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

Has NASA Ceded Its Mission To Elon Musk?

July 30, 2025 • 44 mins
The Atlantic journalist Franklin Foer explains how SpaceX and the Trump administration are changing the face of NASA, and why Musk's dream of Mars may come at the cost of the agency's mission.

Also, Ken Tucker commemorates the 50th anniversary release of George Clinton's album Mothership Connection.

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Comic Marc Maron On Grief, Cats, And Being Openhearted

July 29, 2025 • 44 mins
As he winds down his podcast, WTF, after 16 years, Marc Maron reflects on what he'll miss: "These conversations are very real conversations for me ... and that is kind of nourishing for the spirit and the soul." He spoke with Terry Gross about being the subject of a documentary, dreams he has of his late girlfriend Lynn Shelton, and cringing at his old comedy. Maron stars in the Apple TV+ series Stick, and his new HBO comedy specia...
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Mariska Hargitay On Freeing Herself From Generational Trauma

July 28, 2025 • 44 mins
The Law & Order: SVU actor was just 3 years old in 1967 when her movie star mom, Jayne Mansfield, died in a car crash. Hargitay's new documentary highlights the intelligent woman behind her mom's crafted persona. Hargitay has a new HBO documentary about her "archeological dig" on her family, called My Mom Jayne. She also talks about learning the identity of her biological father, her love of comedy, and working with survivors of se...
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Best Of: Actor Leslie Uggams / Martha's Vineyard's Indigenous Past & Present

July 26, 2025 • 48 mins
Actor and singer Leslie Uggams talks about her remarkable career, which started when she was 6. She was later the first Black woman to host a TV variety show. In the 1977 TV miniseries Roots, she played Kunta Kinte's daughter. More recently she's been in Empire, American Fiction, and the Deadpool films — and is still going strong at 82.

Also, writer Joseph Lee talks about what it means to be a member of the Aquinnah Wampa...
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Remembering Lyricist Alan Bergman / The 'Outrageous' Jessica Mitford

July 25, 2025 • 46 mins
The lyrics for the songs "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," "The Way We Were," "Nice 'n' Easy," "You Must Believe in Spring," and "The Windmills of Your Mind" were written by the husband and wife lyric-writing team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Alan Bergman died last week at the age of 99. The two wrote songs together for more than 60 years. They spoke with Terry Gross in 2007.

The aristocratic, unconventional Bri...
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The Shifting Landscape Of Higher Education

July 24, 2025 • 44 mins
The Trump administration has been pressuring elite universities, like Harvard and Columbia, with widespread demands, and threats of federal funding cuts. So why are they now investigating George Mason University? ProPublica education reporter Katherine Mangan tells us why GMU's president thinks it's driven by a backlash to DEI efforts.

Also, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reflects on a James Moody release. He would've bee...
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A Chatbot Reacts To A Book About Tech

July 23, 2025 • 45 mins
After writing chapters of her new book about how tech companies help and exploit us, tech journalist and novelist Vauhini Vara fed those chapters to ChatGPT. She told the chatbot she needed help with her writing, but her real goal was to analyze and critique the AI's advice. Her new book is Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age.

Also, TV critic and historian David Bianculli reacts to the cancellation of The Late Show with ...
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Leslie Uggams Looks Back On Her Decades In Show Business

July 22, 2025 • 46 mins
Uggams performed in Beulah, Hallelujah Baby, Roots, Empire, American Fiction and the Deadpool films. She was the first Black woman to host a TV variety show. At 82, she's appearing in The Gilded Age. She spoke with Terry Gross about her long, winding career.

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Martha's Vineyard's Indigenous Past & Present

July 21, 2025 • 44 mins
In Nothing More of This Land, Aquinnah Wampanoag writer Joseph Lee takes readers past the celebrity summer scene and into the heart of Noepe, the name his people have called the island for centuries.

Also, Ken Tucker reviews new music from HAIM and Addison Rae.

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Best Of: Stacey Abrams / Raphael Saadiq

July 19, 2025 • 46 mins
Stacey Abrams is known as a voting rights activist, former candidate for Georgia governor, and founder of Fair Fight Action. But she's also a bestselling author, and has a new novel, a thriller revolving around a former Supreme Court clerk investigating a murder inside an AI company.

