Terry Gross

Dr Sherwin Nuland is a surgeon who teaches at Yale. In his recent book, "How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter," he writes that few of us have an understanding of the way people die; 80 percent of Americans die in the hospital, and, for the most part their deaths are concealed. Nuland hopes to de-mythologize the process of dying by emphasizing its biological and clinical reality.

In her novels "Dale Loves Sophie to Death" and "Fortunate Lives," Dew explored the ambiguities and intricacies of families. She thought she understood the complexities of family love. But then her son informed her he is gay. Dew has written a new memoir about the experience and its effect on the family, called "The Family Heart."

Buckley has just written a new political satire, "Thank you for Smoking," which pokes fun at everything and everyone associated with the tobacco industry -- from anti-smoking advocates to tobacco company executives. Buckley was George Bush's speechwriter from 1981-1983 when Bush served as Vice President. The son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, he is also the author "The White House Mess" and "Wet Work."

Actor and playwright Vernel Bagneris and pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen perform selections from their show, "Jelly Roll Morton: A Me-morial," with music written by Morton, and a script taken from Library of Congress tapes of Morton from 1938. The New Yorker calls it, "an experimental study, done within a traditional Broadway-musical framework, of the life and death of a black misanthrope. . . a psychomusical." This concert was first broadcast in 1992.

New Orleans songwriter, pianist and singer Allen Toussaint. He has worked with artists like Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, and Elvis Costello. This year, Toussaint recorded "The Ultimate Session" with the New Orleans group Crescent City Gold, and "Rhythm Country and Blues," which received a Grammy Nomination. We replay our 1988 interview with him.

Mike Hudson is a contributing editor for "Southern Exposure," a public policy magazine. He recently wrote a series of stories on the "poverty industry" -- how pawn shops, finance companies, and rent-to-own stores charge high interest rates, sometimes as high as 35%, to people who can almost never pay them back.

Adrienne Germain is Vice President for the International Women's Health Coalition, which works to improve women's reproductive health care and rights in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She will serve as one of the delegates to next month's U.N. International Conference on Population and development in Cairo. She is also co-author of "Population Policies Reconsidered," about channelling efforts to control the population not only through fertility programs, but also by offering broad-spectrum health care to women.

Martha Reeves is the lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, the Motown group which made it big in the 60's with such hits as "Nowhere to Run," "Heat Wave," and "Dancing in the Street." Her new autobiography, "Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva," is about her career, her conflicts with other Motown singers and managers, and her experiences touring during the height of the Civil Rights movement.

James was a teenager when she was discovered by bandleader/talent scout Johnny Otis, who helped her record her first single, "Dance with Me Henry." Her career took off in the sixties, until she battled a drug addiction at the end of that decade. Although James mostly sang R&B, she has just released "Mystery Lady," featuring songs by her favorite jazz singer, Billie Holiday.

Dr. David Hilfiker is a physician who left a rural family practice in Minnesota to treat the urban poor. In his new book, "Not All of Us Are Saints," he describes his frustration both with the system that allows people to live in poverty, and with the patients who frequently flout his medical advice. Hilfiker's first book, "Healing the Wounds" won the "American Medical Writers Associatin" prize, and was named among the "Best Books of the Year" from the NYT Book Review.