A Philadelphia-based National Public Radio interviewer and executive producer of her own show, “Fresh Air,” gave an insightful look into what it is like to cause controversy just by asking questions.

Terry Gross, in a presentation titled “An Evening with Terry Gross,” played clips from her show and added insightful anecdotes about the clips with a large audience in CY Stephens Auditorium on Monday night.

“What is the use of this? Why am I putting people through this?” Gross said.

Before Gross shared the clips with the audience, she provided a calm, casual setup to the interview situation, saying she has begun to “know the consequences of asking something,” with most of the interview clips ending in the interviewee walking out. However, Gross made it known the interviews take place over the phone or digitally.

Interviewees such as Lynne Cheney, Gene Simmons, Monica Lewinsky, Bill O’Reilly, Thomas Sol, Peter Boyle, George Clooney and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog provided interesting windows into what Gross calls “the personality press,” and her view on journalism.

“Why do I keep asking questions? If journalists stopped asking questions, and if they stopped because they [politicians] became uncomfortable, then we wouldn’t have many questions,” Gross said.

With the point of the night being the interesting backstories behind the interviews, Gross reminisced about actor Peter Boyle stopping the interview based on a line of “personal questions” she was asking about his time in seminaries

She also talked about Bill O’Reilly’s vehement reaction to what he perceived as “defamation of character” through Gross’s “unfair” questions, especially in light of an earlier interview Gross had with left-wing satirist Al Franken, where O’Reilly thought she had “gone easy on him” and Lynne Cheney’s forceful declaration of, “I don’t support the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.”

Another tabloid controversy involving questions Gross asked actor George Clooney about a spinal injury he suffered filming “Syriana.” Tabloids misconstrued Clooney’s answer about the pain he was going through, and the tabloids ran headlines proclaiming “Clooney’s Suicide Anguish.”

But through it all, Gross questioned herself frequently about the nature of the interview itself as a viable journalistic form.

“You hope to capture the truth, faulty memory, self-delusion, self-mythology and a few out-and-out lies. What is the line between journalism and voyeurism?” Gross said.

Des Moines resident Eric Morse attended the event as a fan of Gross’s work on NPR, and said it was a great chance to see her in real life.

“It was really interesting seeing her in person. I guess I always knew that she did interviews over the phone, but I didn’t know she set parameters for the guests, not allowing the questions to go too far,” Morse said.