Prine, who died in 2020, would’ve turned 80 this weekend. A five-day event in and around his native Chicago is underway, including a tribute concert. The beloved folk singer-songwriter spoke with Terry Gross in 2018 about how throat and neck surgery affected his voice, getting discovered by Roger Ebert, and his songwriting process.  Film critic Justin Chang reviews the new film Fjord. The audio version of this story incorrectly states that John Prine’s song "Sam Stone” is about a Korean War veteran. In fact, it is about a veteran of the Vietnam War. Subscribe to our free weekly <a href="https://support.whyy.org/page/39306/subscribe/1"target="_blank" >newsletter</a>  Follow us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nprfreshair/"target="_blank" >Instagram</a>  Subscribe to our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thisisfreshair"target="_blank" >YouTube channel</a>  Check out the <a href="https://freshairarchive.org/"target="_blank" >Fresh Air Archives</a> See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

Mahershala Ali

Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries. Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including weekly bonus episodes and curated playlists of archive interviews from Fresh Air.And subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Fresh Air Weekly, to get interview highlights, staff recommendations, gems from the archive, and the week's interviews and reviews all in one place. Sign up at www.whyy.org/freshair