Terry Gross

With everyone making plans for Christmas and New Year's Eve, we wondered what magician Penn Jillette (pronounced like "Gillette") would be up to. Jillette's one half of the magic team, Pen and Teller. The pair's latest show, "Penn and Teller Rot In Hell," is now playing off
Broadway.

We examine the controversy surrounding Vice President Dan Quayle's Council on Competitiveness. We talk with New York Times reporter Phil Hilts, who covers the Council.

Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. He made the campy comedies "Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down." His new movie, "High Heels" is a more sober story, the tale of a romantic triangle involving a mother, her daughter, and a murder.

Why does cross-dressing stir up so much anxiety in our culture? Harvard professor Marjorie Garber talks about where cross dressing has turned up in popular culture, and what it means to wear the clothes of the opposite sex. Garber's new book on the subject is "Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety." (It's published by Routledge).

Until the mid 1870s, most of Africa remained untouched by slave traders and explorers. And then, in a little over three decades of conquest, Western European countries carved up and colonized all of Africa. Thomas Pakenham ("packin-em") has written "The Scramble for Africa" (Random House), a comprehensive account of this period where the white man invaded the Dark Continent.

Filmmaker Isaac Julien. His new movie, "Young Soul Rebels," explores the rise of British funk clubs in late 70s London.

Rock and roll songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They're responsible for many of the greatest hits in rock history, among them "Hound Dog," "Yakity Yak," and "Stand By Me." Rhino records has just released a collection of their songs, called "There's A Riot Goin' On."

Robert Greenstein ("stine" not "steen"), executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. His group has just released a new study that shows how many state's budget cuts have had meant a disproportionate cut in programs for the poor.

William Rubenstein ("steen," not "stine"), the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. He'll discuss yesterday's court decision that granted guardianship of a woman left brain-damaged by a car accident to her lesbian companion. This is the first case that has granted rights equal to a spouse to a gay or lesbian partner.

Photographer Susan Meiselas (My-SELL-us). She went to Nicaragua in the late 70s to photograph the Sandinista Revolution. She returned to Nicaragua recently to talk to the people she photographed more than ten years ago. Only this time she made a film about it, "Pictures From a Revolution."