Terry Gross

Photographer Joel Meyerowitz has spent the past month taking photographs of Ground Zero for the Museum of City of the New York archives. He had also been shooting pictures of the Manhattan skyline and the World Trade Center Towers since 1981. The last photo he took of the skyline was shot four days before the September 11 attacks. Several of these photos were recently featured in the New Yorker magazine. They'll also be on exhibit at the Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery in Manhattan beginning November 1st.

Journalist Charles Sennott of the Boston Globe. He just returned from Afghanistan. He is also the author of the new book, The Body and The Blood: The Holy Land Christians At the Turn of a New Millennium (PublicAffairs). Sennott was the Globe Middle East bureau chief, and is currently the Globe Europe bureau chief and lives in London.

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton is an expert on terrorism and cult groups. He the author of the book, Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism about the Japanese cult group that released sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subways. Lifton will soon join the Harvard faculty as a visiting professor.

Singer and songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. He has a new CD, Last Man on Earth and a new role on the hit FOX TV series, Undeclared. He plays a dysfunctional father on the show. Loudon Wainwright III grew up in the town of Bedford in wealthy Westchester County north of New York City. He became a folk singer/songwriter in the late '60s, singing humorous and autobiographical songs. In 1972, on his Album III he scored the top-40 hit "Dead Skunk." Many of his songs have been featured on NPR Morning Edition.

Former lead singer of the indie-rock band the Del Fuegos, Dan Zanes. When he became a father he realized he couldn't stomach music for kids, so started writing his own. He also formed the Rocket Ship Revue, a touring band that performs dance-party shows for kids. His first CD Dan Zanes and Friends Rocket Ship Beach received a Parents Choice Award and the kids liked it too. It also featured Suzanne Vega and Sheryl Crow. Zanes' new CD is Family Dance.

Professor of structural engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. He is a member of a team assembled by the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate the World Trade Centers site. He recently received a grant from the National Science foundation to study the remains of the at the site. His findings will be used in engineering studies to help improve the structural integrity of buildings. Astanneh also has done research on bomb-resistant designs, following the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building.

Author Jonathan Franzen joins Fresh Air to discuss his latest novel, The Corrections. The story revolves around the lives of three children who live far away from their aging parents. The parents' health problems have made it difficult for them to take care of themselves. The children then have to decide how willing they are to change their own lives to care for their parents.

Journalist Robert Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He is the best known for his book Balkan Ghosts which became the book that former President Clinton turned to before the U.S. involvement in the Bosnian crisis. His 1990 book, Soldiers of God: with Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan has just been republished, updating the story. The book now includes a new introduction and a final chapter on how the Taliban came to power.

Editor and writer Walter Kirn lives in Montana, a place where many people are thinking of moving to - now that the United States is under threat of more terrorist attacks. Kirn was recently on Fresh Air to discuss his new novel Up in the Air (Doubleday) about 35 year-old Ryan Bingham, a well-traveled business man who has a goal of accumulating one million miles in his frequent flyer account. Kirn is the literary editor for GQ and a contributing editor to Time and Vanity Fair.

Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg is a staff writer for the New Yorker, specializing in foreign reporting with an emphasis on Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. His article, "Letter from Cairo: Behind Mubarak: Egyptian Clerics and Intellectuals Respond to Terrorism" appears in the Oct. 8 issue of the New Yorker. He is currently writing a non-fiction book about the Middle East, due out next year. Previously, Goldberg was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine.