Terry Gross

Alyssa Mastromonaco worked in the West Wing for six exhilarating and exhausting years, which she describes in her memoir, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? She spoke to Fresh Air in 2017.

New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick explains the connection between the Mueller Investigation and efforts by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to influence U.S. international policy.

Sara Saedi was two when her parents fled Iran to California. Her new memoir describes her 18-year-long path to citizenship, and the lingering anxiety of being undocumented.

Neidlinger, who died March 16, was a child prodigy on the cello who went on to perform in the New York Philharmonic and also as a studio and jazz musician. Originally broadcast in 1989.

The celebrated writer transitioned from male to female in 1972 at the age of 46. In 1989, Morris told Terry Gross that she had shed "a lot of the emotions and the experiences of both genders."

Journalist Maya Dusenbery argues that medicine has a "systemic and unconscious bias" against women that is rooted in "what doctors, regardless of their own gender, are learning in medical schools."

Journalist Anjali Kamat spent a year investigating Trump's business deals in India. Her report is in the New Republic and on the WNYC podcast, Trump Inc., which is co-hosted by Andrea Bernstein.

Wood says the years he spent performing in comedy clubs in the South and Midwest — sometimes in places where he felt unsafe as a black man — prepared him for his work on The Daily Show.

Religion scholar Bart Ehrman says that the early spread of Christianity transformed the entire history of the West — for better or worse. His new book is The Triumph Of Christianity.

Trump "has made nationalist policy into the policy of the executive branch," says New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman. His new book, (((Semitism))), is about being Jewish in the Trump era.

New words that enter the dictionary must meet three criteria, says Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper: widespread use, sustained use and meaningful use. Originally broadcast April 19, 2017.

The evolution of artificial intelligence has exploded over the past five years, leading to computers that can drive and talk. New York Times' Cade Metz explains how machines are learning on their own.

Trejo says that his experience standing in the San Quentin prison yard waiting for a riot prepared him for acting: "You're absolutely scared to death ... [but] you have to pretend you're not."

Journalists Michael Isikoff and David Corn have been at the forefront of the investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Their new book attempts to put all the pieces of the story together.

Rania Abouzeid has been covering Syria since 2011 — despite the fact that she's been called a spy, placed on wanted lists by Syrian intelligence and banned from entering the country.

Crimmins, who died last week, mentored Bobcat Goldthwait when they were up-and-coming comics in the '80s. The two men spoke to Fresh Air in 2015 about their documentary Call Me Lucky.

On Last Week Tonight, Oliver dives into often obscure stories, like NRA TV and the laws that govern televangelism. He describes the show's style as "the slowest improv you've ever seen."

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer explains how the infamous Russian dossier on Donald Trump was compiled — and why so little was done about its findings during the presidential campaign.

Luis Alberto Urrea's The House of Broken Angels borrows from the story of his older brother, who died of cancer. He says the book went through a dramatic rewrite after Trump became president.

The comic actors channel the indignities of puberty in their animated Netflix comedy series. Looking back on his own adolescence, Mulaney says: "I was always mystified."