A Mind Provoked

NPR’s Terry Gross will talk about what goes on behind the scenes of her daily one-hour program at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium May 21.

By: Ilene Dube
   Even before they filmed Being John Malkovich, I fantasized about finding a portal into the head of Fresh Air Executive Producer and Host Terry Gross. For more than a quarter century, I have been following the radio personality The Los Angeles Times called one of the most thought-provoking interviewers in media today.
   We both grew up in Brooklyn — she went to Sheepshead Bay High School, I went to Erasmus Hall — and stayed up late listening to Alison Steele, "the Nightbird," on WNEW-FM. A few years before I did, Terry headed off to the State University of New York at Buffalo. She discovered the joys of public radio at the student-run station, WBFO. Just down the hall in the student union building, I was feature editor of the thrice-weekly paper The Spectrum. We undoubtedly bumped into each other in the rathskeller, tanking up on 16 oz. styrofoam cups of high-octane coffee.
   We both overcame shyness to pursue careers in journalism. She, of course, went on to host the National Public Radio interview show, with more than 4 million listeners on 425 public radio stations, and here I am at TimeOFF. We’ve even interviewed some of the same people — Joyce Carol Oates and Paul Muldoon, among others. We’re both on the shorter side of average (she’s 5-foot-1), and we both have distinctive voices — hers like velvet and mine, well, like the brakes on the New York City subway.
   If I could get inside the head of Terry Gross, I wouldn’t be ordering sheets from a catalog, as did the robed John Malkovich in the aforementioned film, but I’d be plumbing the psyches of writers Nadine Gordimer and John Updike, actors Robert Redford and Sean Penn, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, cartoonist Roz Chast, filmmakers Robert Altman and David Lynch, musicians Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, world figures Jimmy Carter, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bob Dole — and even John Malkovich.
   "We don’t interview people just because they’re famous," she said during a recent phone conversation from WHYY’s Philadelphia studio. "To get on the show, we look for a person who is worth calling attention to and has something interesting to stay. We balance the well-known guests with someone we can introduce our listeners to." For example, Ms. Gross, who takes home two totebags of books each night and a crate or two of books and tapes on Thursday nights, finds it thrilling to discover a new writer for her radio audience.
   NPR’s star interviewer will talk about what goes on behind the scenes of her daily one-hour program at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium May 21. She will play excerpts from some of her memorable interviews, including discussions where everything seemed to go wrong, such as guests insulting her or walking out during the interview. Monica Lewinsky, for example, walked out when questioned about her intimate relations with Bill Clinton. In an especially contentious interview, Gene Simmons of the band KISS said, "If you’re going to welcome me with open arms, you also have to welcome me with open legs."
   Ms. Gross, 52, will talk about how guests are selected for the show and how she prepares for her in-depth interviews, which have numbered in the 5,000 range.
   The show is taped weekdays at noon — some NPR affiliates air it then — although the interviews and reviews are prerecorded. Ms. Gross, who is married to music critic Francis Davis, may tape up to 55 minutes of an interview that will be cut to anywhere between 10 and 45 minutes.
   Most of the guests are not in the room with Ms. Gross. In many cases this is for practical purposes — they may be hundreds or thousands of miles away — but Ms. Gross prefers to work by phone. It forces the guests to communicate with words and tone, not facial expressions, so it is more accessible to a radio audience. Furthermore, she finds having the guest present can be a distraction; she refers to her notes quite a bit, and worries the guest might think she isn’t listening if she is not making eye contact. Also, it’s easier to ask more challenging questions and less likely for her to be star struck.
   "I’ve been doing this for so long and interviewed so many people of great stature," she says. "What throws me is not fame but not being adequately prepared. Interviewing two people a day, there’s never enough time to prepare."
   Her work day typically begins at 8:15 a.m., and she is often up past 11 p.m. reading and listening to tapes and CDs. "My philosophy of interviewing is, you use what you have. So if under prepared I would rely on my curiosity and follow-ups on responses."
   For Ms. Gross, books, movies and music are the raison d’etre. "I’m lucky because my work coincides with my passions," she says. "My work allows me to go deeper into the subject and talk to people who write the books, who make the music."
   In recent years, the tables have been turned and Ms. Gross, a celebrity herself, has been the subject of interviews. In 2000, This American Life host Ira Glass interviewed her for the 25th anniversary of Fresh Air. And for NPR fund-raisers, she has made appearances on stage.
   "For the first three stage events, I wasn’t sure I’d survive," says Ms. Gross. "But I’ve done it enough now that I’m used to it and it’s fine. I play by the same rules I use — if the question is too personal, then we move on to something else, although it hasn’t happened yet. I wouldn’t mind answering anything if I had something interesting to say about it, and it teaches me empathy for my interviewees."
Terry Gross will speak at Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University, May 21, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25 WHYY members, $40 non-members (and include WHYY membership), $10 students. To order, call (609) 258-5000. Fresh Air airs locally on WHYY-91 FM at 3 and 7 p.m. Mon.-Fri. WHYY on the Web: whyy.org