Terry Gross

James Hansen, a leading NASA climate scientist, says the Bush administration has tried to silence his warnings about global warming. Writer and scientist Mark Bowen wrote a book on the affair: Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming.

In Paul Thomas Anderson's new film There Will Be Blood, the young actor Paul Dano plays a rural preacher at odds with the oilman (Daniel Day-Lewis) at the center of the story. Dano previously appeared in Little Miss Sunshine, playing the teen who was an elective mute.

Columnist Bob Sullivan covers Internet scams and consumer fraud for MSNBC.com, where he writes a column called The Red Tape Chronicles. His new book is about the hidden fees found in many phone, cable, credit card and other bills.

The Foo Fighters latest album, Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace is nominated for a Grammy for album of the year. Dave Grohl, the group's leader, talks about the band's evolution, and about his past role as drummer for the band Nirvana.

Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.

British blue-eyed soul singer Nick Lowe played London's pub scene in the '70s in the band Brinsley Schwarz. He produced five albums for Elvis Costello, and played with Ry Cooder and John Hiatt in Little Village. Lowe returned in 2007 with At My Age, his ninth solo album. This interview and in-studio performance was first broadcast on July 24, 2007.

A concert and conversation with Los Straitjackets, the Nashville-based indie-rock band that's made a name performing surf-rock classics from behind Mexican wrestling masks. The group's latest album, Rock en Espanol, Vol. 1, features Spanish language versions of rock 'n' roll hits from the 1960s. Tracks include "De Dia y de Noche" ("All Day and All Night"), popularized by the Kinks, "La Hiedra Venenosa" ("Poison Ivy"), made famous by the Coasters, and many more.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, aka the folk-parody band Flight of the Conchords, hail from New Zealand. They were named best alternative-comedy act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Now they're the stars of an acclaimed HBO series called, yes, Flight of the Conchords — which is, yes, about two transplanted New Zealanders living in New York City's Lower East Side. The first season is out now on DVD. Clement and McKenzie join Fresh Air for a conversation and a few songs. This interview first aired on June 14, 2007

Obligatory Villagers, the new jazz- and cabaret-inflected album from singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, features sassy tracks that touch on topics as diverse as feminism and zombies. McKay, a sometime actress and stand-up comedian, made a splash in 2004 with a debut CD called Get Away From Me — a play on the title of Norah Jones' album Come Away With Me. Last year, she co-starred in a revival of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera alongside Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. McKay joins Terry Gross for a Fresh Air concert and conversation.