Terry's had a number of baseball guests on over the years, including Doug Glanville when he was promoting his book. I don't know if she's a regular at Citizens Bank Park (her show is based at WHYY in Philadelphia), but she researches baseball at least as well as any other topic.

she researches baseball at least as well as any other topic

She irritates me after a while but that's true. A friend who was on the show was staggered that she seemed to have really read his book, like really read it, whereas many other hosts don't even look at the jacket copy. After he asked if she always did that, and she said--truthfully or in exaggeration--that's my job.

My only complaint was that the interview ran 20 minutes.

Terry Gross is awesome. Heard a replay of an old Maurice Sendak interview she did that was amazing. I could listen to her interview an inanimate object.

Terry Gross is, at least from what I can tell, the best interviewer on air today. She does an excellent job reading up on her subjects and can make just about every interview interesting and penetrating.

I think Gross is inconsistent. She does her homework but is too eager to show it off sometimes. She can also cut off her subjects or fail to follow with an obvious follow-up question. I dunno, just about everyone seems to like her. Maybe it's just the times I happen to catch her.

Agree with 4 and 5: If someone's doing a better job with interviews, I haven't heard him/her.

If you're a fan, you'll like this: Mike Birbiglia sends up her format as only he can.

Two times that she's really irritated me are interviews where she didn't really go after the subject the way I felt she should:

--When she interviewed Jay Z, he defended the song 99 Problems, saying that he was talking about a drug-sniffing dog when he used the B-word. The critics of this song were ignorant haters, in his mind. I felt like Gross should have really pointed out that the only reason the song works, or even makes sense, is because of the other meaning of that word.

--With Justice Stevens, he was very protective of his fellow judges and she didn't really challenge him to move beyond his personal feelings.

RA Dickey was on the show not too long ago; I think it was the week his book came out.

I actually liked her interview with Jay-Z, I thought she did a pretty good job forcing him into that ridiculous, convoluted defense of his misogyny. She could have brought down the hammer even beyond that, but there's a certain level of class to leaving someone who's lying to your face clearly aware that they're making a fool of themselves with their justification.

I mean, Jay-Z makes some good music, but the ####### simply doesn't like taking responsibility for anything he's ever done in his life, ever.

Well, maybe. It sounded more like she was going along to readily for my taste. I would have liked her to tease it out a bit further, like actually ask him to explain how it makes sense if you're not using that other meaning of the word.

But these two things I've mentioned are exceptions. I think she does a very nice job.

Earlier this year she had some state senator from Louisiana who had clearly never heard her show. He thought he was going to waltz in and push this girlie around, and she just humiliated him at every turn. I think it was this one. After a while I started feeling embarrassed and turned it off, but the guy was way over his head. One of the great things about Gross is that most times she's willing to pursue a confrontational approach that I would be too timid to pursue.

Basically the only things I don't like are the interviews with musicians, because they're usually some kind of musician I don't care about (showtunes, noodly modern jazz, some boomer icon). And I love it when she's got someone on there and she's clearly a genuine fan -- her interviews with David Milch and Flight of the Concords are great for that reason.