About Terry Gross

Growing up in NYC and Coming to Buffalo

Terry Gross was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on February 14, 1951. She grew up in Sheepshead Bay in a Jewish family. She graduated from Sheepshead Bay high school and then went to the University of Buffalo where she received her degree in English and a Master of Education in degree in communications.

Starting Her Career

In 1972 Gross worked as an 8th grade teacher at an inner-city school in Buffalo. She felt that she wasn’t prepared for the job and was eventually fired after just six weeks of working there.

After being fired from her teaching job, she began working at WBFO, an NPR CPB-funded radio station, and then worked as a volunteer on a show called Woman Power where she discussed women’s rights and public affairs.

In 1975, she moved to Philadelphia to host and produce Fresh Air which was a local interview program at the time. In 1985, the show became national becoming Fresh Air with Terry Gross which was distributed weekly. Two years later it became a daily program. Each show would be around an hour long where she would feature two interviews. The show reached millions of listeners daily.

Famous Interviews

Gross has been a journalist for many years and she’s had some very interesting, but difficult interviews over the years:

• In February 2002, Gross interviewed the Kiss singer, Gene Simmons. The interview didn’t start off well because Gross had mispronounced his last name in a way that he did not take a liking to. He threw some backhanded comments at her about it throughout the interview and did not allow the interview to be published to NPR website.
• In February 2005, Gross had the opportunity to interview Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney. The main focus was supposed to be on Cheney’s new book, but Gross began asking her questions about her daughter who was lesbian and specifically asked questions about her opinion of the Bush’s administration’s opposition to same-sex marriage. Cheney declined to respond to that question. Gross continued to ask questions surrounding politics on topics similar to this and Cheney refused to answer them.