Terry Gross

Yovanovitch served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine but was relieved of her post following a smear campaign orchestrated by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Her new memoir is Lessons From the Edge.

Meyers has satirized issues in the news ever since he became an anchor on SNL's "Weekend Update" segment in 2006. Now he has a new children's book about fear — and how we acknowledge or ignore it.

New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen says there's been an exodus from Russia in the last week and a half: "It's a sudden and drastic descent into a sense of having no country."

Novelist Amy Bloom talks about how, at her husband's insistence, she traveled with him to Zurich so he could legally terminate his life. Her new memoir is In Love.

David Sipress endured years of rejection before finally landing a gig with The New Yorker in '98. "I wasn't about to let all that rejection get in the way," he says. His new memoir is What's So Funny?

The British actor is nominated for an Oscar for his role as a taciturn cowboy in The Power of the Dog. He prepared for the role by spending time with real ranchers. Originally broadcast Jan. 19, 2022.

Greenwood is nominated for an Oscar for writing the music for The Power of the Dog. He also recently scored Spencer and Licorice Pizza. Originally broadcast Feb. 7, 2022.

Putin acted out of hubris and "didn't get the politics of Ukraine right" when he decided to invade, says Michael Kimmage, an academic who formerly served at the State Department.

Journalist Anne Applebaum has been covering the war in Ukraine for The Atlantic. "I don't think that we will ever again smugly assume that borders in Europe can't be changed by force," she says.

Writer Meghan O'Rourke says long COVID-19 and other chronic illnesses put a heavy burden on patients, who have to "testify to the reality of their own illness." Her new book is The Invisible Kingdom.

Brunson stars as a rookie second grade teacher in an under-resourced public elementary school in the new mockumentary. Brunson says she conceived of the show with her mother — a teacher — in mind.

Though the main character in Otsuka's new novel has lost much of her memory to dementia, she still remembers being sent to an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel says that film studios increasingly need Chinese audiences to break even — which can result in self-censorship. His new book is Red Carpet.

Cruz has been nominated for an Oscar for her role as a 40-something woman who becomes pregnant unintentionally and meets a teen who is unhappy about having a baby. Originally broadcast Dec. 22, 2021.

Bell's new Showtime documentary grapples with Bill Cosby's tainted legacy and his larger betrayal of the Black community. "It's just like: Why? Why do you have to be this guy?" Bell says.

Spiegelman's graphic novel, which was recently banned by a school district in Tennessee, tells the story of how his Jewish parents survived the Holocaust in Poland. Originally broadcast in 1987.

Gitlin was part of the tumultuous student protest movement of the 1960s, and continued his commitment to social change through teaching and writing. He died on Feb. 5. Originally broadcast in 1987.

New York Times reporter Luke Broadwater says Trump and his allies were fixated on reversing the election: "It seemed like crazy stuff at the time ... but obviously it got extremely serious on Jan. 6."

Method acting is more than mining personal experiences to play a character — or physically transforming for a role. Author Isaac Butler traces the history of the technique in The Method.

New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters says the religious right and social conservatives "got basically everything that they wanted" from Trump's presidency. Peters' new book is Insurgency.