BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 09:28 PM

Yes, I have a small bluetooth device to plug into the aux-out on many devices, and I have the wireless headphones. I just have enough stuff that I carry around that I tend to leave the headphones home more often than not. And at work I have a pair of headphones that has a really long spiral cord, but I can't adjust them to exactly my size, they're large, so I have to take off my earrings to wear them comfortably (it puts pressure on earwires, posts, etc.) #FirstWorldProblems

Anyway, I'm always glad to meet other members of the Terry Gross Fan Club and learn about other smart programs.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: gillymor
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 03:47 PM

I mostly listen to internet fare through a JBL bluetooth speaker via my   phone, of course I'm not in a workplace with other folks around.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: robomatic
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 03:34 PM

Vashta Nerada:
Are you listening through plugged-in headphones? It isn't too expensive these days to purchase a bluetooth connector and work with a headset or even earbuds which will receive your show untethered and work over a large area.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: CupOfTea
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 01:14 PM

I daresay the best of us can have an off day, and Terry, one of the best, is not immune. Think on yer own lives, and the times the extreme chaos of what was happening in marriage/health/finances/legal issues/politics made you a bit off-kilter on stage. You don't share it as an excuse, but the stress of it comes out in other ways.

Likewise, it's legitimate to note it - and Joe did that very respectfully.

I don't get to hear Fresh Air often, because of my work schedule and when it's aired on the 2 NPR stations I have access to, but I've spent lots of time driving to work listening to Diane Rehm, and I heartily second gillymore's comments about Diane's chosen successor, with The1A show, airing in the same (for me) drive time. I come away with as much education as ever I did with Diane Rehm.

Joanne in Cleveland (between WCPN and WKSU)

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: gillymor
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 12:29 PM

I had a similar experience, Vashta, when I first started listening to 1A I guess I was missing Diane or maybe disappointed that Susan Page didn't get the job and I kind of drifted away. I came back to it last year and have been impressed by Johnson's performance since.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 11:58 AM

I'll have to go back and listen to his program, gilly. I started listening but he hadn't gotten up to speed in the early days. That Friday news roundup was always pure gold.

Gross had several repeat guests, including a Pakistani reporter (I've forgotten his name but I always recognize his voice when he's on other programs) and Elizabeth Warren, before she ran for office. I work in a basement and have to remember to stream the radio and listen through headphones, but I don't like being tethered to the computer. I need to get back to listening to her daily.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: gillymor
Date: 13 Apr 18 - 11:11 AM

I'm also a Terry Gross fan, I've never heard a better all around interviewer. Her innate curiosity and ability to converse knowledgeably on so many subjects including history, politics, social issues, the arts and even sports is mind-boggling. Most important though is that, unlike many interviewers, she always seems to ask the pertinent (and tough) questions and I never come away asking "why didn't she ask him or her this or that?".

We're lucky here in S.W. Florida that we get Joshua' Johnson's 1A on our local NPR station. He took over the marvelous Diane Rehm's time slots on WAMU and uses a format similar to Diane's including the Friday News Roundup (1st hour domestic, 2nd international), [I'm typing this during breaks in the show]. His ability as an interviewer/discussion moderator rivals Ms. Rehm's.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 08:35 PM

She has had some legendary interviews:
Al Franken who'd written: "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them."
Bill O'Reilly, where he walked off her show after criticizing her interview of Al Franken.
Gene Simmons of Kiss. Not the nicest personality ever to face Ms.Gross.
Every major musician of the rock jazz blues persuasion.
Most major and most interesting actors of the latter 20th Century.
Most interesting authors of the same.
Political and economic reporters/ professors- I first learned the term "credit default swap" from a guest on her show well before the 2009 unpleasantness on Wall Street.
I have a personal treasured Terry Gross memory. In January, 2003 I was sitting in Sidestreet Espresso in downtown Anchorage listening to Fresh Air on a small wearable FM radio. Terry Gross was interviewing a medical photographer named Alexander Tsiaras. He had just published his book of photographs: 'From Conception to Birth: a Life Unfolds'.
When Terry asked him what got him into his field, he answered:

"I used to be a Greek Shepherd"

I was riveted then and I've been almost as riveted many times since.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 08:10 PM

Today I discovered a program called On Point that has apparently been on other public radio stations since 2001 or so. I always listened to the Diane Rehm Show (live from 9-11 Central time) in which each hour was a specific topic. I mourned when my local station dropped back to just one hour to run a new locally produced program called Texas Standard. It is poor replacement, so I tried to remember to stream the second hour of Rehm. And then she (in her 80s) retired after the 2016 election. Boy, was that a mistake! She would have so much stuff to discuss, but anyway, I've had filler programs playing here, an extra hour of Morning Edition or the BBC News. Today when I heard On Point I found my answer to Diane's absence, and it plays live from 9-11 my time. Looking at a coverage map they're nowhere near the large urban areas in Texas, but I'll stream it from WBUR.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 07:52 PM

I was late tuning in to Fresh Air today,
didn't hear much Terry Gross,
but I did hear a Ken Tucker ? review
the John Prine Album
which meant listening to extended samples of same. Very good.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 04:35 PM

I'm a huge fan of Terry Gross (it was Acme who turned me on to her) but I didn't catch the programme in question, so must give it a listen. Thanks for the heads-up about R&H too - I grew up singing along to various cast recordings of their shows. ♥

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 01:54 AM

I listen to Terry Gross almost every day, and most times I really enjoy her interviews. But today, well, today was a little awkward.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 12:21 AM

I love Terry Gross - since Diane Rehm retired from the full-time national stage, Terry is alone at the top in her national interviews. I didn't hear anything wrong today, I also heard that interview - but think about the topic - she may have needed to have a few questions fed her just to be sure she hit all of the high points.

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 08:03 PM

Oh, Robomatic, you know I have the utmost respect for you. And I really do think the the Terry Gross interviews give us access to ideas we might well miss completely otherwise.
She's extraordinary sometimes, but I think she stumbled on the Kuttner interview, and on some others.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Fresh Air- Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 07:58 PM

BLASPHEMY!
Terry Gross is a National Resource AND a National Treasure. In our part of the world Fresh Air is still playing and I was thinking of starting a thread based on the Kuttner interview.
I'm gonna believe you simply writ that to get the attention of me and those who are like me.

Hashtag Love the Gross!

Subject: BS: Sometimes I Don't Like Terry Gross
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 07:34 PM

Today's Fresh Air Program on National Public Radio is titled How Globalized Capitalism Drives Worldwide Fear And Discontentment

Today's guest was Robert Kuttner, professor of public policy at Brandeis University. Kuttner has a lot of interesting things to say, things that make a lot of sense - but Terry Gross seemed a little bit "canned" in her way of interviewing Kuttner. Sometimes, Gross seems relaxed and enthusiastically involved in the interview, but today it seemed like she was reading from a script.

Nonetheless, I learned a lot in today's program. I hope some readers will take time to take a look or a listen.

On the other hand, there are many Terry Gross Fresh Air programs that I truly live. Here's one on Rodgers and Hammerstein from last week:

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/09/600818943/how-rodgers-and-hammerstein-revolutionized-broadway

-Joe-