Terry Gross

Susan Orlean is a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 1994 she wrote a profile of David Friedman, one of the Friedman sons. David was known as Silly Billy, a popular clown who was a favorite at children's birthday parties in New York City. Orlean wrote the profile before the story came out surrounding David's father and brother. She is also the author of the best-selling book, The Orchid Thief.

In the summer of 1998 she began work on her new album, Roads of Travel, and it was released in March, 2003. It includes a duet with her father, Johnny Cash. Other guest vocalists include Sheryl Crow and Steve Earle. Last month, Cash's stepmother June Cash died.

Dr. Samuel Barondes is a professor and director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California. He's also the author of the new book, Better than Prozac: Creating the Next Generation of Psychiatric Drugs. In the book he traces the history and analyzes the effectiveness of the current crop of antidepressants and considers the drugs of the future.

Spencer's newest book is A Ship Made of Paper, and it has received critical acclaim. Our book critic, Maureen Corrigan, describes Spencer as a brilliant storyteller. Spencer is the author of seven previous novels, including Endless Love which sold over 2 million copies. He's also written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times and The New Yorker.

Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood co-founded the band Fountains of Wayne. Their new album, Welcome Interstate Managers, has just been released. The New York-based band released its self-titled debut album in late 1996. This interview first aired June 10, 1999.

Her new book, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's, is about her two-year affair with the writer Patricia Highsmith. They met at a Greenwich Village bar and were both writing lesbian pulp novels under pseudonyms. Meaker wrote Spring Fire (1952) under the pen name Vin Packer. It sold 1.5 million copies. She also wrote under the name Ann Aldrich. Meaker writes young adult novels under the name M.E. Kerr. Highsmith is known for her classic novels Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

He was the co-leader of the team that discovered three very important skulls in Ethiopia. The human remains are about 160,000 years old and offer evidence of the earliest ancestors of modern humans. They bolster the theory that modern humans emerged in Africa and are not related to Neanderthals, who lived in Europe. White is a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.

He responds to concerns about conflict of interest in awarding military contracts to private companies. Pawlik explains how the Army Corps of Engineers gave contracts to put out oil fires in Iraq to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. Vice President Dick Cheney, a former Secretary of Defense, was the CEO of Halliburton before he became vice president.

He's the founder and executive director of the Center for Public Integrity. It's a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., similar to an investigative journalism outfit but without time and space constraints. Its mission is to expose corruption and power abuse by governments, corporations and individuals. For 11 years, Lewis was an investigative reporter at ABC News, and also worked at CBS on 60 Minutes. His work at the Center for Public Integrity has been widely praised.

He was the Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2000, and was known for his satirical coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. He's now starring in Comedy Central's Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.