Fresh Air

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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

  • 48 minutes 36 seconds
    Best Of: Amanda Knox / 'Adolescence' Co-Creator & Actor Stephen Graham
    Amanda Knox was convicted — and ultimately exonerated — for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy. Now in a new memoir, Knox explains why getting out of prison was not the end of her saga.

    Also, we hear from British actor Stephen Graham. He stars in the Netflix miniseries Adolescence as the father of a 13-year-old boy arrested for murdering a girl from his school. He also co-created the series and talks about the ambitious style in which it was shot — in one long take.

    Ken Tucker reviews new albums by Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis.

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    5 April 2025, 7:00 am
  • 47 minutes 5 seconds
    Celebrating 20 Years Of 'The Office'
    It's been 20 years since the debut of NBC's hit mockumentary sitcom The Office. To celebrate the anniversary, we're listening back to Terry Gross' archival interviews with some of the key players: Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling and executive producer Greg Daniels. We'll also hear from Ricky Gervais, who co-created and starred the original British version.

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    4 April 2025, 4:38 pm
  • 44 minutes 8 seconds
    Jason Isbell On Love, Heartbreak & Songwriting
    Isbell sings about his split from musician Amanda Shires on his latest album, Foxes in the Snow. "What I was attempting to do is document a very specific time where I was going through a lot of changes," he says.

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    3 April 2025, 6:20 pm
  • 44 minutes 34 seconds
    ICE Campus Arrests & The 'Struggle For The Soul' Of America
    As ICE agents arrest international students at campuses across the U.S., immigration law professor Daniel Kanstroom discusses the human cost. He says the round-ups are designed to "send a message... to scare people, and it's working."

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    2 April 2025, 5:45 pm
  • 44 minutes 10 seconds
    Writer, Critic & Curator Hilton Als Looks For The Silences
    As a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, Hilton Als's essays and profiles of figures like Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Richard Pryor have redefined cultural criticism, blending autobiography with literary and social commentary. Als is also a curator. His latest gallery exhibition is The Writing's on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts, at the Hill Art Foundation in New York. The exhibit brings together the works of 32 artists across a range of media to examine how artists embrace silence. The show asked a powerful question: What do words — and their absence — look like? The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer spoke with Tonya Mosley.

    Also, Ken Tucker reviews new music from Lucy Dacus and Jeffrey Lewis.

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    1 April 2025, 7:07 pm
  • 44 minutes 50 seconds
    'Adolescence' Co-Creator/Actor Asks Not Whodunnit, But Why
    The Netflix miniseries follows a 13-year-old accused of murdering a girl from his school. Co-creator and star Stephen Graham says he read about similar crimes and wanted to know: "Why is this happening?" Graham spoke with Sam Briger about the crime that inspired the show, fatherhood, and the unusual way the show was shot — in one single take. Graham also stars as a bare-knuckle boxer in the period drama series A Thousand Blows.

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    31 March 2025, 6:36 pm
  • 48 minutes 25 seconds
    Best Of: A Writer Grapples With A Life-Changing Accident / The Post WWII 'Red Scare'
    Hanif Kureishi began his new memoir just days after a fall left him paralyzed. He describes being completely dependent on others — and the sense of purpose he's gained from writing. The memoir is called Shattered.

    David Bianculli reviews the British series Ludwig.

    Writer Clay Risen describes a political movement which destroyed the careers of thousands of teachers, civil servants and artists whose beliefs or associations were deemed un-American. His book, Red Scare, is about post-World War II America, but he says there's a throughline connecting that era to our current political moment.


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    29 March 2025, 7:00 am
  • 45 minutes 25 seconds
    After A Friend's Suicide, A Writer Inherits His Grieving Dog
    Sigrid Nunez's 2018 novel The Friend won the National Book Award. It's now a film, starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, about a woman who inherits a dog after her friend's suicide. She spoke with Terry Gross about the book in 2019.

    Also, Justin Chang reviews the new French film thriller Misericordia.

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    28 March 2025, 4:00 pm
  • 43 minutes 50 seconds
    The Former Jihadist Trying To Remake Syria
    Atlantic writer Robert Worth talks about Syria's transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. He was the founder of the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, but is now advocating unity and inclusion. Syria borders Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, so what happens in Syria impacts the whole region. We'll also talk with Worth about the Houthis in Yemen, and the Trump administration group chat that accidentally included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.

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    27 March 2025, 6:33 pm
  • 44 minutes 29 seconds
    Amanda Knox Is 'Free,' But Is That Enough?
    Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison for a murder she didn't commit. After her exoneration, she reached out to the man who prosecuted her case. She talks about how she made herself useful while in prison, readjusting to being back home, and the survivor's guilt that follows her. Knox's new memoir is Free.

    TV critic David Bianculli reviews The Studio, starring Seth Rogen, on Apple TV+.

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    26 March 2025, 6:16 pm
  • 45 minutes 18 seconds
    Inside The 'Mad House' Of Congressional Disfunction
    The MAGA-controlled 118th House passed only 27 bills that became law — the lowest number since the Great Depression. Journalists Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater examine the chaos in a new book, Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress.

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    25 March 2025, 7:08 pm
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