Terry Gross

Jury selection for the Noriega trial starts today. Los Angeles Times reporter Douglas Frantz (FRANZ) has been following the Noriega story and will review events leading up to the trial. Frantz will also tell us about Noriega's BCCI connection.

The age of the big three networks is over. Ten years ago, ABC, CBS and NBC monopolized 90% of the television audience. Now they attract a bit over sixty. Reporter Ken Auletta has written about the impact of the decline of the networks and the rise of cable and home video. His new book is called Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way. (Random House)

Stephen Carter, who's written the book "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby" (Basic Books) has led a privileged and fortunate life, growing up in a professional black family, attending Ivy League schools and subsequently becoming one of the youngest tenured law professors in Yale University's history. But Carter has also weathered academic and professional experiences in which he was pigeonholed and patronized on account of his race.

Yesterday President Bush voiced his opposition to federally funded needle exchange programs to stop the spread of AIDS. Today Terry talks with activist Rod Sorge (pronounced like George).He's the director of PWA's (People with AIDS Working for Health, Inc.) Harm Reduction Institute, a program that runs a needle-exchange program in New York City. Giving out needles in New York is against the law and Sorge and his group have been arrested for it. Sorge runs ACT-UP's needle exchange program.

Journalist Jane Bryant Quinn. Her finance columns appear in "Newsweek," and "Woman's Day." She's written a new guide to personal finance, "Making the Most of Your Money: Smart Ways to Create Wealth and Plan Your Finances in the '90s." (published by Simon & Schuster.)

Singer Al Green. Green's one of the greats of soul and gospel music. He's probably best known for his hit, "Let's Stay Together." He'll talk about his musical career, and about his being "born again" as a Christian.(Rebroadcast. Originally aired 6/21/91)

Journalist Studs Terkel. He talks about his own work and about workers. (This is a excerpt from a 1985 interview with Terry).

Biographer Diane Wood Middlebrook. She's written a controversial new book about the troubled writer Anne Sexton. The controversy surrounds Middlebrook's source material: she had access to transcripts of Sexton's psychiatric sessions with the approval of Sexton's daughter and psychiatrist. Sexton killed herself in 1974. She began writing poetry in 1956 following a suicidal breakdown and after her therapist suggested she try writing poetry. ("Anne Sexton: A Biography," published by Houghton Mifflin).

Writer Carole Ione. She's written a new memoir of her foremothers, "Pride of the Family: Four Generations of American Women of Color." (Published by Summit Books). It tells the stories of her mother, a journalist, her great-auntie Sistonie, one of the first black women doctors in Washington, D.C., her grandmother Be-Be a vaudeville dancer and later soul food restaurant owner, and her great-grand-mother, Frances Anne "Frank" Rollin Whipper.

Actor and director Kenneth Branagh (rhymes with "Savannah"). His new movie, "Dead Again," is a psychological thriller starring Branagh and his real-life wife, Emma Thompson. In 1989, Branagh made a film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry the Fifth," with himself in the title role. That movie was nominated for an Oscar as best film. Branagh studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as acting, managing, and directing other groups and working on several BBC productions.