Terry Gross

Economist Lester Thurow (say it like "Thoreau"), author of "The Coming Economic Battle Between America, Europe, and Japan." THUROW will discuss how Euorpe and Japan are playing by a new set of business rules and that it's time to update our own.

Producer Gil Cates. He produced the Academy Awards last night. Terry will talk with him about what it takes to put together such an endeavor.

Jeff Yarbrough is a senior editor of the Los Angeles based bi-weekly national gay magazine "The Advocate." He'll tell us what went wrong with the gay rights protest that was supposed to take place during the academy awards ceremony.

Political Science Professor Andrew Hacker. His new book is "Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal" (published by Charles Scribner's Sons) about race relations in the United States.

Reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer Vernon Loeb. He's been reporting from the Far East for the last several years. He'll talk with Terry about the problems facing the region like the explosion of AIDS in Thailand and especially Bangkok; the repression and ethnic fighting in Burma; and the amassing on the Thai/Burmese border of refugees fleeing repression in Burma.

Writer Natalie Robins. Her new book, "Alien Ink: The F.B.I.'s War on Freedom of Expression," (published by William Morrow & Co.) is about the secret files the FBI has kept on American writers like Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, E.L. Doctorow, and Grace Paley. The author obtained access to the files going back to writers like Jack London and Lincoln Steffens. The files are still being kept and many writers are unaware that they exist.

James McCloskey, founder of Centurion Ministries, Inc., which was organized to free innocent men and women from prison. Since McCloskey began his work in 1980 at least ten innocent prisoners have been freed. Just this week Clarence Chance, 42, and Benjamin Powell, 44 were freed after serving 17 and 1/2 years of life sentences. They were wrongly accused of murdering a sheriff's deputy. Witnesses who initially implicated them later told officials that they were pressured to lie.

Sheila Kuehl is now a women's rights lawyer. But most people will remember her as Zelda Gilroy on the old TV show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Her TV career ended when rumors began to circulate that she was a lesbian -- and those rumors were true. Now Kuehl is one of the most vocal lesbian activists in Los Angeles

Grace Paley was New Yorks's first official woman state writer. Known for writing about neighborhoods including the Bronx and Greenwich Village, Paley now lives in Vermont. Paley is known for her collections of short stories, but is also a poet. Her new book is "New and Collected Poems."

Author Adam Ulam (OO-lom) ("om" as in bomb) Director of the Russian Research Center and Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard. His new book is "The Communists: The Story of Power and Lost Illusions 1948-1991." (published byScribner's). He's also the author of "The Bolsheviks.