Terry Gross

Elementary school principal Madeline Cartwright took over the run-down Blaine Elementary School in a run-down, drug-infested neighborhood in North Philadelphia and turned it into a school that works. One of her first acts when she took over the school was to get down on her hands and knees and scrub the foul-smelling children's bathroom.

Terry talks with two authors of children books which were once part of the reading list for the Rainbow curriculum in the New York Public schools. The two books were controversial, and removed from the list, because they dealt with children of gay parents. Leslea (Les-LEE-ah) Newman is the author of "Heather has Two Mommies," and Michael Willhoite wrote "Daddy's Roommate." (Both books are published by Alyson Publishers, Boston, Mass).

Satirist Harry Shearer. Shearer has an eclectic career: he does many of the voices on the TV series "The Simpsons," he has a weekly program on many public radio stations called "Le Show," he often has character roles in movies, and he's one of the members of the parody heavy metal parody combo "Spinal Tap", who toured the world last year. Shearer has a new book of the columns he wrote for the Los Angeles Times Magazine: "Man Bites Town" (St. Martins) (Rebroadcast from 4-28-93).

Actor Leslie Nielsen. Perhaps best known for his comic roles in Airplane! and the Naked Gun films, Nielsen has been acting since the late forties, after he was taught radio broadcasting by Lorne Greene. He's just written a "fictional autobiography" called "The Naked Truth" (Simon & Schuster) a pun-encrusted look at nearly fifty years of show business.

Jazz singer/songwriter, Abbey Lincoln. Her new record is "Devil's Got Your Tongue" (Verve). Once married to legendary jazz drummer Max Roach, she's made her mark on jazz for almost 40 years, singing with giants like Benny Carter, Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins. Lincoln has been hailed by one critic as the "Last Great Diva", and says herself that she sings in the tradition of Sarah Vaughan, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. (Rebroadcast from 6-16-93).

Singer Tony Bennett Columbia Records has issued a retrospective set of recordings covering Bennett's 40 years in the business. (Rebroadcast from 7-3-91).

Bioethicist George Annas and Director of the Law, Medicine & Ethics Program, Boston University Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Law. "Standard of Care," (Oxford University Press) is his new book which examines how the law has shaped medical practice. ANNAS believes the law has a bigger impact on medical ethics than does philosophy or medicine. For instance, he says because doctors are afraid of litigation, they often don't use sound medical judgement.

Two poets, married to one another, coming to grips with illness and mortality: Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon. Hall's new memoir of life on his New Hampshire farm and his "absorbedness" with writing are the subject of his new book "Life Work" (Beacon Press). Halfway through its completion, Hall was diagnosed with liver cancer; the following surgery and recovery provided rich material for his work and Kenyon's: a new book of poems entitled "Constance" (Graywolf Press).

Trumpeter and Singer, Jack Sheldon. For many years he was bandleader and sidekick for Merv Griffin's talkshow. Sheldon has been involved with some of the great names of jazz: he sang with Benny Goodman, was a childhood friend of Chet Baker's, and played burlesque with Lenny Bruce. He has a new record of standards: "On My Own" (Concord Records). (REBROADCAST from 6/9/93)

Science Fiction writer William Gibson. He's part of a small group of writers whose work is known as "cyberpunk" which combines the science of communication and control theory -- cybernetics -- with punk, an anti-social rebel or hoodlum. Gibson's first novel, "Neuromancer, was the first novel to win Science Fiction's triple crown: the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards.