Terry Gross

When the Hoover Dam was finished in 1935, it was three times larger than any other dam on the planet. Journalist Michael Hiltzik examines the humongous engineering achievement — including how the Hoover Dam was conceived, designed and built — in a new book, Colossus.

Pawnshops, payday lenders, check cashers and rent-to-own companies take in $33 billion a year. In writing his new book, Broke, USA, Gary Rivlin discovered how the businesses justified making huge profits off the working poor.

On Wednesday, the legendary singer-songwriter received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song -- the American government's highest honor for pop music. Later that night, he was feted at a White House concert by Stevie Wonder and Jerry Seinfeld, among others. Fresh Air pays tribute to the music legend with highlights from a 2001 interview.

Five years ago, novelist Ayelet Waldman sparked a controversy — and wound up on Oprah to defend herself — when she wrote in an essay that she loved her husband more than her children. Her memoir about that experience, Bad Mother has just been released in paperback.

This interview originally aired on May 5, 2009.

The writer and filmmaker known for the cult classics Pink Flamingos, Cry-Baby and Hairspray reflects on the many people who have inspired him throughout his life — from playwright Tennessee Williams to the crazed martyr Saint Catherine of Siena — in a new memoir, Role Models.

The Daily Show's senior correspondent opens up about her crush on Jesus Christ, her introduction to sex and her ability to coax total strangers into conversation on national TV — all in her new memoir, I Know I Am, But What Are You?

The filmmaker's documentary The Oath tells the story of two men who both worked for Osama bin Laden and then wound up in incredibly different spots: One drives a taxicab in Yemen, while the other sits in solitary confinement at Guantanamo. Poitras how she gained access to the story -- and why questions still remain about the film's protagonist.

In 2007, journalist and former soldier Kelly Kennedy embedded with the U.S. Army's Charlie Company in Iraq. In 15 months, the 26th Infantry Regiment had the most casualties of any U.S. battalion since Vietnam. Kennedy details her year with the troops in her book They Fought for Each Other.

Novelist Tim O'Brien served in Vietnam as an infantryman in 1968. He wrote about the war in several novels, including Going After Cacciato and If I Die in a Combat Zone. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1990 about his classic book of short war stories, The Things They Carried.

Poet Jehanne Dubrow shares several poems from her third poetry collection, Stateside, about her experience as a Navy wife, trying to understand her own life while waiting for her spouse to return from war.