Four months after her personal appearance as commencement speaker had to be transformed into a virtual appearance via “radio,” National Public Radio icon Terry Gross finally got to engage the Vassar College student body face-to-face at the campus’s Student Building on Thursday, Oct. 4.
The host of NPR’s “Fresh Air” presented a more than two-hour program which utilized professional anecdotes and recorded segments from her show to illustrate salient themes of our time to an enthusiastic audience, which was eager to question the famous questioner.
Gross, whose more than 30-year-old show emanates from WHYY-FM in Philadelphia but is heard by more than 4.7 million people on 450 NPR affiliates, had to cancel her scheduled live address at the May 27 graduation ceremony due to the passing of her father a few days before. Nevertheless she fulfilled her commitment to the graduating students by taping her speech ahead of time, and as the CD played before the graduates and their loved ones, a Roaring ’20s-era radio stood in for her at the lectern.
Present now in the flesh at the Student Building lectern, she explained her philosophy of interviewing as a means of various forms of discovery, including self-discovery, before presenting herself to be interviewed.
“Interviewing is a really imperfect form, but I love it anyway,” she told the audience. “I like to interview people to find out what makes them tick; I also like to find out what makes me tick. Yet I understand why people are skeptical about opening themselves up to the press. We all require a place in our heart that’s totally private, shut off even to spouse, lover, family and friends.”
From arts to politics
The basic format of the program was a series of segments from “Fresh Air” interviews over the years with public figures as diverse as conservative talk shoe host Bill O’Reilly, actor George Clooney, pornographer Larry Flynt, the late director Paul Beltran and KISS bassist Gene Simmons, among others. These were followed by commentary from Gross, which tended to cluster around two main poles of contemporary life: politics and art.
“I have different rules for interviewing politicians than for interviewing other people,” she explained. “Politicians are so good at manipulating journalists, and I don’t want them to manipulate me more than they normally would.” Gross then illustrated her philosophy and method of asking tough questions by anecdotes and taped segments, one she sticks to even if it means that the guest might walk out of the studio in the midst of the show, as a few have done.
“Why do I keep persisting in the face of opposition?” she mused rhetorically. “If journalists backed off every time they asked a question which was embarrassing to politicians, think of all the things we would never be asking about.”
Unfolding the story
As diverse as are the realms of politics and the arts, famous people in both areas have a common quality of touchiness, on the evidence that Gross presented. The late actor Peter Boyle was heard in his taped interview refusing to discuss anything except his most recent film, though Gross was asking legitimate questions about defining experiences in his life. Whether the interviewee answers or not, it is a subject the radio host is determined to pursue.
“Artists may have a gift, “ she explained, “but it is so profoundly influenced by everything they have gone through and which has affected them in their lives, particularly in their formative years. I always want to know: What shaped that gift?”
Gross seemed determined to pursue that line of inquiry as a result of her own personal narrative, which she stresses is one of strength emerging from failure.
“We’re defined at least as much by our weaknesses as by our successes,” she told her as-yet-untested listeners. “I failed rapidly and spectacularly at my first profession, which was teaching in an inner city school in Buffalo, New York.” And she emphasized that her early years on radio were difficult.
“There were almost no women on the radio when I was growing up,” she said. “The main exception was the FM progressive rock DJ Allison Steele. And the fact that my voice was higher then was a problem; I sounded like a feminist Minnie Mouse.” Gross then played a tape of herself from 1973 to confirm this for the audience.
At the end of the talk, it was the listeners’ turn to question.
“If someone is running for office, does that mean they’re not normal?” asked a young woman.
“Most people who are driven to do big things are not normal,” Gross replied. “Normal people like to relax.”
“Do you have a particular journalist you admire?” a young man asked.
“All of the journalists covering Iraq,” Gross responded with visible respect. “It’s really incredible how they risk their lives to tell the truth, the way they keep uncovering things that would otherwise remain hidden. We should all have gratitude to them.”
“What is the future of broadcast journalism?” asked an adult woman.
“I’m really worried about the future of radio, “ Gross said. “It’s not a part of young people’s lives like it used to be. Still, I hope radio never dies.”
After the program concluded and the “Fresh Air” host had signed numerous copies of her book “All I Did Was Ask,” it was the turn of the Dutchess Beat to get in a final question: “Are you surprised or flustered by people who walk off your show? How do you interpret their behavior?”
“Well, for some people it’s like a performance,” Gross said. “The only people who walk off are really famous people; Famous people are temperamental. My husband once remarked that perhaps they didn’t take their meds. Actually, it’s kind of interesting when it does happen.”