Interview with one of the best interviewers on earth
Photo: Ryan McGinley for The New York Times
I am listening a lot to NPR's Fresh Air these days and I am always amazed by how well Terry Gross manages to do interviews with such a wide range of different people. No matter the subject, it seems, it always ends up interesting.
Susan Burton did a really nice piece on her in the NY Times and what struck me most was how a typical work day would look for her:
"On a typical day, Gross is at the office from 8:45 to 5:45. She and her husband, Francis Davis, who is a music critic, will go out for dinner (not fancy places: ‘‘We like diners and delis’’), and then Gross will continue working at home, preparing for the next day’s interview in the living room. She clarifies her thoughts first thing in the morning in the shower. That’s when she asks herself: What do I care about? What in all of this research is meaningful? It’s important to be away from her notes when she does this. She emerges from the shower with her ‘‘major destination points.’’ Then she goes to her office and refers back to her notes — sheafs of facts; dog-eared, marked-up books — for the details. Then she does the interview. And then she is inundated by the other daily tasks of running a radio show. The next day, she does it all again."
She did an interview with Etgar Keret - subject of my next documentary - as well, listen to it here.