Terry Gross Popular Books

Terry Gross Biography & Facts

Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NPR in 1975, Gross has interviewed thousands of guests.Gross has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet often probing interview style and for the diversity of her guests. She has a reputation for researching her guests' work the night before an interview, often asking them unexpected questions about their early careers. Early life Terry Gross was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and grew up in its Sheepshead Bay neighborhood, the second child of Anne (Abrams), a stenographer, and Irving Gross, who worked in a family millinery business, where he sold fabric to milliners. She grew up in a Jewish family, and all her grandparents were immigrants, her father's parents from Tarnów, Poland, and her mother's from the Russian Empire. She said that her family lived in an apartment near Senior's Restaurant, a local landmark. When she was young, people would often ask where Gross came from, assuming that her lack of a heavy Brooklyn accent meant she grew up elsewhere. She has an older brother, Leon J. Gross, who works as a psychometric consultant.In 1968, Gross graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in English and a Master of Education degree in communications from the University at Buffalo. While in college, she married her high-school boyfriend who attended the same university; they subsequently divorced. She took a year off from school to hitchhike across the country.In 1972, Gross started teaching 8th grade at an inner-city public junior high school in Buffalo. She said she was ill-equipped for the job, especially at establishing discipline, and was fired after only six weeks. Career Gross began her radio career in 1973 at WBFO, an NPR CPB-funded college station, then broadcasting from the Main Street Campus of the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, where she started out as a volunteer on a show called Woman Power, then co-hosted This is Radio. Typical subjects of these shows were women's rights and public affairs.In 1975, she moved to WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to host and produce Fresh Air, which was a local interview program at the time. In 1985, Fresh Air with Terry Gross went national, being distributed weekly by NPR. It became a daily program two years later. Gross typically conducts the interviews from the WHYY-FM studios in Philadelphia, with her subject at the studio of a local NPR affiliate convenient to them connected via telephone or satellite feed. For the majority of these conversations, Gross is not face-to-face with her subjects. Gross creates a daily show that is an hour long, usually includes two interviews, and is distributed to over 190 NPR stations. The show reaches an audience of millions of daily listeners. Many of the producers and staff on Gross's show have been with her since the late 1970s to 1980s. Interview style The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Gross's interviews are "a remarkable blend of empathy, warmth, genuine curiosity, and sharp intelligence." Gross prides herself on preparation; prior to interviewing guests, she reads their books, watches their movies, or listens to their CDs. The Boston Phoenix opined that "Terry Gross ... is almost certainly the best cultural interviewer in America, and one of the best all-around interviewers, period. Her smart, thoughtful questioning pushes her guests in unlikely directions. Her interviews are revelatory in a way other people's seldom are."Gross said that when she first started working in radio, her voice was much higher with anxiety. For years she took singing lessons, and has worked to relax her voice and to a more natural, deeper tone. Much has been written about Gross's voice, and the precision of her use of language has been the subject of much analysis. Difficult interviews There have been some occasions when interviews have not gone smoothly. Gross asked Nancy Reagan about the lack of funding and mishandling of HIV/AIDS by her husband, President Ronald Reagan, which was not well received. Several guests, including Lou Reed, Jann Wenner, Faye Dunaway, Monica Lewinsky, Bill O'Reilly, and Adam Driver, have stopped their interviews prematurely.Three notable examples are: February 4, 2002: Kiss singer and bassist Gene Simmons. The interview began with Gross not pronouncing Simmons's original Hebrew last name to his liking. Simmons dismissively replied to her that she pronounced without "flavor" because she had a "Gentile mouth"; Gross responded that she is Jewish. In the interview, Gross asked Simmons about his studded codpiece, to which Simmons replied, "It holds in my manhood, otherwise it would be too much for you to take," adding, "If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs," to which Gross replied, "That's a really obnoxious thing to say." Unlike most Fresh Air guests, Simmons refused to grant permission for the interview to be made available on the NPR website. The interview appears in Gross's book All I Did Was Ask, and unauthorized transcripts and audio of the complete original interview are known to exist. October 8, 2003: Fox News television host Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly walked out of the interview because of what he considered biased questions, creating a media controversy fed by the ongoing presidential campaign. Toward the end of the interview, O'Reilly asked Gross if she had been as tough on Al Franken, who had appeared on the program two weeks earlier. Gross responded, "No, I wasn't ... we had a different interview." Gross was later criticized by then NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin for "an interview that was, in the end, unfair to O'Reilly" and that "it felt as though Terry Gross was indeed 'carrying Al Franken's water'. " Dvorkin described Gross's interviewing tactic of reading a quote critical of O'Reilly after he had walked out of the room as "unethical and unfair". Gross was later supported by an NPR colleague, Mike Pesca, who contended that O'Reilly did have the opportunity to respond to a criticism that Gross read to O'Reilly levelled by People magazine, but that he defaulted by prematurely abandoning the interview. On September 24, 2004, Gross and O'Reilly met again on O'Reilly's television show, where Gross assured O'Reilly, "no matter what you ask me, I'm staying for the entire interview." February 9, 2005: Lynne Cheney, conservative author and the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney. The initial focus of the interview was on Cheney's latest history book, but Gross moved on to questions about Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary and her opinion of the Bush administration's opposition to same-sex marriage. Cheney declined to comment on her daughter's sexuality, but repeatedly stated her opposition to a const.... Discover the Terry Gross popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Terry Gross books.

Best Seller Terry Gross Books of 2024

  • The Wind in My Hair synopsis, comments

    The Wind in My Hair

    Masih Alinejad

    An extraordinary memoir from an Iranian journalist in exile about leaving her country, challenging tradition and sparking an online movement against compulsory hijab. A photo on Ma...

  • All I Did Was Ask synopsis, comments

    All I Did Was Ask

    Terry Gross

    A fascinating collection of revealing and entertaining interviews by the awardwinning host of National Public Radio's premier interview program Fresh Air. Over the last twenty year...

  • The Art of the Interview synopsis, comments

    The Art of the Interview

    Lawrence Grobel

    THE ULTIMATE INSIDER’S LOOK AT THE FINE ART OF INTERVIEWING“I had a fantasy the other night that this interview is so great that they no longer want me to actjust do interviews. I ...

  • Vacuum in the Dark synopsis, comments

    Vacuum in the Dark

    Jen Beagin

    From the Whiting Award–winning author of Pretend I’m Dead and one of the most exhilarating new voices in fiction, a “thoroughly delightfully, surprisingly profound” (Entertainment ...

  • Focus synopsis, comments

    Focus

    Michael Gross

    “This thoroughly absorbing narrative dazzles with the most profound investigation and research. Focus is an enthralling and riveting read.” Tim Gunn“Smart, wellresearched…engaging…...

  • Hey Mom synopsis, comments

    Hey Mom

    Louie Anderson

    With wry wit and touching humor, Louie Anderson, New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award–winning comedian currently starring in Zach Galifianakis’s Baskets, shares his jou...

  • How We Fight for Our Lives synopsis, comments

    How We Fight for Our Lives

    Saeed Jones

    From awardwinning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Liveswinner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Awardis a “moving, bracingly honest memoir” (The New York Times Book...

  • Fart Monster and Me synopsis, comments

    Fart Monster and Me

    Tim Miller & Matt Stanton

    'THESE BOOKS REALLY GO OFF!' Mac Park, Boy Vs Beast The chapter books your reluctant reader will actually want to read! FART MONSTER AND ME is the hilarious series from bestsellin...