Name: Terry Gross: "Fresh Air" Wouldn't Have Happened Without The Corporation For Public Broadcasting
Uploaded: 2026-01-09T17:18:34.000Z
Duration: 4 min 2 s
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Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest has been the award winning host of npr's fresh air for 50 years.

Please welcome back to the late show, terry gross.

And I listen to your show all the time, too.

You were 24 years old when you started hosting Fresh Air 50 years ago.

And do you recommend doing a show for 50 years?

Well, the good thing about it is longevity.

How many interviews have you done in the last 50 years?

I'm told, I think that it's somewhere between like 15,000 or 18,000.

Well, what have you learned about people after 15 long conversations like that?

A fair amount of artists and writers who I've interviewed were sick a lot during childhood and kind of cooped up at home.

Were you, were you cooped up at home as a child?

No, I felt cooped up, but I wasn't literally cooped up.

But I found that a lot of, you know, artists and writers, they're forced to stay home and they kind of busy themselves writing or watching a lot of TV and realizing, oh, I'd love to act.

And it's nice to know that because the worst things in your life can have a payoff sometimes if you're really lucky.

Although I don't believe every problem is really a gift.

Yeah, this cancer is making me a better person.

In July, Republicans in Congress cut $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

On Monday, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve.

And as someone who's worked in public radio for their whole career, what role did the CPB play in.

When I started at the college station, there was an NPR affiliate.

At that time, you had to have, I think, like five full paid staff members in order to qualify for funding because there are only five full time paid staff members.

And that's how I was able to get started as a volunteer.

And on the other end, when our show went from a local show to a national one, financially, it could not possibly have happened without a major grant from the CPB to do all the things that we needed to do.

And I think it was worth their investment.

It wouldn't have happened without the cpb.

We'll be right back with more Terry Gross, everybody.

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Terry Gross: "Fresh Air" Wouldn't Have Happened Without The Corporation For Public Broadcasting

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