Terry Gross

Journalist Eric Schlosser talks about who is profiting from America's prison boom. He is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He wrote this month's cover article entitled "The Prison Industrial Complex."

An expert on prison systems around the world, Vivien Stern. She's written the new book, "A Sin Against the Future: Imprisonment in the World" (Northeastern University Press). Stern is Senior Research Fellow in the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College and Secretary-General of Penal Reform International.

Fulks has one foot in the singer/songwriter scene and one in country music. He spent three years writing songs in Nashville, but no one opted to record his songs. So he's recently come out with a new CD of his own music, "Let's Kill Saturday Night" (Geffen Records). Fulks began his career as a regular at the same fabled Greenwich Village hole in the wall where Bob Dylan made a name for himself. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his career and sing some of his songs.

Dr. Hoosen Coovadia is a Pediatrician in Durban, South Africa. In his practice, 40 percent of the kids he treats are HIV positive. He'll discuss the rise of HIV in South Africa and other parts of Africa where he has traveled. Coovadia will serve as the Chairman of the next World Aids Conference in the year 2000. He heads the Pediatrics and Child Health Department at the University of Natal Medical School.

Historian and author Deborah Gray White has compiled a new history of black women and their struggle against racism and male chauvinism. It's called "Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves 1894-1994" (W.W. Norton) White is a professor of history at Rutgers University and the co-director of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis.

The once post-war heartthrob won new fans with his MTV Unplugged concert. His new CD is "The Playground." He has a new autobiography called The Good Life. A grocer's son, Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born in Astoria Queens in 1926. After working as a singing waiter in his teens and then following service in the U.S. Army, he auditioned for Columbia Records and launched a career that started off with his first big hit "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

South African Judge Tandaswa Ndita. Her focus is family law. She's been educating rural communities about the new constitution and the new rights accorded to women. For the first time under the law, women are no longer considered household property, and have been given the status of personhood. The Judge can also be seen in the new documentary "A Woman's Place" which premieres nationwide on PBS, November 27th.

An expert on fungi, George Hudler is a professor of Plant Pathology at Cornell University. He's written a new book about the existence of fungi in all its forms, "Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds: The remarkable story of the fungus kingdom and its impact on human affairs." (Princeton University Press).

Holmes has written a new autobiography, "Against the Odds" (Thomas Dunne Book) about how he came up through poverty, and his training as Muhammad Ali's sparring partner.

Stilgoe is Orchard Professor of Landscape History at Harvard University. He's the author of the new book, "Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places" (Walker and Co.) He's been teaching the "art of exploration" for over 20 years, that is, learning to really look at the world around us.