Terry Gross: ‘Every wall in our home has records, books or CDs’

TerryGrossOnTonightShow
NPR’s Terry Gross was on The Tonight Show last week. It’s so weird seeing her talk because I’ve listened to her interviews on NPR for decades. I knew what she looked like but it’s different to see video of a person when you’re so accustomed to just hearing their voice. Terry was Zooming in from a room that looked jammed with records, books and CDs. They weren’t just behind her they were to the side and the ceiling. Terry told Jimmy that was their dining room and living room and that she moves the computer off the table so she can eat there. Terry, 69, has been married to Francis Davis, a writer and jazz critic for The Village Voice, since 1994. They live in Philadelphia.

This interview was really cool in that I learned that Terry isn’t face to face with her interview subjects! They just go to a booth where they listen to her on headphones. Plus she got a little vulnerable and I found that endearing.

Where she’s zooming from
I’m at home in what is both our living room and our dining room. There’s a table here. We eat at it, it is also my desk. When we eat I shove the computer and everything aside. Put the plates down, we’re done. The computer comes right back.

On how many records she has
I have no idea, probably thousands. Every wall in our home has records, books or CDs. Then we have a storage unit that’s a large room offsite that has a lot more.

How she keeps her cat away from the records
We have a cat named Rowdy. He thinks that the bottom row of albums is his scratchpad. We didn’t declaw him because it’s cruel to the cat. He just [scratches] all over the spines of the albums and it was killing them. Cats don’t like tinfoil so I have tinfoil drapes over the records. When people come to visit, which they rarely do. I have to explain that we’re not crazy. We don’t have the tinfoil to protect us from crazy microwaves that are deadly.

On how she’s doing working from home now
I always have had this division between my personal self and my professional self. My professional self feels competent. In my private self I feel just more incompetent and more insecure and small. Suddenly the home self and the Fresh Air professional self were together in the same room speaking to really important guests. That’s been really interesting to me.

[From The Tonight Show on YouTube]

I like having things around as long as there’s not a lot of clutter around me. I’m a medium-level collector in that I’ll keep things for a while but don’t have a problem getting rid of them. We’ve talked about saving books before, and I have to admit I don’t save most of them! I’m not a huge reader unfortunately, and I like music but everything is online now. Record and book collections can be very valuable, but it would be uncomfortable to me to have even a full room of books and records like this, not to mention an entire house. Terry is cool with it and it came across as kind of cute and eccentric. She and her husband obviously love books and music.

As for Terry I came away from this interview feeling like I knew her. She reminds me of some of my mom’s sweet friends, the kind liberal ladies in her book club. Oh and she made me feel better about myself because she said no matter how hard she tries she can’t stop saying filler words like “um” or “so.” I just edit most of that out of our podcast!

Here’s that interview:

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I love these photos of Terry with Obama! She got the 2015 National Humanities Medal.
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9 Responses to “Terry Gross: ‘Every wall in our home has records, books or CDs’”

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  1. Diana says:

    Terry Gross is a national treasure. Looking forward to her interview with Dr. Fauci.

    Filler words – I’ve noticed every interviewer uses these. To dwell on it makes it worse for the speaker. Being self-conscious is the worst. I’ve gotten feedback about my use of those words when speaking to people in a business setting. What can you do?

    If my spouse sees her bookcases, I could be in trouble. We have many books and CDs in this house not prominently displayed.

    The background for my Zoom calls has been less than stellar, a white wall and light switch. I thought about moving elsewhere in the house for our daily Zoom standup meeting with the team, but It’s where my desk is. Maybe a tapestry or a poster would help.

  2. L says:

    Here’s my Terry Gross story: I was working at a top tier orchestra, and my job was to work directly with the guest artists. I wined and dined with them, liaised with their management companies etc. so I was having lunch with Itzhack Perlman, meeting Yo-Yo Ma at the airport etc. and I was always at ease in this realm. Then, Terry Gross came for a speaker series. Now, I wasn’t working with her directly, but I did bump into her backstage and I was completely star struck and didn’t know what to say! Also, I had this image of her as being a full bodied hippie with long curly hair, a flowy skirt, and she’s the complete opposite: short hair, petite and in an Armani pants suit. Either way, love her she is truly and inspiration!!!

  3. Esmom says:

    Fresh Air is a great show. I also was startled the first time I saw Terry after only hearing her voice for so long. I’m not sure exactly how she differed from what I was expecting, but she just did.

    We are huge readers in our house but I have been getting my books from the library since the last time we moved, when I voted never to get more book than our current bookcases could hold. My husband still buys some, so I still have to weed and get rid of old ones when new ones come in. Which is exactly what the library does.

    So I’m good with about one wall of books and that’s it. Our albums and CDs are not prominently displayed, they are inside cabinets.

  4. Soupie says:

    Oh thanks CB for covering Terry Gross. She IS a national treasure and great story, L. I and several of my friends used to have records books and CD’s all around just like that. I do miss them. They are my history. Oh well. Even though we rarely or never listen to them it’s so comforting and satisfying having them around. The digital age is cool but there’s definitely something to be said about books, tapes, record albums, CD’s, vintage magazines. My kids thought I was crazy to keep them around. She sounds exactly like so many of our generation.

  5. Willow says:

    I love books, but have a hard time reading paperbacks now with my old eyes so I rent ebooks from my local library. Being able to change the font size and brightness is wonderful. I refuse to get a Kindle though because of the way Amazon tried to monopolize the ebook publishing industry. They still pull some sketchy stuff but some small book publishers managed to survive and you can get ebooks in the epub and other shared digital formats.

  6. osito says:

    Terry Gross is my problematic fave. I think she tries to learn and grow and do better, but it’s not always public work, and sometimes she’s really slow in the uptake. But she’s a really great interviewer, and has created something special with her program. Through Fresh Air, I’ve learned so much, and was introduced to amazing thinkers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Tressie McMillan Cottom, and I’m grateful for that at least.

    • PixiePaperdroll says:

      I like her but she tends to interrupt and laugh at what she is saying a little too much. I have to take periodic breaks.

      (Also, every time she has a guest, they mention what city/station the guest at to participate in their end of the conversation.)

  7. Bernie says:

    My partner keeps every book, CD and record he has ever purchased. Drives me nuts as the whole house can become his storage. (Books he never reads again because he only reads books once). Ebooks and music are life savers.

    I love to read, we are a family of readers but I cap out at four six foot bookshelves. And DVD’s! Never watches them again. Praise Netflix and Disney plus.

  8. fishface says:

    I love Terry Gross. She has the most beautiful voice.