Terry Gross

"I have no illusions about the possibility of changing Donald Trump's mind," he says. Instead, the former vice president wants to build bipartisan consensus to address the crisis.

Ariel Levy was five months pregnant and alone in a hotel room in Mongolia when she gave birth. Her son lived only 10 minutes. Afterward, Levy was haunted by the notion that she had caused his death.

Moreau pursued acting despite her father's disapproval. She told Fresh Air, "I led a double life. ... He discovered it when he saw my picture on the front page." Moreau died Monday at the age of 89.

Mrs. Fletcher tells the story of Eve, a single mother whose only child, Brendan, has left for college. Perrotta says the book was inspired by the upheaval he experienced when his own kids moved out.

Williams joined The Daily Show when she was 22. She says, "I was younger and I was black and I was a woman, so ... I'm like, I have something to prove." She now stars in The Incredible Jessica James.

The singer describes skiffle as "a bunch of British school boys in the mid '50s playing Lead Belly's repertoire ... on acoustic guitars." Bragg's new book is Roots, Radicals And Rockers.

Author Joshua Green says that although Steve Bannon was instrumental to Donald Trump's election, it now appears that the president lacks the ability to implement Bannon's nationalist vision.

Romero was known for graphic horror films like Night of the Living Dead, which showed corpses rising up to feast on the living. He spoke to Fresh Air in 1988.

Comic Kumail Nanjiani remembers the first time he thought of marrying then-girlfriend Emily V. Gordon: when he saw her in a coma. Now the couple has co-written a romantic comedy based on their story.

Wendy Whelan feared she would never dance again after undergoing hip surgery. The documentary Restless Creature chronicles her recovery and final performance with the New York City Ballet.

"Professional Muslim" Haroon Moghul says, "Every time something bad happens you're called upon to apologize. ... Your entire identity is pegged to events in other parts of the world."

In Raven Rock, Garrett Graff describes the bunkers designed to protect U.S. leaders in the event of a catastrophe. One Cold War-era plan put the post office in charge of cataloging the dead.

Alexie is excited for a new generation of Native American writers to come on the scene, "so I don't have to answer all the questions," he says. His new memoir is You Don't Have to Say You Love Me.

Gay has finally written the book that she "wanted to write the least." The moment she realized she "never want to write about fatness" was the same moment she knew this was a memoir she had to write.

Joe Biden became a senator at 30 and this is the first time in 44 years that he hasn't been in office. He talks with Terry Gross about patterns in U.S. politics and his hopes for the Trump presidency.

The SNL veteran used to ruminate over shows that didn't quite hit the mark; now the he resists the urge to look back: "It's nice to be in this place where you can be very forward focused," he says.

In 2011, Manal al-Sharif filming herself driving in a country where women are banned from getting behind the wheel. Driving, she says, is "a way to emancipate women. It gives them so much liberty."

Six years after the demise of his Breaking Bad character, Esposito is back on TV as the vicious drug lord Gus Fring. He says the current role allows him to take the character "back in time."

Paul Nicklen has spent decades documenting the Arctic and the Antarctic. "I want people to realize that ice is like the soil in the garden," he says. "Without ice the polar regions cannot exist."

Sedaris' Theft by Finding is a collection of excerpts from those diaries. In it, he revisits major turning points, like how he met his longtime boyfriend and his decision to stop drinking.