As the host of Fresh Air, NPR’s weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, Terry Gross’s interviews are heard by more than four and a half million people on nearly 500 public radio stations. Her guests have included many of the most celebrated artists, writers, actors, and musicians of our time, such as Philip Roth, James Brown, John Travolta, Sonny Rollins, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Gross is known for her thoughtful, probing interview style. In her trusted company, even the most reticent guest relaxes and reflects on his or her life and work. But Gross doesn’t shy away from controversy or asking challenging questions. That’s why Bill O’Reilly terminated his interview with her. Her interview with Gene Simmons of Kiss inspired Entertainment Weekly to name Simmons “Crackpot of the Year – Male.” In her speaking engagements, Terry Gross plays sound bites from interviews that went especially well and especially badly, to illustrate her discussion of interviewing techniques. Then she does something else that she never does on her program — she talks about her own life and career, giving the audience a chance to interview her.

Terry Gross began hosting and producing Fresh Air in 1975, when it was a local program broadcast by WHYY in Philadelphia. NPR has distributed the daily program since 1987, and it is now NPR’s most listened-to program, after Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Terry Gross’s book All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists was published by Hyperion in 2004. In 1994, Fresh Air received a Peabody Award, which cited Gross for her “probing questions and unusual insights.” In 1999, America Women In Radio and Television gave Gross a Gracie Award in the category National Network Radio Personality. In 2003, Gross received the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for advancing the “growth, quality and positive image of radio.” Her other awards include the National Book Foundation’s 2007 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

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“[Terry Gross is] a trusted voice and arbiter in the cultural landscape.”

— The New York Times

“Arguably one of the most thought-provoking interviewers workingi n media today — a working rival of Ted Koppel and Larry King.”

— Los Angeles Times

“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.”

— The Boston Phoenix