former 49ers NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence against Black people. After the season ended, he never played in the NFL again. He spoke with Tonya Mosley about his childhood, football career, and activism. His memoir is his The Perilous Fight.

Actor Danielle Brooks first became known as Taystee on Orange Is the New Black. She spoke with Terry...
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Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones / Remembering singer Cassandra Wilson

September 18, 2026 • 46 mins
The new film Coyote vs. ACME is based on the classic Warner Bros. cartoons featuring the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. Today, we listen back to Terry’s 1989 interview with animator Chuck Jones. He created the characters, among others, and directed many Looney Tunes cartoons. He says they had specific rules for the characters: “The roadrunner can never harm the Coyote. The Coyote could only harm himself by buying these ...
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The Roy Cohn Playbook, from McCarthyism to Trump

September 17, 2026 • 45 mins
In a biography of Roy Cohn, Kai Bird looks at how the lawyer taught President Trump to deny, delay, attack, sue and countersue, never admit defeat, side step paying bills and avoid a paper trail. His book, with co-author Susan Goldmark, is American Scoundrel. He spoke with Terry Gross. 

Also, Ken Tucker reflects on three of Dolly Parton’s performances that he says demonstrate her range and her unique takes on roma...
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Is Jared Kushner a 'walking conflict of interest'?

September 16, 2026 • 46 mins
Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins says while Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is a U.S. special envoy negotiating peace, he's also working on private business deals, raising billions in some of the same countries. “He's potentially a walking conflict of interest,” Filkins tells Tonya Mosley. 

Also, book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Our Noble Selves, by Kate Atkinson. ...
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Actor Danielle Brooks has blessings to count

September 15, 2026 • 45 mins
Brooks grew up in a church where her mom was a minister and her dad a deacon. She went on to play Taystee in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. Now she co-stars in the indie film If I Go Will They Miss Me? Brooks spoke with Terry Gross about singing in the church, playing gospel icon Mahalia Jackson, and why she hesitated to take her breakout role in Orange.


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Colin Kaepernick is still fighting – for justice and for his football career

September 14, 2026 • 45 mins
It has been 10 years since former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, in protest of police brutality against Black people. Once the season ended, Kaepernick never played in the NFL again. 

"The NFL tried to send a very clear message that if you protest police killing Black folks, if you fight for a better society and better community, we're going to try to take your career from you...
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Best Of: Life in the Mojave Desert / Director of ‘The Uprising’

September 12, 2026 • 49 mins
Author Claire Vaye Watkins lives in the Mojave Desert, just like the protagonist in her new novel, Yellow Pine. In the book, it’s an area being developed by an energy company, wreaking havoc on the environment. The locals protest, but the novel explores whether they actually have the power to defeat a corporate project already underway. Watkins spoke with Terry Gross. 

 
Director Paul Greengrass’s ne...
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Stories of survival & loss at Ground Zero

September 11, 2026 • 46 mins
For the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we go into our archive for voices of those who were there. Deputy Fire Chief John “Jay” Jonas spoke with Terry Gross about being inside the North Tower when it collapsed. Firefighter Ken Haskell talks about losing his two brothers and his search at Ground Zero. Author (and former firefighter) Dennis Smith talks about the structure of the WTC itself, and how it contribute...
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How the WNBA became a political prop in the culture wars

September 10, 2026 • 46 mins
Despite record viewership and attendance, and amazing talent across the league, the WNBA has been caught up in the national conversation about the culture wars. Sportswriter Sabreena Merchant says, “everything in the WNBA seems to take on a political lens far beyond what is actually happening on the court.” Merchant spoke with Fresh Air guest interviewer Sam Fragoso (host of Talk Easy) about the expansion of the WNBA, t...
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How Sept. 11 changed American life

September 9, 2026 • 46 mins
In his book Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life, Richard Beck looks at how the Sept. 11 attacks led to the expansion of government surveillance and a sharp increase in hate crimes against Muslim Americans. Beck also argues the War on Terror laid the groundwork for Donald Trump to become president and “impunity culture in American politics.” He spoke with Tonya Mosley. 


Also, Maureen Corrigan rev...
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Casey Gerald says ruining his reputation saved his life

September 8, 2026 • 45 mins
A decade ago, Casey Gerald was running a celebrated nonprofit, giving TED talks, and on magazine covers as proof that the American dream still works. Then he shut it all down and disappeared from public life. Now, in a new book, The Great Refusal, he turns his leaving into an argument about the limits of the American dream.

Also, TV critic David Bianculli reviews SCTV, which is now available to stream on Netflix. 
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