Presidential Lecture Series

Terri Gross
Radio Host, NPR's Fresh Air

"All I Did Was Ask: An Evening with Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air"
April 26, 2007

Known for her thoughtful, probing interview style, Gross has earned the trust of even the most reticent guest. In her lecture at Rosemont, Gross will play sound bites from interviews that went especially well and especially badly, to illustrate her discussion of interviewing techniques. Gross will also talk about her own life and career, turning the microphone on her listeners, something she never does on air.

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"Terry Gross is a trusted voice in the world of popular American culture," said Rosemont College's President Sharon Latchaw Hirsh, Ph.D. '70. "We are honored and excited to have Ms. Gross to Rosemont's campus and to be able to share this great opportunity with our students, friends and neighbors. As a long time listener of Fresh Air, I am personally looking forward to her visit."

As the host of Fresh Air, NPR's weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, Terry Gross's interviews are heard by more than 4.7 million people on more than 450 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.

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. 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." Gross' book, All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, was published by Hyperion in 2004.