Terry Gross

Author Rick Bass. His new book, Oil Notes, is a journal based on Bass' experience as a geologist looking for oil throughout the American West. Bass has also written short stories, essays, and environmental journalism.

Historian and writer Simon Schama. His revisionist history of the French Revolution - Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution - has been one of the most talked-about and debated volumes of history in the last several years. Critics have lauded Schama for bringing vividly to life the characters that inspired the five-year popular uprising that changed the modern political order.

Writer May Sarton. For many readers, Sarton is a heroic figure for her decision to expose her lesbianism in the early 60s, long before it society was tolerant of the gay life, and also for her decision to lead a life of solitude. The author of over 35 novels, books of poetry and essays, Sarton is probably best known for her journals, Recovering, and At Seventy. Her most recent book of poems, The Silence Now, explores themes from the solitude of the aging, to AIDS, to world peace.

Artist Chris Burden. He gained fame as a conceptual artist in 1971 when he had a friend shoot him in the arm as part of a performance piece at a Santa Ana gallery. Burden's concern with realism (one critic calls it his greatest strength and greatest weakness) is reflected in a touring retrospective of his works, which include sculpture, and also artifacts of his conceptual pieces.

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone reviews the work of four black women comics who recently shared the bill at New York City's New Professional Theater. They are: P.J. Jones, Kim Coles, Robin Montague, and Beverly Mickens.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews a few of the current crop of summer movies - "Great Balls of Fire," "Lethal Weapon II," and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."

Veteran TV journalist David Brinkley. His book, Washington Goes to War, was a surprise best-seller last year and has just been released in paperback. The book, based on Brinkley's personal experiences and reflections, told the story of Washington in the early 40s, and how both the government and town itself were transformed by the responsibilities thrust on them as a result of the war.

Feminist writer Barbara Wilson (sometimes Barbara Sjoholm). She's a co-founder of the feminist publishing house, Seal Press. She also writes detective novels whose heroine is a lesbian feminist detective. Her latest novel, The Dog Collar Murders, offers a humorous look at the debates between the S&M and anti-porn factions of the feminist community.

Filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. One of America's foremost documentary producers, Pennebaker has brought his cinéma verité approach to subjects ranging from Castro's Cuba, to Jimmy Carter's energy policy, to Bob Dylan's first tour of Britain. Music has been the source of much of Pennebaker's work. His films have featured the likes of Pablo Cassals, Van Cliburn, jazz singer Dave Lambert, rocker David Bowie, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Pennebaker, who died Aug. 1, pioneered a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking in documentaries like Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back and The War Room. Originally broadcast in 1989.