Terry Gross

Time reporter Simon Shuster recently returned from the Ukrainian-Polish border. Watching as U.S. planes brought in loads of weapons, he felt like he was standing on the brink of something massive.

The New York Times columnist says the stroke forced him to make a decision: He could focus on what had been lost or on what remained. He chose the latter. Bruni's new memoir is The Beauty of Dusk.

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.

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.

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.

In his new book, The Unseen Body, Dr. Jonathan Reisman offers a guided tour inside the human body, from the remarkable design of our organs to the messages contained in our body fluids.

Yovanovitch served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine but was relieved of her post following a smear campaign orchestrated by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Her new memoir is Lessons From the Edge.

Meyers has satirized issues in the news ever since he became an anchor on SNL's "Weekend Update" segment in 2006. Now he has a new children's book about fear — and how we acknowledge or ignore it.

New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen says there's been an exodus from Russia in the last week and a half: "It's a sudden and drastic descent into a sense of having no country."

Novelist Amy Bloom talks about how, at her husband's insistence, she traveled with him to Zurich so he could legally terminate his life. Her new memoir is In Love.

David Sipress endured years of rejection before finally landing a gig with The New Yorker in '98. "I wasn't about to let all that rejection get in the way," he says. His new memoir is What's So Funny?

Greenwood is nominated for an Oscar for writing the music for The Power of the Dog. He also recently scored Spencer and Licorice Pizza. Originally broadcast Feb. 7, 2022.

The British actor is nominated for an Oscar for his role as a taciturn cowboy in The Power of the Dog. He prepared for the role by spending time with real ranchers. Originally broadcast Jan. 19, 2022.

Putin acted out of hubris and "didn't get the politics of Ukraine right" when he decided to invade, says Michael Kimmage, an academic who formerly served at the State Department.

Journalist Anne Applebaum has been covering the war in Ukraine for The Atlantic. "I don't think that we will ever again smugly assume that borders in Europe can't be changed by force," she says.

Writer Meghan O'Rourke says long COVID-19 and other chronic illnesses put a heavy burden on patients, who have to "testify to the reality of their own illness." Her new book is The Invisible Kingdom.

Brunson stars as a rookie second grade teacher in an under-resourced public elementary school in the new mockumentary. Brunson says she conceived of the show with her mother — a teacher — in mind.

Though the main character in Otsuka's new novel has lost much of her memory to dementia, she still remembers being sent to an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel says that film studios increasingly need Chinese audiences to break even — which can result in self-censorship. His new book is Red Carpet.

Cruz has been nominated for an Oscar for her role as a 40-something woman who becomes pregnant unintentionally and meets a teen who is unhappy about having a baby. Originally broadcast Dec. 22, 2021.