Fresh Air

Weekday at 6:00 p.m on News and Talk and News and Classical, Weekdays at 11:00 pm on News and Talk

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Each week, nearly 4.5 million people listen to the show's intimate conversations broadcast on more than 450 National Public Radio (NPR) stations across the country, as well as in Europe on the World Radio Network.

Though Fresh Air has been categorized as a "talk show," it hardly fits the mold. Its 1994 Peabody Award citation credits Fresh Air with "probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights." And a variety of top publications count Gross among the country's leading interviewers. The show gives interviews as much time as needed, and complements them with comments from well-known critics and commentators.

Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR.

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News/Talk

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Fresh Air Weekend: Michael Fassbender, Mushrooms

Credit Fox Searchlight Pictures

Uncomfortably Numb: For Brandon (Michael Fassbender), the endless pursuit of sex doesn't involve any particular pleasure — only a driving obsession.

By editor

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Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

10:14 am

Fri January 20, 2012

Remembering Bandleader And Producer Johnny Otis

Credit Charlie Gillett Collection / Redferns Via Getty Images

Johnny Otis (center), shown playing with his band The Johnny Otis Revue.

By editor

Bandleader and producer Johnny Otis, who launched and then nurtured the careers of many of R&B's greatest singers, died Tuesday at his home near Los Angeles. He was 90.

10:11 am

Fri January 20, 2012

Brad Pitt: On Life, Movies And 'Moneyball'

Credit Melinda Sue Gordon / Sony Pictures

Brad Pitt, left, plays Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's, in the movie Moneyball. His assistant Peter Brand is played by Jonah Hill.

By editor

This interview was originally broadcast on September 22, 2011.

9:54 am

Fri January 20, 2012

Etta James: The 1994 Fresh Air Interview

Credit Rick Diamond / Getty Images

Etta James onstage at the 2009 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 27, 2012 8:54 am

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Etta James, the legendary vocalist who is perhaps best known for her version of the song "At Last," has died. She was 73.

8:57 am

Fri January 20, 2012

The Inquisition: A Model For Modern Interrogators

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Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images

An illustration shows heretics being tortured and nailed to wooden posts during the first Inquisition.

Credit Gasper Tringale / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Cullen Murphy is the editor-at-large for Vanity Fair and previously served as managing editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

By editor

Originally published on Mon January 28, 2013 11:42 am

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The individuals who participated in the first Inquisition 800 years ago kept detailed records of their activities. Vast archival collections at the Vatican, in France and in Spain contain accounts of torture victims' cries, descriptions of funeral pyres and even meticulous financial records about the price of torture equipment.

"[There are] expense accounts [for things] like how much did the rope cost to tie the hands of the person you burnt at the stake," says writer Cullen Murphy. "The people who were doing interrogations were meticulous."

9:57 pm

Thu January 19, 2012

'Coriolanus': A People's Hero Turns On His Own

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Credit Larry D. Horricks / The Weinstein Co.

Bare-Knuckle Politics: The battle-hardened Roman general Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes) runs for office at the urging of his mother (Vanessa Redgrave) — but it turns out he's no booster of majority rule.

Credit Larry D. Horricks / The Weinstein Co.

Can't Get Used To These Clothes: Coriolanus (Fiennes), receiving a hero's welcome, poses — awkwardly — with his mother (Redgrave), wife (Jessica Chastain), and son (Harry Fenn).

By David Edelstein

Ralph Fiennes showed up for a frenzied cameo near the end of Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, and her hand-held, adrenaline-charged approach clearly inspired his film of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, which he both acts and directs the bloody hell out of.

9:52 am

Thu January 19, 2012

In 'Miss Bala,' Bullets And Beauty Pageants Collide

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Credit 20th Century Fox

Stephanie Sigman plays Laura, a beauty queen drawn into the world of Mexican drug cartels, in the film Miss Bala.

Credit Eniac Martinez / 20th Century Fox

Stephanie Sigman plays Laura, a beauty queen drawn unwillingly into a Mexican drug gang, in the film Miss Bala.

By John Powers

Originally published on Thu January 19, 2012 11:57 am

9:45 am

Wed January 18, 2012

The Man Who Studies The Fungus Among Us

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Credit iStockphoto.com

The Shroom With A View: Mushrooms are fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting bodies found all over the world. They can grow in practically any environment with moisture.

Credit Jorg Hempel/Wikipedia

The Phallus impudicus is also called the common stinkhorn. It smells like a dead animal, but is not poisonous.

By editor

Originally published on Thu January 26, 2012 3:39 pm

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9:09 am

Wed January 18, 2012

Michael Fassbender: Portraying An Addict's 'Shame'

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Credit Fox Searchlight Pictures

In Shame, Brandon (Matthew Fassbender) pursues sex not for pleasure but to fulfill a driving compulsion.

Credit Laurie Sparham / Focus Features

Michael Fassbender (left, with Mia Wasikowska) is Jane's employer and eventual lover, Rochester, in Jane Eyre.

By editor

In the past year, actor Michael Fassbender has played a mutant villain in X-Men: First Class, psychoanalyst Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre and a sex addict in Shame.

It was his role in Shame that recently earned Fassbender a string of accolades, including Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes and a variety of critics associations.

9:48 am

Tue January 17, 2012

'A Separation' Of Hearts, Minds And Ideas In Iran

Credit Sony Picture Classics.

Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi) are at odds first about whether to leave Iran for life abroad — and then about more pressing issues.

By John Powers

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Over the past 30-odd years, we've grown used to thinking of Iran and the United States as enemies — from the Ayatollah Khomeini dubbing America "The Great Satan" to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which has led President Obama to spearhead international sanctions and some of his Republican rivals to talk of bombing Iran.

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Fresh Air Weekend

10:50 pm

Fri January 20, 2012