Terry Gross
8 p.m. Sept. 28
Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor
ANN ARBOR – From Russian arms dealers to rock 'n' rollers, foreign correspondents to food scientists, Terry Gross talks to them all on Fresh Air, her National Public Radio interview program. Her fascinated listeners can catch her live onstage, discussing her radio adventures at 8 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Michigan Theater.
"When I'm not laughing, when I'm just listening – which is what you do if you're an interviewer – I'm kind of not in my body. I'm just a big ear," Gross told Salon Online.
Make that a dainty big ear – the petite program host barely tops five feet but goes up against the biggest and best – verbally, that is. Recent guests have included David Duchovny, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda, Robert Plant and Bryan Ferry, among others, just in the past couple of months. She is executive producer as well as the program's host.
Her audience can expect to hear candid assessments of her guests. She recently told an interviewer: "I'm not getting the absolute truth. I'm getting a mix of bad memory, self-delusion, self-inflation, and truth…When people say, 'Oh, you've really captured that person,' I wonder if I have."
She began her radio career in 1973 at public radio station WBFO in Buffalo, New York. Two years later, she joined the staff of WHYY-FM in Philadelphia as producer and host of Fresh Air, then a local, daily interview and music program.
Since 1987, a daily, one-hour national edition of Fresh Air has been produced by WHYY-FM; it now airs on 160 stations, including WEMU (89.1), WUOM (91.7) and WDET (101.9) in the greater Detroit/Ann Arbor area. All three stations are co-sponsors of the appearance.
Reserved seats are $20 and $37 and are available at ticketmaster.com and at the Michigan Union Ticket Office. Charge by phone at 248-645-6666 or 734-763-TKTS.
Special donor tickets, including an afterglow reception with Gross are available directly from the Michigan Theater by calling 734-668-8397 ext. 22. The theater's 24-hour information line is (734) 668-TIME and the website is http://michtheater.org.
