INFORMATION FOR
Terry Gross, host and co-executive producer of the award-winning National Public Radio show Fresh Air, will speak at William Paterson University in Wayne on Thursday, March 13, 2025 as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Series.
The event, titled “An Evening with Terry Gross,” begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus. Tickets are $55, Gold Circle; $50 for orchestra/front loge; and $40 for rear loge/accessible seating.
Gross has been the host of Fresh Air since 1975, when it was broadcast only in Greater Philadelphia. Featuring in-depth conversations exploring a wide variety of popular culture, news, and issues, the show has set the standard for long-form audio interviews. Fresh Air is one of public media's most popular programs, with millions of people tuning in each week on more than 650 NPR stations. Fresh Air has won two Peabody Awards. The 1994 citation recognized the show for its “probing questions, revelatory interviews, and unusual insight.” In 2022, the show was awarded the Peabody Institutional Award “for their enduring body of work and their iconic impact on both the media landscape and the public imagination.”
Gross began her radio career in 1973 at public radio station WBFO in Buffalo, New York, where she hosted and produced several arts, women’s and public affairs programs, including This Is Radio, a live, three-hour magazine program that aired daily. Two years later, she joined the staff of WHYY-FM in Philadelphia as producer and host of Fresh Air, then a local, daily interview and music program. In 1985, WHYY-FM launched a weekly half-hour edition of Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which was distributed nationally by NPR. Since 1987, a daily, one- hour national edition of Fresh Air has been produced by WHYY-FM.
She has won numerous awards, including a Gracie Award in the category of Outstanding Radio Personality from American Women in Radio and Television; the Edward R. Murrow Award for her “outstanding contributions to public radio;” the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American literary community; the 2008 Columbia Journalism Award given in recognition of exceptional journalistic performance; the Modern Language Association’s Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities; the Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community; the National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the Audio Vanguard Award.
In 2015, Gross was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023, she was named the PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion, an award presented by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation in recognition of devoted literary advocacy and a commitment to inspiring new generations of readers and writers. She is the author of All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists, published by Hyperion in 2004.
William Paterson University’s Distinguished Lecturer Series is in its 43rd season of bringing leading personalities from the worlds of politics, government, the arts, literature, sports, science, and business, along with original programs, to the University’s campus in Wayne. In the four-decade history of the series, more than 175 public figures, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, actor and playwright Anna Deveare Smith, former New York Yankee and musician Bernie Williams, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, have made presentations to 100,000 audience members.
To purchase tickets or for more information, please contact William Paterson University’s Shea Center Box Office at boxoffice@wpunj.edu, call 973.720.2371 or visit www.wp-presents.org.
