Terry Gross

The troublemakers at South Park are in the news again: police have said that there may be a link between the recent car-bombing attempt in Times Square and a South Park episode featuring the prophet Muhammad wearing a bear suit. Fresh Air listens again to a recent interview with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone -- who explain why they like to live dangerously.

The frontman for the pop-punk band Green Day details the group's early days in Berkeley an describes what it's been like to see American Idiot, a new Broadway musical based on one of his albums.

The Southern actor discusses playing a white supremacist turned born-again Christian on the critically acclaimed FX series Justified — and how he gets into the mind-set to play one of TV's worst bad boys.

Who regulates Internet traffic? It's a question that the FCC, Internet companies and the telecom industry are fighting over. Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Schatz explains what's at stake for the future of broadband -- and what each side wants in current legal proceedings.

Time has run out for special agent Jack Bauer, the hero of Fox's real-time drama, 24. Executive Producer Howard Gordon reflects on the past eight seasons -- explaining how the show became more politicized and why Jack Bauer never once went to the bathroom.

Last week NBC announced it would be canceling the venerable series, which tied with Gunsmoke this year as the longest-running prime-time drama on network television. Fresh Air pays tribute to the crime procedural by running interview with series creator Dick Wolf, actor Jerry Orbach and actress S. Epatha Merkerson.

In the 1930s and '40s, Artie Shaw's band ranked with the Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller bands in popularity. But he largely rejected pop tunes and stuck with music by composers such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. Fresh Air remembers one of jazz's greatest clarinetists and big-band leaders with excerpts from a 1985 interview.

For 20 years, the Rev. Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, an anti-gang program that employs and is run by ex-gang members in Los Angeles. Boyle recently had to lay off most of his staff because of financial problems. He recounts the decades he's helped ex-gang members turn their lives around in a new memoir, Tattoos on the Heart.

After journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained in North Korea in 2009, Laura's sister, fellow journalist Lisa Ling, worked tirelessly to bring them home. In a conversation with contributor Dave Davies, the sisters detail the incident that ended with former President Bill Clinton bringing them home.

Once seen as a moderate Islamic cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki is now a jihadist hiding in Yemen, regarded as so dangerous that he reportedly is being targeted to be killed by the CIA. New York Times reporter Scott Shane explains how the American-born cleric has inspired attacks, including the recent Times Square car bombing attempt.