Terry Gross

Singer/guitarist Alex Chilton has been playing music for decades. As a teenager he was a member of the Memphis Band Box Tops. He was 16 years old when they recorded their hit, the R&B song “The Letter.” Later with the band “Big Star” he became a underground hero. After dropping out of sight to kick an alcohol addiction, Chilton returned to performing. By then many younger bands, REM and The Bangles, considered him a legend. Chilton’s new release (as a part of a trio) “Set” (bar-none) was recorded on the spur of the moment, and without overdubbing.

Minimalist composer Steve Reich. He's considered one of our foremost living composers. Three of his early recordings have been recently reissued on the new CD: Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint/Eight Lines/Four Organs (Nonesuch). Last year "Reich Remixed" was released, a dance album in which American, British, and Japanese DJ's pay tribute to REICH, by sampling and reassembling his music. Also last year Reich's "Triple Quartet" written for and performed by the Kronos Quartet, had it’s world premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Director Sofia Coppola is the daughter of film director Francis Ford Coppola. She’s directed the new film “The Virgin Suicides” based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, about five teenage sisters and the domino effect after the youngest kills herself.

From 1968-1975 “Operation Babylift” took place in Vietnam. Thousands of orphans were evacuated to safety and homes in the U.S. and other countries. The last babylift took place twenty-five years ago in the waning days of the war. A discussion about the effort with: Sister Mary Nelle Gage who took part in the airlifts from 1973 to February 1975. Now she organizes gatherings of those adoptees in the U.S. We also hear from two former orphans: Zachery Hill who is now 26. He was adopted by a family in Atlanta, and Fredo Sieck who is also 26.

Playwright and director George C. Wolfe. He wrote and directed the hit Broadway musical “Jelly's Last Jam,” about Jelly Roll Morton. Wolfe also wrote the play “The Colored Museum,” a satire about the black experience in America. His newest musical is “The Wild Party” based on the long-lost classic poem about the roaring twenties by Joseph Moncure March. (the book was republished in 1994 with drawings by Art Spiegelman). It’s currently playing at the Public Theatre on Broadway.

Australian actress Toni Collette She stars as Queenie, a vaudeville dancer, in “The Wild Party.” Collette is best known for her offbeat role as Muriel in the film “Muriel’s Wedding.” She also had a role in “Velvet Goldmine.” This year she received an academy award nomination for her portrayal of the boy’s mother in “The Sixth Sense.”

British anthropologist Tudor Parfitt. His new book is “Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel” (Vintage paperbacks). Parfitt went to southern Africa to find the Lemba people, who claim to be Jewish. Recently geneticists have found that many Lemba men carry DNA consistent with Jewish ancestry

Andrew Ward is the author of “Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers, Who Introduced the World to the Music of Black America” (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux). The Jubilee singers were nine former slaves who who set off from Nashville in 1871 to raise money to rescue their school, Fisk University, from bankruptcy. They toured the U.S., Britain, and Europe introducing audiences to African-American spirituals. The Jubilee singers are also the subject of an upcoming American Experience documentary on PBS. (Monday, May 1, 2000 at 9:00)

Brazilian film director Bruno Barreto. His new film “Bossa Nova” is a romantic comedy starring his wife, American actress, Amy Irving. Barreto’s other films are the critically acclaimed “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” and “Four Days in September” which was nominated for an Academy Award for best Foreign Language Film.

Pro-wrestler Bret “Hitman” Hart of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He comes from a wrestling family: his father was a wrestling promoter and ran a wrestling school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All his brothers were wrestlers including his brother, Owen Hart, who was killed in a wrestling stunt last year. Bret Hart is the subject of a new biography, “Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be.”