Terry Gross

Marge Piercy is a novelist. Her new book is titled "Braided Lives." She joins the show to discuss looking back on one's past, feminism, and her involvement in leftist politics.

Novelist Edmund White's newest work, "A Boy's Own Story," follows a young gay man growing up in the midwest in the 1950s. The novel has some autobiographical elements. White joins the show to discuss his life, growing up as a homosexual person, and his novel.

Jazz singer Phyllis Hyman was in the original Broadway cast of "Sophisticated Ladies," a musical revue of Duke Ellington's work, along with Gregory Hines and Judith Jamison. Hyman is featured on McCoy Tyner's new album is "Looking Out" and is in town to perform. Hyman discusses the show, her career, and writing jingles for television commercials.

Stanley Crouch is a jazz critic and Village Voice columnist who regularly writes about jazz, theater, and black issues and politics. Crouch is also a drummer who has recorded with several jazz bands. He is in Philadelphia to speak at a jazz forum and concert.

Journalist David Halberstam is best known for his work on the Vietnam War for such publications as the New York Times. Unlike many journalists, Halberstam reported from the countryside. Halberstam delivers a talk on television and contemporary politics as a SPEC (Social Planning and Events Committee) Connaissance Speaker at the University of Pennsylvania.

Vine Deloria is a Native American activist and writer. The member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe joins the show to discuss Native American politics and society.

Journalist David Halberstam is best known for his work on the Vietnam War for such publications as the New York Times. Unlike many journalists, Halberstam reported from the countryside. Halberstam delivers a talk on television and contemporary politics as a SPEC (Social Planning and Events Committee) Connaissance Speaker at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ann Beuf is a sociologist who studies the social and psychological lives of those with illnesses. She has researched the lives of hospitalized children and the psychology of vitiligo patients. Beuf was formerly the director of Womens' Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and currently teaches at Penn and Cedar Crest College. She will travel to New Zealand next year on a Fullbright Scholarship. Beuf recently traveled to China to study their medical system, she will discuss her findings as well as her research into anorexia patients in this interview.

Julian "Winnie" Winston is best known as as a pedal steel guitarist who builds whose own instruments. He also works as a professor of design at the Philadelphia College of the Arts. In this interview, Winston, whose nickname is "Winnie," discusses another field of interest: homeopathy. Winston first experienced homeopathic medicine as a patient, and began to research it for himself. He has spent a year traveling around the country interviewing homeopathic practitioners.

Tom Shales is the film critic for NPR and a television critic and t.v. editor at the Washington Post. His column is syndicated in nearly 150 newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News. A collection of Shales' t.v. columns from 1974-1982, "On the Air," has just been published.