Terry Gross

Palestinian-American Naseer Aruri. He's a professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He's the author of a number of books, his latest is"Occupation: Israel Over Palestine," in it's second edition (1989), which was selected by Choice magazine as one of the "Outstanding Books for 1984/85." Aruri has written many articles on human rights, the Palestine question, Lebanon, Islam, and U.S. policy in the Middle East in scholarly journals and weekly magazines.

Dr. Paul Mayewski, chief scientist with the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2. The project archives tubes of ice extracted from Greenland which chronicle 250,000 years of the earth's atmosphere, and changes in the climate. From the ice, scientists can pinpoint the start of the industrial revolution, or the end of the ice age. Scientists hope, by looking at the ice, they can better understand rapid changes in the earth's climate. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Novelist Amy Tan. Her debut novel, "The Joy Luck Club," was a huge critical and commercial success, and it earned Tan a nomination for the National Book Award. It's now been made into a movie. Tan and Ron Bass wrote the screenplay. Marty will talk with Tan and Bass about making "The Joy Luck Club" into a movie. Ron Bass also wrote the screenplay for "Rain Man" for which he won an Academy Award. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Journalist Stan Sesser, who details the successful marketing of American cigarettes in Asian countries in a New Yorker article, (September 6, 1993). Sesser claims the continent of Asia consumes half the world's cigarettes. Of particular interest to American tobacco firms is China -- despite explicit laws prohibiting the sale or advertising of foreign cigarettes -- because three hundred million people smoke (more people than the entire population of the United States).

Actor and singer Harry Belafonte. He was born in Harlem and raised in the hills of Jamaica where he absorbed the song and music of the island life around him. Belafonte's first love was theater, however: he wasn't convinced that popular singing would take him as far emotionally as Shakespeare did. But by embracing the calypso music of his childhood he introduced it to America. This week, he performs his first public concert in New York City in over thirty years.

Terry talks with two authors of children books which were once part of the reading list for the Rainbow curriculum in the New York Public schools. The two books were controversial, and removed from the list, because they dealt with children of gay parents. Leslea (Les-LEE-ah) Newman is the author of "Heather has Two Mommies," and Michael Willhoite wrote "Daddy's Roommate." (Both books are published by Alyson Publishers, Boston, Mass).

Elementary school principal Madeline Cartwright took over the run-down Blaine Elementary School in a run-down, drug-infested neighborhood in North Philadelphia and turned it into a school that works. One of her first acts when she took over the school was to get down on her hands and knees and scrub the foul-smelling children's bathroom.

Bioethicist George Annas and Director of the Law, Medicine & Ethics Program, Boston University Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Law. "Standard of Care," (Oxford University Press) is his new book which examines how the law has shaped medical practice. ANNAS believes the law has a bigger impact on medical ethics than does philosophy or medicine. For instance, he says because doctors are afraid of litigation, they often don't use sound medical judgement.

Two poets, married to one another, coming to grips with illness and mortality: Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon. Hall's new memoir of life on his New Hampshire farm and his "absorbedness" with writing are the subject of his new book "Life Work" (Beacon Press). Halfway through its completion, Hall was diagnosed with liver cancer; the following surgery and recovery provided rich material for his work and Kenyon's: a new book of poems entitled "Constance" (Graywolf Press).

Science Fiction writer William Gibson. He's part of a small group of writers whose work is known as "cyberpunk" which combines the science of communication and control theory -- cybernetics -- with punk, an anti-social rebel or hoodlum. Gibson's first novel, "Neuromancer, was the first novel to win Science Fiction's triple crown: the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards.