[2][3] Gross has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet often probing interview style and for the diversity of her guests.

She has a reputation for researching her guests' work the night before an interview, often asking them unexpected questions about their early careers.

[7] She grew up in a Jewish family, and all her grandparents were immigrants, her father's parents from Tarnów, Poland, and her mother's from the Russian Empire.

[10][11] When she was young, people would often ask where Gross came from, assuming that her lack of a heavy Brooklyn accent meant she grew up elsewhere.

[2][17] In 1975, she moved to WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to host and produce Fresh Air, which was a local interview program at the time.

[4] Gross creates a daily show that is an hour long, usually includes two interviews, and is distributed to over 190 NPR stations.

[10] The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Gross's interviews are "a remarkable blend of empathy, warmth, genuine curiosity, and sharp intelligence.

"[18] Gross prides herself on preparation; prior to interviewing guests, she reads their books, watches their movies, or listens to their CDs.

Several guests, including Lou Reed, Jann Wenner, Faye Dunaway, Peter Boyle, Monica Lewinsky, Bill O'Reilly, and Adam Driver, have stopped their interviews prematurely.

[23][24][25] Three notable examples are: On October 30, 1988, Gross played radio host "Rose Butler" in a remake of the famous The War of the Worlds broadcast of fifty years earlier.

While she was in college in the late 1960s, Gross was married for about a year to a man she knew from high school, with whom she had been living previously.