Terry Gross

Vince Vaughn teamed up again with Swingers costar John Favreau in the movie, Made. The movie, written and directed by Favreau, follows two aspiring boxers who concoct a money laundering scheme. It just come out on video and DVD. Vaughn has appeared in several movies including Swingers, The Lost World, the remake of Alfred Hitchcock Psycho, and The Cell.

We learned today that former Beatle George Harrison has died. Well listen back to drummer, Ringo Starr who talks to Terry about the early life of the Beatles.

The star of the films Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, The Conversation, and Unforgiven. He's now starring in two films, with a third about to come out: Heist, Behind Enemy Lines and The Royal Tannenbaums which will be released December 14th.

Larry Goodson is associate professor of international Studies at Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts. He the author of the book, Afghanistan Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban (University of Washington press). Goodson writes that Afghanistan has become the archetype of a failed state and a perfect example of how nonstate actors move into the vacuum created when a state fails. He also writes about the divisions in the Afghan population: ethnic, linguistic, regional, sectarian, racial, and tribal.

Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic. His new film No Mans Land (United Artists) is about three soldiers trapped in a trench between enemy lines, during the war in Bosnia. During the war in early 90s, Tanovic was the Bosnian army's cameraman, documenting the war for the army archive. He also directed many documentary films about the war and his hometown of Sarajevo. No Mans Land won the Best Screenplay award at this years Cannes Film Festival. Its also been shown at this years Toronto Film Festival and the Sarajevo International Film Festival.

An interview with hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons.

Comedian Bernie Mac has traced his own path to the top, staying in Chicago and other spots — anywhere but Los Angeles. Now he's the star of The Bernie Mac Show, a sitcom on Fox. As his book I Ain't Scared of You is released, we talk with Mac about his days honing his craft, his ideas about what makes a star — and who's better, Sinatra or Williams.

LeRoy is the author of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, a collection of autobiographical stories, and Sarah, a novel about a 12-year-old hustler. LeRoy writes for NY Press, Shout and The Face.

Dalton Conley is the author of the memoir, Honky (Vintage books) about growing up white in a predominately African American and Latino neighborhood on the Lower East Side of New York. Conley is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research at New York University.

Writer David Leavitt. Author of 14 books, Leavitt specializes in gay fiction and Italian traveling narratives. He was first published in the New Yorker at the age of 20 and followed that with stories in Harper's Magazine, and the 1984 O.Henry Prize Story Collection. His novel about the publishing world, "Martin Bauman; or A Sure Thing" (Houghton Mifflin) has just been published in paperback.