Also, book critic Maureen Corrigan recommends two summer non-fiction books.

And we hear from musician and producer Raphael Saadiq. ...
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In The Dugout With Baseball All Stars

July 18, 2025 • 47 mins
As Major League Baseball celebrates a memorable All Star Game, we feature some of our favorite baseball interviews – with crafty veteran pitcher Jamie Moyer, cerebral and successful manager Tony La Russa, and slugger Mike Piazza on his epic confrontation with Roger Clemens in the World Series.

John Powers reviews Cloud, the new psychological thriller from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

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Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media

July 18, 2025 • 2 mins
Act now to ensure public media remains free and accessible to all. Your donation will help this essential American service survive and thrive. Visit donate.npr.org now.

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The Dominance & Decline Of The Condé Nast Magazine Empire

July 17, 2025 • 43 mins
For decades, Condé Nast publications such as Vogue and Vanity Fair were consequential tastemakers. Writer Michael Grynbaum explores the heyday of these magazines and how they lost their footing. His book is Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America.

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Rising Floods, Cuts To FEMA And Future Chaos

July 16, 2025 • 44 mins
ProPublica Editor-at-Large Abrahm Lustgarten says the deadly flooding in Central Texas — which has killed over 130 people — underscores the dangers of a more volatile climate. Despite clear scientific evidence, the federal government has made cuts to research and forecasting, even threatening to dismantle FEMA. "We could talk about the floods in Texas as being an early warning sign of policy degradation to come," he says. "And we c...
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Stacey Abrams On American Autocracy & Her New Chapter

July 15, 2025 • 44 mins
Abrams isn't running for office — but she's not ruling it out, either. "Politics is a tool ... for getting good done, but it's not the only one." Her new thriller novel is Coded Justice. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about voter suppression, her faith, and collaborating with her siblings on her books.

Also, David Bianculli reviews the BritBox period drama Outrageous.

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The 'Jailhouse Lawyer' Who Freed Innocent People — Including Himself

July 14, 2025 • 44 mins
While serving a life sentence for a murder he didn't commit, Calvin Duncan studied law, hoping to appeal his case. In the process he became a jailhouse lawyer. We'll talk about how he managed to help free many wrongly convicted prisoners, including himself, while facing countless legal obstacles confronting people who are poor and Black. His memoir is The Jailhouse Lawyer.

Maureen Corrigan recommends two summer non-ficti...
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Best Of: A 'Failed' Child Star / A Novel About Pregnancy Post-Roe

July 12, 2025 • 48 mins
Tamara Yajia grew up Jewish in Argentina, intent on becoming a child star. But just when her break was coming along, her family emigrated to California. Her new memoir is Cry for Me, Argentina.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new HBO Max documentary about Ms. magazine.

Leila Mottley's novel The Girls Who Grew Big follows a group of teenage mothers in the Florida Panhandle who form a close-knit community to su...
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Danzy Senna Writes Herself (& Other Mixed-Race People) Into Existence

July 11, 2025 • 44 mins
Novelist Danzy Senna spoke with Terry Gross about racial identity, growing up with a Black father and white mother in an era when "mixed-race" wasn't a thing. "Just merely existing as a family was a radical statement at that time," she says. Her latest book is Colored Television.

Also, Justin Chang reviews the new Superman movie.

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SCOTUS & The Reconception Of American Constitutional Order

July 10, 2025 • 44 mins
New York Times reporter Adam Liptak discusses the Supreme Court's decisions to limit the power of lower courts while expanding presidential power, and its consequential use of the so-called shadow docket. "It's it's not an overstatement to say that in a matter of months American democracy has been transformed," he tells Terry Gross.

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Doula & Novelist Leila Mottley On The Nuance Of Young Parenthood

July 9, 2025 • 44 mins
Leila Mottley gained critical acclaim at 19 with her debut novel Nightcrawling, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Now, she returns with her second novel, The Girls Who Grew Big. It follows a group of teenage mothers in the Florida Panhandle who form a close-knit community to support each other through the challenges of young motherhood. Mottley talks about why she views this novel as a response to the current political mom...
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