Terry Gross reflects on 50 years of hosting 'Fresh Air'

 

Sarah Schneider / Talk Easy

In an excerpt of her interview with Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, Gross shares her life motto and talks about writing song lyrics in high school. The full episode explores the origins of Fresh Air.

Transcript

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. This month marks my 50th anniversary hosting the show. Is that long enough to get me in the Guinness Book of Records? We're fact-checking that right now. When I started hosting in 1975, FRESH AIR was a local show - three hours a day, five days a week, heard only by listeners to WHYY in Philadelphia. We didn't become a daily NPR show until 1987.

In recognition of my anniversary, I was invited to be a guest on a podcast that I like a lot called "Talk Easy," hosted by a terrific interviewer, Sam Fragoso. In a special collaboration between FRESH AIR and "Talk Easy," my interview with Sam - or, I should say, his interview with me - is now available on both podcast feeds. To give you some sense of what it's like, we're sharing a short excerpt. It comes in a part of the interview about my upbringing in Brooklyn. One of my answers was kind of embarrassing. You'll know when you get to it because I preface the answer with, I'm too embarrassed to reveal that. So here it is - a preview of my interview on "Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso."

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "TALK EASY WITH SAM FRAGOSO")

SAM FRAGOSO: You said once that you were, quote, "brought up believing that there's some positive value in thinking negatively."

GROSS: Oh, yes. It's - I - it - I think it's a very Kinahara Jewish thing. It's if you think something is going to turn out badly, then you won't be disappointed when it turns out badly.

FRAGOSO: Sounds a little bit like a Mel Brooks quote.

GROSS: Hope for the best, expect the worst, is a quote. It's a quote from one of his lyrics. And that's - like, when asked for, do you have a motto? - that's what I opt for.

FRAGOSO: That's your motto.

GROSS: But also, it was, like, if you expect good things to happen, they're not going to.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: You know? It went along with my father's, you know, expression - no one ever said life was about pleasure.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: You know, like, weekends, you get some time off where you're allotted a certain amount of pleasure. But during the week, it's like...

FRAGOSO: What was your mother's motto?

GROSS: She didn't really have one.

FRAGOSO: Yeah. Most people don't have mottos.

GROSS: Yeah. I mean, it wasn't literally his motto. But it's something that I heard and certainly that I probably internalized.

FRAGOSO: Taking this maybe too literally, but, like, what did that inner monologue of thinking negatively sound like for a young Terry Gross?

GROSS: Frustrating. A little annoying. But I think I internalized it anyway.

FRAGOSO: What part was frustrating?

GROSS: Well, you know, you want some time for pleasure. And, you know - and, like, when I was a little child - this was more when I was a teenager.

FRAGOSO: Right.

GROSS: When I was a teenager, I was still a really good student doing really well in school. But hanging out, I wouldn't exactly call myself a theater kid. But we had something called Sing in Brooklyn schools, where you write a long sketch, take Broadway melodies and write lyrics to those melodies. So I was one of the lyricists.

FRAGOSO: For all four years, you were one of the lyricists, right?

GROSS: For at least three of them. But anyways, yeah, I want a pleasure in my life.

FRAGOSO: Being a lyricist sounds pleasurable.

GROSS: Oh, it was. It was great. I loved it.

FRAGOSO: When you were writing those songs in high school, it's my understanding that you once overheard basketball players sing your lyrics. Now, you remember what those lyrics are, don't you?

GROSS: I'm too embarrassed...

FRAGOSO: Now...

GROSS: ...To reveal them.

FRAGOSO: ...Hold on. You've said in the past that you won't say them. What if we sang them together?

GROSS: We're not going to do that (laughter). There's no way we're going to do that.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: You don't even know the lyrics.

FRAGOSO: Well, that's why, if you teach me, just give me...

GROSS: No, no.

FRAGOSO: Imagine yourself as Stephen Sondheim. Give me one line.

GROSS: OK. I may live to regret this.

FRAGOSO: That was the alternate title of your book, right?

GROSS: (Laughter) The alternate title of a lot of my life (laughter). OK.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: So the premise, it was kind of like a rip-off of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" where the main character finds, like, a rule book for success, like, a self-help book for success called "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." We kind of used the same premise. And the premise was that we wanted to be, like, cool. And we didn't know how to be cool. We needed a handbook.

FRAGOSO: I wish I had that in high school.

GROSS: Or that we were going to create the handbook. I think we needed the handbook. And so the melody was to "L'chaim" from "Fiddler On The Roof." And the opening lyric was, the book will be our mentor, our noteworthy source of the rules. It will teach us explicitly, in sheer simplicity, step by step, to be cool. The school will marvel at how cool and groovy we look.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: They won't suspect that the gimmick is that we are mimickers of a 16-page book or something, 60-page book.

FRAGOSO: Excellent.

GROSS: I'm done.

FRAGOSO: Excellent.

GROSS: I'm totally done.

FRAGOSO: With the interview?

GROSS: No, no.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: I'm not going to pull a Mamet (laughter).

FRAGOSO: Or a Bill O'Reilly?

GROSS: Or a Bill O'Reilly, or several other people I can think of.

FRAGOSO: Or a Faye Dunaway?

GROSS: Or a Faye Dunaway.

FRAGOSO: Or a Monica Lewinsky?

GROSS: Or a Monica.

FRAGOSO: Or a Lou Reed after 6 minutes in 1996?

GROSS: Yes.

FRAGOSO: I can keep going of...

(LAUGHTER)

FRAGOSO: ...FRESH AIR walkouts.

GROSS: It's an illustrious roster, I have to say.

FRAGOSO: It's a really great roster.

GROSS: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: Yeah.

FRAGOSO: That was fantastic.

GROSS: Listen, if I really live to regret it, you're going to know about it (laughter).

FRAGOSO: I believe it. And as will our listeners. That was amazing. There's no...

GROSS: I don't hear the compliments. I don't hear, like...

FRAGOSO: I said that was amazing.

GROSS: No, you think it's amazing that I revealed it.

FRAGOSO: Yeah, you're right. You caught me on that.

GROSS: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

FRAGOSO: When you were sharing the lyrics, I was like, God, how am I going to remember to sing all these? This is...

GROSS: Of course.

FRAGOSO: This is very long. Was it satisfying to hear your fellow classmates singing your words?

GROSS: Oh, it was great. I felt so affirmed because I wasn't in with, like, the basketball crowd, even though (laughter) I was what was called a booster. Not a cheerleader, but somebody who just kind of screamed loud and got to wear, like, a special jacket with the team's name on it. But I didn't really know the guys. And they were, like, the cool guys in school. So a couple of those guys singing a lyric that I'd written, that was like wow.

That was an excerpt of my interview on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. You can find this episode in the FRESH AIR podcast feed as a special extra episode. And of course, you can also find it on the Talk Easy podcast and online at talkeasypod.com. A video version of this interview will be on YouTube later this week.

Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we'll talk about how Charlie Kirk became a leader of the conservative youth movement and a close associate of President Trump and Don Jr. We'll talk with Robert Draper, who wrote a profile of Kirk in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year, stayed in touch with him and continued writing about him. Draper covers the political dynamics of the right. I hope you'll join us.

To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. Our cohost is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "VIPER'S DRAG") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.