Terry Gross

Mary Previte. She's the administrator of the Camden County Youth Center. Over the 19 years she's been at the CCYC, Previte has witnessed the increase of violence in our society, and its effect on America's young. Previte says that most of the kids she sees live in terror, knowing violence as the only way to express their emotions. Fourteen years ago Previte started a student newspaper called "What's Happening", establishing a dialogue between herself, the kids, and the community. (REBROADCAST from 12/9/93)

Terry talks with two young men who've been thru the program at the Camden County Youth Center, a juvenile detention center in Camden, New Jersey: Eddie Budah and Derrek Penny. Budah will read some of his poetry that has appeared in the Center's newsletter, "What's Happening." (REBROADCAST 12/9/93)

Terry talks with a young man who has been through the program at the Camden County Youth Center, a juvenile detention center in Camden, New Jersey: Derrek Penny. (REBROADCAST from 12/9/93)

Robert Olen Butler is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction for "A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain," (Henry Holt & Co.) a collection of 15 first-person stories by Vietnamese immigrants living in Louisiana. Butler has written seven novels in all, several of them dealing with the Vietnamese experience, in Vietnam and in America. Butler's latest book is "They Whisper," (Henry Holt), about intimacy between a man and a woman.

Singer/Songwriter Elvis Costello. In the late 1970s he burst out of Britain's pop-music scene with a sound and attitude never seen before. He was the angry young-man with a fresh sound. He's known for making connections between different musical communities. He's collaborated with Paul McCartney, Ruben Blades, Aimee Mann of "'til Tuesday," David Was of "Was (Not Was)," and T. Bone Burnett.

Author and former British prisoner, Belfast-born Gerry Conlon. In his memoir, "In the Name of the Father," he tells the story of his wrongful conviction and fifteen-year imprisonment by the British Government for the 1974 terrorist bombings of two pubs near London. He was in prison with his father, Giuseppe, who was also falsely convicted as a co-conspirator in the bombings.

Film director Jim Sheridan. An Academy Award nominee for Best Director of "My Left Foot," he directed, produced and co-authored the screenplay for the new film, "In the Name of the Father," starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It's based on Gerry Conlon's memoir of the same name.

Clarinetist, jazz musician, and klezmer virtuoso Don Byron. He's an unlikely candidate to play klezmer, a product of Eastern European Yiddish culture: Byron is African American and dreadlocked. Byron has become best known for klezmer, but musically he's all over the map: He plays jazz with his Don Byron Quintet, modern classical music with the Semaphore quintet, and he toured Europe last fall with Music for Six Musicians, an Afro-Cuban ensemble. He's also currently writing a classical piece for the avant-garde Kronos Quartet.

Physicist James Trefil. His new book, "A Scientist in the City," (Doubleday) is a exploration of how the laws of nature and technology came together to make our cities. Trefil starts by looking at cities as natural ecosystems, and then looks at the key scientific discoveries that made cities possible. Trefil has written more than ten books on science, including, "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Science." Trefil is also a regular commentator for NPR, and he teaches at George Mason University.

Novelist Stephen Wright. He's written three novels, all described by one critic as creating a "bleak vision of America haunted by Vietnam, desperate with boredom, eager to kill, gaga over flying saucers, addled by drugs, lobotomized by television." Wright's latest novel is "Going Native," (Farrar Straus Giroux) about a serial killer who seems to come from out of nowhere. In fact, he emerges out of a suburban neighborhood, steals a car, and heads for California.