Terry Gross

Lambert trained for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but was not allowed on the German team because she is Jewish. She emigrated to the United States in 1937 and worked as a masseuse, maid and physical therapist. That same year, she won the U.S. high jump and shot-put titles. This year, Lambert accepted an invitation by the German Olympic committee to attend the Atlanta Games.

Scientists Dr. Joseph B. McCormick and Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch. Their book, in collaboration with Leslie Alan Horvitz, is "Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC." It's a personal account of this husband/wife team's work with the world's most horrible diseases: Ebola, Lassa fever, Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, and AIDS. McCormick was instrumental in the creation of the high-tech "hot zone" lab at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Fisher-Hoch was a pioneer in research on Legionnaire's Disease, Ebola and Lassa Fever.

Director and writer of the film version of Jane Austen's "Emma," Douglas McGrath. Already known as a playwright, screenwriter and columnist, this is his debut as a director. "Emma" is generally regarded as Austen's most accomplished and wittiest novel--a matchmaker doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons. McGrath is author of the New Republic column, "Flapjack File."

The opera soprano and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Barbara Hendricks has appeared on over fifty recordings and has won critical acclaim in performances with all the major opera companies in the world--but she remains a relatively obscure figure in the United States. This is her seventh year with the UN Commission and she says through her music, she has been able "to get people to listen in a way they wouldn't listen to a diplomat or bureaucrat."

Hamper's funny first-person account of working in GM's auto factory is "Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line." He is a third generation auto worker in Flint, Michigan. He first started writing when he submitted articles to the alternative newspaper, "The Flint Voice." The editor then was Michael Moore, who made the documentary "Roger and Me." Hamper appeared in Moore's documentary and also in the short lived TV program "TV Nation." In 1995 he appeared in "Canandian Bacon," a film starring John Candy.

Levine is considered one of this country's pre-eminent poets. But before he turned to poetry he worked for years at factory jobs. The images of those early days continue to influence his writings. Levine's collection of poems "What Work Is." won 1992's National Book Award. (Rebroadcast, originally aired 7/22/91).

Retired Republican political consultant Ed Rollins has just written a book chronicling his 30 years in American politics, "Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics." He began his political life a Democrat, working for Bobby Kennedy's campaign in 1968. After an experience at a violent demonstration he became a Republican and worked his way up to become President Reagan's top political advisor.

New York Times writer Jason DeParle. He covers poverty and social welfare issues for the Times. This month President Clinton will sign a welfare reform bill that will cut benefits off to recipients after two years. DeParle talks about what changes the new law will bring and about the evolution of the welfare program.

Edward Tenner is author of "Why Things Bite Back" from Knopf. It's about the unintended effects that new technological breakthroughs bring. Tenner is also a researcher at Princeton University in the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences.

Vilar's memoir "A Message from God in the Atomic Age" chronicles three generations of self-destructive behavior: in 1954, her grandmother was imprisoned for opening fire at the U.S. House of Representatives; in 1977, her mother leapt to her death from a speeding car; and in 1988, Vilar herself was committed to a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. Alternating between her notes from the psychiatric ward and the chronicling of the history of her family, Vilar tells of her own attempts to come to terms with her family history.