HARI SREENIVASAN: Now to another in our Brief
But Spectacular series, where we ask people
to describe their passions.
Tonight, we hear from veteran public radio
host Terry Gross.
She's celebrating her 30th season of "Fresh
Air" this year, which is produced by WHYY
in Philadelphia and distributed by NPR.
TERRY GROSS, NPR: The only woman I ever heard
on the radio when I was growing up was Alison
Steele, The Nightbird, who was an FM disc
jockey in New York on WNEW, the progressive
rock station.
And she had this kind of late-night, like,
sexy voice.
And I never listened to that and thought like,
yes, someday, that's going to be me.
I fell in love with radio the moment I started
doing it.
It had everything I wanted.
I was probably like 23 when I started.
I felt very young and inexperienced.
And the earliest tape I have of myself is
from 1974.
I kind of sound like this.
I find it both like surprising and in a way
deeply upsetting...
(LAUGHTER)
TERRY GROSS: ... when I listen to old tapes,
because I think, like, they let me on the
air?
How did that happen?
And the answer is because it was mostly an
all-volunteer operation.
When I'm preparing for an interview, I do
as much research as I can in the limited time
that I have.
I like the questions to have a narrative arc,
so, at the end of the interview, you feel
like, I have heard the story of somebody's
life or the story of their work and how they
came about doing it.
It's pretty nonstop, but, you know, on the
weekends, I try to take time out, in addition
to doing the food shopping and stuff like
that, to go to the movies or to a concert.
And, of course, what I'm thinking is, who
might I want to interview from this movie?
(LAUGHTER)
TERRY GROSS: But that's a good thing, because
it makes the movie even more interesting to
think about the possibility of talking to
somebody about it.
One of the many reasons why I'm on radio and
not TV is that, when I'm listening, my face
goes just slack, like this.
When I was a kid and I would walk around lost
in thought -- and I was usually lost in one
thought or another -- strangers would come
up to me and say, oh, dear, what's wrong?
Are you lost?
And I would go, damn, no, I'm thinking.
Like, what's your problem?
My kind of interview, the kind I do, is about
the person I'm talking to.
Now, I have listened to a lot of interviewers,
like Marc Maron, who talk a lot about himself
in the interview.
And that's part of the reason why I listen,
because I love hearing Marc Maron talk about
himself.
But if I were to talk about myself a lot in
my interviews, you would be hearing me, like,
talk on and on about why I love Charles Laughton
in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and why
I love Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd,"
and what it's like to be married to my husband,
Francis.
And as great as that stuff is, it would get
a little old.
MAN: I bet there's an audience for that, though.
(LAUGHTER)
TERRY GROSS: There are several advantages
to doing a long-distance interview.
One is, if you're a little bit of a coward,
which I confess I am, and you want to ask
some challenging questions, it's easier to
do when you're not looking the person in the
eye.
Another nice thing about long-distance interviews
is that you're not judging each other by your
clothing.
Like, I'm wearing my favorite leather jacket
today.
Usually, I'm just wearing a schmatta, because
it just doesn't matter what I look like, and
I like it that way.
I'm Terry Gross, and this is my Brief But
Spectacular take on interviewing.
HARI SREENIVASAN: You can watch additional
Brief But Spectacular episodes on our Web
site, PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.
