Terry Gross

Pianist and singer Hadda Brooks. In the days following World War II, Brooks was a key figure in the West Coast jazz and blues scene. Her singing led to roles in movies and to a stint hosting a television show; she was the first black woman to earn that distinction. When her style of jazz and boogie woogie piano went into decline in the 50s, Brooks lived and performed overseas. She resumed her career in America in 1987, and was an immediate hit. She's currently appearing at Michael's Pub in New York City with singer Thelma Carpenter. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Film Critic Stephen Schiff review "Casualties of War," the new film by director Brian De Palma and starring Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox.

Astronomer and science writer Timothy Ferris. His most recent book, Coming of Age in the Milky Way, is the story of how man discovered his place in the cosmos. The book was a surprise bestseller last year and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Critics hailed the book as a literary and scientific breakthrough that reads both as intellectual history and an adventure story. Ferris' first book, The Red Limit, was similarly praised for creating a new style of science book that combines the force of fact and detail with the grace of fiction writing.

Television producer and screenwriter Allan Burns. He co-created "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Rhoda," "He and She," "Lou Grant" and "The Munsters," a body of work that has earned him 8 Emmys. Burns has a new series this fall on NBC titled "FM." It's about the on-the-job and at home travails of a public radio program director. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Reporter and novelist Ron Taylor. For the last 20 years, Taylor has reported on California agriculture, focusing on the life of farm laborers. Taylor was the first reporter to focus on Cesar Chavez, the migrant laborer who spearheaded the movement for a farm workers union with highly publicized work stoppages and boycotts of California produce. Taylor has written three books on the subject of farm labor: Sweatshops in the Sun, The Kid Business, and Chavez and the Farm Workers.

Marine botanist Sylvia Earle. She's been described as one of the most intrepid divers in the history of underwater exploration. She's swum with humpback whales, explored the kelp forests off the coast of California, and dove into the trenches off the coasts of Hawaii where she once went to depths of 1,250 feet, which at the time was the deepest any human had dove without a connection to the surface.

Writer Phillip Hoose. In his new book, Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sports, Hoose examines the role of blacks in sport, from why there has never been a black Olympic swimmer to the continued use of racial information by the scouting agencies that survey high school basketball players. Hoose began the book after the furor sparked by baseball executive Al Campanis' remark on national TV that blacks lacked `the necessities' to manage a major league baseball or football team. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Screenwriter and producer Lowell Ganz. He co-wrote the script to "Parenthood," the new comedy starring Steve Martin. He also co-wrote the script for "Splash," which introduced Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Both films were directed by friend and collaborator Ron Howard. Ganz also was the supervising producer of the popular TV series "Happy Days," starring Henry Winkler as The Fonz.

Contributor Ilene Segalove takes us on a tour of The Museum of Jurassic Technology, a Los Angeles museum of "unnatural history." The museum features exhibits of the bizarre and improbable, such as the "Deprong Mori," a South American bat that uses X-ray to fly through solid objects, or the way extreme ultraviolet rays appear to restore the flesh to a skeleton.

Poet Mark Halliday returns to Fresh Air to read one of his latest works. Halliday, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has published several books of poetry. The most recent is titled Little Star.