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WP Distinguished Lecturer Series presents its 43rd Season

An Evening with Terry Gross, Host of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air
March 13, 2025 | 7:30 PM

Combine an intelligent interviewer with a roster of guests that, according to the Chicago Tribune, would be prized by any talk-show host, and you’re bound to get an interesting conversation. Fresh Air interviews, though, are in a category by themselves, distinguished by the unique approach of host and executive producer Terry Gross. “A remarkable blend of empathy and warmth, genuine curiosity and sharp intelligence,” says the San Francisco Chronicle. Gross, who has been host of Fresh Air since 1975, when it was broadcast only in Greater Philadelphia, isn’t afraid to ask tough questions. Fresh Air not only covers popular culture, it’s become part of it. The program and Gross have been name-checked on Saturday Night Live, Girls, HBO’s Eastbound and Down, and How I Met Your Mother. Gross played herself on an episode of The Simpsons and has been a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Gross began her radio career in 1973 at public radio station WBFO in Buffalo, New York, where she hosted and produced several arts, women’s and public affairs programs, including This Is Radio, a live, three-hour magazine program that aired daily. 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. In 1985, WHYY-FM launched a weekly half-hour edition of Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which was distributed nationally by NPR. Since 1987, a daily, one- hour national edition of Fresh Air has been produced by WHYY-FM. The program is broadcast on nearly 600 stations and became the first non-drivetime show in public radio history to reach more than 5 million listeners a week.

Fresh Air with Terry Gross received the Peabody Award in 1993 for its “probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insight.” In 2022 the show was awarded the Peabody Institutional Award “for their enduring body of work and their iconic impact on both the media landscape and the public imagination.” Terry Gross has received a Gracie Award in the category of Outstanding Radio Personality from American Women in Radio and Television; the Edward R. Murrow Award for her “outstanding contributions to public radio;” the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American literary community; the 2008 Columbia Journalism Award given in recognition of exceptional journalistic performance; the Modern Language Association’s Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities; the Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community; the National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the Audio Vanguard Award. In 2015, Gross was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023 she was named the PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion, an award presented by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation; this commendation is presented in recognition of devoted literary advocacy and a commitment to inspiring new generations of readers and writers. Gross is the author of All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, published by Hyperion in 2004.

Tickets: Gold Circle $55; Orchestra/Front Loge $50; Rear Loge/Accessible Seating $40

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Distinguished Lecturer Series

40 Years of Exceptional Programs

For audiences eager to hear illuminating discussions by today’s most in-demand speakers, William Paterson University offers the Distinguished Lecturer Series (DLS)—an event that began in 1980 and brings illustrious personalities from the worlds of politics, government, the arts, literature, sports, science, and business, along with original programs—to Wayne, New Jersey.

Jon Meacham, one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals and a New York Times best-selling author, spoke to a full house at the Shea Center for Performing Arts in the fall about the 2016 presidential election. Previous speakers include Robert Krulwich, Mitch Albom, Jacques Pepin and Claudia Pepin, Daniel Levitin and Roseanne Cash, Harold Prince, Gloria Steinem, Diane Ravitch. actor Al Pacino, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox general managers Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, musical theatre composer Stephen Sondheim, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, film directors Oliver Stone and Spike Lee, performer Gregory Hines, and writers Alice Walker and Joyce Carol Oates to more than 100,000 audience members who have attended DLS since its inception.

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