Those who grew up with NPR as auxiliary parent will doubtless recognize the names Maria Hinojosa and Ray Suarez, the honored guests at Spark: KLRU's Engaging Speaker Series this Wednesday. (So, do their pictures match your mental conception of how they'd look? 'Cuz the first time we saw a pic of Terry Gross, we flipped out.) Hinojosa, the anchor of NPR's Latino USA, is also most recently the author of a memoir of Mexican-American... more ›

Willie Nelson, one of the greatest treasures in Texas history, appears on Fresh Air today at 3pm with Terry Gross. Willie's visit coincides with the new book he co-authored with Turk Pipkin, "The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart." Nelson discusses his new book, his craft, biodiesel and his outstanding recording career that has spanned over 50 years and includes 250 albums. Nelson also discusses a heart-warming story, at the... more ›

Call us elitist or snooty or even boring, but we admit it - we love National Public Radio (NPR) and their local affiliate KUT (90.5). And yo, it’s not just for intellects anymore. Where else can you hear the refined likes of Terry Gross juxtaposed with the crassness of the Beastie Boys? Yep. You guessed it – NPR, baby. Today’s esteemed guests on Terry Gross’s highly regarded interview format talk show “Fresh Air” were none other than Brooklyn’s own Beasties. Seriously, if you missed it, we suggest you kick back, put your feet up on the desk, and take a listen. It’s hilarious to hear Terry trying to process the Beasties’ responses while struggling to come up with questions that don’t make her sound completely and utterly clueless. Which, of course, she isn’t at all. Unless she’s dealing with a studio full of slow and low white-boy rappers. more ›

Terry Gross and Fresh Air are not single-minded when it comes to the ‘holiday season.’ In the spirit of Chanukkah, she will have on two authors today who celebrate another Jewish rite of passage, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah. The old school ones. more ›

If you have not seen “The Colbert Report” starring Stephen Colbert, you are missing some of the best the only good tv there is. The character “Stephen Colbert” affects all the pomposity, self-involvement and simple-mindedness of your least-favorite cable news hosts (hello, Bill O’Reilly). His interviews generally show a blatant disregard for the for the ‘expertise’ of the subject, and he is a ‘journalist’ who admittedly favors his opinions over facts. Because, as he puts it, facts can change, his opinion can’t. And while Colbert’s obnoxious, sentorian voice may grate a little, the juicy satire that comes from his death-grip on the voices of sociopolitical commentary makes it all worthwhile. more ›

She's finally here. Almost. Two more days and uber smart and witty Terry Gross will be at the Paramount at 8pm Sunday night (September 18th). We wish she was our friend. more ›

Someday soon conservative boneheads may make National Public Radio a thing of the past, but for now we have our NPR and our Terry Gross, the journalist/whiz interviewer behind Fresh Air. more ›

Just a heads-up that one of our favorite writers and all-around funny people, Sarah Vowell, is on Fresh Air today with Terry Gross . Her latest book is Assassination Vacation . The book details her visits to the gravesites and monuments of Presidents Lincoln, McKinley and Garfield (now that was one president who, much like the Austinist, hated Mondays but LOVED lasagna). The show today will feature two of Vowell's archived interviews. more ›