Terry Gross

Kurtz is media reporter for "The Washington Post." He has a new book, called "Media Circus: The Trouble with America's Newspapers." In the book, he looks at how the press has bungled some important stories like the HUD scandal and the S&L mess, the William Kennedy Smith trial, and the Clarence Thomas hearings.

Handler has played leading roles in seven Broadway productions including, "Six Degrees of Separation," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," and "Master Harold. . . and the boys." He's 32 now; seven years ago he was diagnosed with leukemia. He had a bone marrow transplant, and he's now considered free of the disease. He has a new monologue, "Time on Fire," about his four year struggle with leukemia.

Journalist David Sheff gained unprecedented access to the toy wizards at the Nintendo Corporation. His new book "Game's Over" explores the Japanese domination of the video-game market.

The theater director and actor is a member of playwright David Mamet's circle of theater innovators. Macy has most recently starred in Mamet's new play "Oleanna", and was featured in his film "Homocide". They co-founded the Atlantic Theater Company, an ensemble which performs mainly original works by American writers. Members of the company wrote "A Practical Handbook For The Actor", from notes taken during acting workshops led by Mr. Macy. One critic writes that the ensemble "has rescued theater from the mindless".

One of Israel's leading journalists, Tom Segev has a new book,"The Seventh Million: The Israelis and The Holocaust," in which he argues that some Israelis use the Holocaust to encourage Israeli chauvinism and aggression. Segev writes a weekly column on politics and human rights for the daily newspaper "Haaretz."

Spark has been said to "uphold the great tradition of the English Catholic novel." She's a prolific writer, having written 19 novels, including "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," and "Momento Mori." Spark has a new memoir about her first 39 years, called "Curriculum Vitae." It includes stories about school teacher Miss Christina Kay (the character of Jean Brodie was based on her), Spark's marriage at 19 to a man 13 years her senior, their life in Africa, and Spark's early literary career. She's now 74 years old.

The NPR broadcast journalist was co-host of the award-winning news magazine "All Things Considered" for fourteen years and the host of the Sunday show "Weekend Edition" from its inception in 1987. She's collected her favorite interviews from the past two decades in a new book, called "Talk."

Don Des Jarlais is an expert on AIDS and HIV infection among drug users. He's the Director of Research at the Beth Israel Medical Center's Chemical Dependency Institute in New York and the Deputy Director for AIDS Research, National Development and Research Institutes, New York. He's also a consultant on AIDS to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization.

Allende is one of the few women in the male-dominated literary world of Latin American. She's the niece of Chile's ousted President Salvador Allende, who was pushed out during a 1973 coup and assassinated. Isabel fled to Venezuela. She later moved to the U.S. after falling in love with an American, and now lives in California. Her new book, "The Infinite Plan," is her first about the United States.

Producer Amy Salit interviews singer/songwriter and guitarist Joe Ely. He's been called the "underappreciated American rock 'n' roll legend." This country rocker hails from Lubbock, Texas and has been recording and playing music for 20 years, releasing nine albums. He began his career playing traditional country but now leans more toward the country-rockin' blues that has become a distinctive Texas sound. His latest album is "Love and Danger."