Terry Gross

Singer/songwriter Sam Phillips is a former Christian singer who became disillusioned with the form, left it, changed her name (from Leslie), and started writing songs which explored her own singular spirituality. Since 1989 she's been making pop music that's been admired by the critics. One critic wrote of her 1991 album; "On the surface, Phillips seems just another wispy-voiced, ethereal singer-songwriter, writing moody songs chronicling the dangers of corruption and obsessive love.

Author Henry Alford. Newsday reviewer Adam Begley mused about what to call Alford. "New York prankster?" Manhattan Monkeyshine Maven?" "Gotham Caparist?" His publisher calls him an investigative humorist. Alford has chronicled his offbeat investigations in his new book "Municipal Bondage: One Man's Anxiety-Producing Adventures in the Big City." (Random House.) Alford writes of his efforts to enter professions for which he was completely untutored--cosmetologist, snack food creator, dog groomer, earlobe model.

Gary Orfield. He is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Director of its Project on School Desegregation. His report, "The Growth of Segregation in American Schools: Changing Patterns of Separation and Poverty since 1968" was recently issued to the National School Board Association. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court found that the races in America's schools were segregated and the education was unequal. For awhile, integration was on the increase. But Orfield has found that today our schools have slipped backward.

Lionel Dahmer is the father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who committed some of the most ghastly crimes imaginable. Lionel has written a new memoir about his life with his son, "A Father's Story." (William Morrow), in which he tries to understand what happened to his son, and how he could turn into such a monster.

Film director Andrew Davis. Davis' string of action-thriller hits include "Under Siege" with Steven Seagal and a Chuck Norris picture "Code of Silence". His last film was a remake of a TV series from the 1960's "The Fugitive" and starred Harrison Ford. It has been nominated for a "Best Picture" Academy Award.

Writer A.E. Hotchner. His memoir "King of the Hill" (Harper), about growing up in a flophouse during the depression, was made into a movie, directed by Stephen Soderbergh (the directer of "Sex, Lives, and Videotape"). Hotchner is best known for his controversial 1966 biography of his personal friend Ernest Hemingway, "Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir." Presented in the unusual form of dialogue, Hotchner faced criticism from the literary community and an attempt by Hemingway's widow to ban the sale of the book. (Rebroadcast from 8-23-93).

Actor and playwright David Drake. In 1985, Drake saw the play "The Normal Heart" by playwright Larry Kramer. It was a turning point for Drake. Kramer went on to become a founder of ACT UP--the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. Drake a gay man, started on a path of self discovery and activism that has led to his writing a series of vignettes called "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me" (Anchor Books). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Author and former field engineer, editor, actor, migrant farm worker, farmer, trapper, truck driver and sailor Gary Paulsen. Paulsen has authored books for adults, young adults and children. His latest book for adult readers is "Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod" (Harcourt Brace and Company). The Iditarod has been called "the last great race on earth." It is the grueling 1,180 mile dogsled race over the Arctic terrain from Anchorage to Nome. Paulsen ran it twice. During training for the race, Paulsen almost lost his dogs and his own life.

Zlata Filipovic is a thirteen year-old Sarajevan, whose diaries of the war in Bosnia have been published this month as "Zlata's Diary" (Viking). The book begins in August of 1991, with a new school year --fifth grade-- and the trappings of girlhood: piano lessons and tennis. By that spring, Sarajevo was under siege and Zlata's schoolmates were being killed, her family hiding in the basement and abandoned purebred dogs wandered the streets.

Holding immigrants responsible for various health epidemics has been an American pastime for two centuries argues Alan Kraut, Professor of History at American University. Just as the Irish were wrongly blamed for the cholera epidemic in the 1830's so too were Haitians in Miami branded as AIDS carriers in the 1980's. His new book "Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, & the "Immigrant Menace"" (Basic Books) traces how immigration policy and health care have been affected by xenophobia and public fears of contamination. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)