Terry Gross is an institution now, there are both lovers and haters. I've listened to her programme off and on for decades.
The plusses as I see them are:
- Fantastic range of material. She covers arts & culture, news and politics, world events, and science. I strongly suspect the show's staff has a lot to do with this.
- The intereviewer (not always Gross --- Dave Davies stands in fairly frequently and occasionally others) mostly get out of the way of the guest, though Gross herself is known for her five-minute-wind-up question. OK, it's not five minutes, but there's usually a question or two in the show that has a very long preamble.
- The interviews are edited. Not heavily, but just enough to fit format, for continuity, and relevance. This virtually always helps, and most especially avoids all of the live-on-air annoyances of technical glitches and rushing the guest at the end of the time window.
I see these as strong positives.
Gross's voice and intonation may strike people differently. I appreciate the non-shrill, calm manner (most commercial broadcast feels like people screaming or shouting, by contrast). It's instantly soothing. Her politics are clearly left/liberal, though she does try to get out of her comfort zone occasionally, and when she does so the results are far more equitable than what I see with leading interviewers from the right. Most notably Bill O'Reilly, though also Kiss lead man Gene Simmons, off the top of my head. (I heard both when originally aired.)
The format is not especially combative, though Gross will dig gently on occasion. (Contrast, say, Bob Garfield's hard press on occasion, notably an oil-industry apologist and Internet revenge-porn hoster. Even there, Garfield isn't aggressive, but he's very clearly assertive and making his views clear.)
The high consistency of interviews regardless of host is what makes me feel that there's probably a lot of teamwork involved. Gross is pretty good in arts and culture issues, but weaker on technology and science. Despite that, the science and technology interviews still tend to be pretty good, especially in a general-audience venue.
What becomes clear is that Gross has her own favourites and crushes. Some are somewhat surprising (Johnny Cash), others more predictable though understandable and reciprocated --- Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart especially, occasionally other public media names such as This American Life's Ira Glass. Again I find this endearing.