Terry Gross

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer says the Senate majority leader has thrown his support behind the president — despite the fact that "behind Trump's back, he says he detests him, can't stand him."

Mark O'Connell visited doomsday communities while researching his book, Notes from an Apocalypse. He says he's not interested in being part of the sheltered elite: "I think I'd rather be dead."

Boylan came out as trans when she was in her 40s. She describes her new book, Good Boy, as a "memoir of masculinity, kind of told the way an expatriate might speak of the country of their birth."

The show, adapted from Philip Roth's novel, imagines a world in which aviator Charles Lindbergh defeated Franklin D. Roosevelt in the race for the presidency, moving the country toward fascism.

DeMent describes herself as extremely shy, but says, "when the songs started coming to me, I felt I didn't have the option to hide and avoid" the stage. Originally broadcast in 2015.

Author David Rohde refutes Trump's claims about a "deep state" — and argues that the president is the one creating a parallel shadow government filled with like-minded loyalists.

Lyon, who died April 9, was an outspoken activist for gay rights and the co-founder, with Del Martin, of America's first national lesbian group, the Daughters of Bilitis. Originally broadcast in 1992.

Bateman plays a financial manager who launders money for Mexico's second biggest drug cartel in the Netflix series. He also recently directed The Outsider, HBO's adaptation of Stephen King's novel.

Prine told Terry Gross in 2018 that he began playing music and writing songs for fun: "I didn't expect to do this for a living," he said. Prine died of complications related to COVID-19 on April 7.

Chesa Boudin's radical leftist parents were imprisoned when he was a toddler. Now he's working to reduce the inmate population in San Francisco — and worrying about his dad, who remains in prison.

The horror writer says he understands why fans have said the COVID-19 pandemic feels like living inside one of his novels. King says he doesn't feel panic or terror, but rather, a "gnawing anxiety."

Washington plays an enigmatic artist adjusting to life in the suburbs in the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere. "My mom is not somebody who has ever really fit into anybody else's box," she says.

Brooks says the panic about COVID-19 could have been avoided. Lloyd Schwartz recommends Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's Cheek To Cheek. Fresh Air remembers McNally, who died March 24.

Schlesinger, who died April 1 of COVID-19, won three Emmy Awards for his songs for the TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He spoke to Fresh Air with bandmate Chris Collingwood in 1999.

Pizzarelli, who died April 1 of COVID-19, played with Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney, among others. He spoke to Fresh Air in '92 and again, with his son John, in '06.

Fresh Air celebrates Ellis Marsalis, who died April 1 of COVID-19, by listening back to interviews with two of his sons. Branford spoke of his father in 2002; Wynton's interview is from 1994.

Trauma surgeon David Nott has volunteered in war zones and disaster areas around the world. Now he's treating COVID-19 patients in London. He calls the pandemic a "disaster zone for the whole world."

Atlantic writer Ed Yong warned of a global pandemic two years ago. He says scientists are still working to understand how COVID-19 travels through air — and whether more of us should be wearing masks.

Bart Ehrman says the ideas of eternal rewards and punishments aren't found in the Old Testament or in the teachings of Jesus. His new book is Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife.

Maron's new Netflix stand-up special, End Times Fun, was named before the coronavirus pandemic. Azaria reflects on his IFC comedy series Brockmire and why he no longer performs Apu on The Simpsons.