Fresh Air
Weekdays at 7:00pm
Opening the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shares the poem she's kept in every one of her offices
The first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court says Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Ladder of Saint Augustine," has been a guiding principle. Jackson's new memoir is Lovely One.
Remembering Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state
by Terry Gross
Appointed by President Clinton in 1997, Albright advocated for the expansion of NATO into the former Soviet bloc countries of Eastern Europe. She died March 23. Originally broadcast in 2003 and 2018.
A doctor chronicles life in a Chicago ER during the first year of the pandemic
by Dave Davies
Though he fully expected to be infected with COVID, Dr. Thomas Fisher says he was committed to providing medical care to the Black community on Chicago's South Side. His new book is The Emergency.
Cecil Taylor's piano lightning bolts are precisely targeted in this 1973 recording
by Kevin Whitehead
Taylor's 1973 concert at New York's Town Hall has just been released for the first time as a digital album. It's a great, early example of Taylor's mature music — dense but well-designed.
For classical pianist Jeremy Denk, life is like a series of music lessons
by Terry Gross
The MacArthur "genius" grant winner talks about what he learned from his piano teachers, and his failures, frustrations and pivotal moments as an artist. Denk's new memoir is Every Good Boy Does Fine.
Remembering William Hurt, star of 'Broadcast News' and 'The Big Chill'
by Terry Gross
Hurt, who died March 13, won an Oscar for his performance as a drag queen sharing a prison cell with a political dissident in the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman. Originally broadcast in 2010.
Russia's war in Ukraine has NATO on alert. Here's how we got to this point
by Terry Gross
Historian Mary Elise Sarotte tells how NATO expanded into Eastern Europe after the fall of the U.S.S.R, and is now obligated to defend nations near Russia's war in Ukraine. Her book is Not One Inch.