About the Fresh Air Archive
About Fresh Air
For more than 40 years, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has inspired and engaged audiences, both in the Greater Philadelphia area where it began as a local program on WHYY-FM in 1975 and across the country as a nationally-broadcast show since 1987. In addition to airing on more than 650 NPR stations, Fresh Air has also become one of the internet’s most listened-to podcasts, as millions of people turn to Peabody Award-winning host Terry Gross for insightful conversations with leading voices in arts, politics, and contemporary culture.
Fresh Air is known for Terry Gross’s reflective interviews, as well as its impressive roster of guests. In 2015, President Obama awarded Terry a National Humanities Medal for her “artful probing of the human experience.” With 23 other arts and humanities medalists in the room, he introduced the ceremony by saying, “We have an impressive crew with us here today. We’ve got Terry Gross, and a whole bunch of people who Terry Gross has interviewed.”
Fresh Air doesn't just cover popular culture--it's become a familiar part of it. The program and its host have been name-checked on Saturday Night Live, Girls, Eastbound and Down, and How I Met Your Mother, among other TV shows. Gross played herself on two episodes of The Simpsons and an episode of This is Us. She also played a public radio host on the Cartoon Network's Clarence and voiced a ringtone on the Netflix original show Bojack Horseman.
Terry Gross
Terry Gross is the host and an executive producer of Fresh Air. She has hosted the show since 1975 and received a National Humanities Medal in 2016.
About the Fresh Air Archive
The Fresh Air Archive is the culmination of many years of work to create a digital database that captures the past, present, and future of Fresh Air. Now, thanks to a generous grant from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Fresh Air fans and new listeners alike can access the show's entire catalogue on a dedicated, purpose-built website designed to highlight the breadth and depth of all that Fresh Air has to offer.
With a catalogue of more than 22,000 segments to date and new ones being added each week, the Fresh Air Archive is home to a living history of the American experience as shared by the thought leaders, cultural icons, and storytellers who shaped it. From former Presidents like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to writers like Maya Angelou and Philip Roth to entertainers like Madonna and Aretha Franklin, the Fresh Air Archive contains thousands of intimate conversations with some of the most important writers, actors, directors, musicians, comics, journalists, and scholars from the last 40 years and today.