Terry Gross

Luft is featured on the new complete recordings of the 1930 musical Girl Crazy -- she sings the part that gave Ethel Merman her start on Broadway. Luft's mother was Judy Garland, and her sister is Liza Minnelli.

Reporter Steven Mufson covered South Africa for three years; he was expelled by the country's government in 1987. His new book, "Fighting Years," is about the conflicts among black communities over the which forms of resistance against the apartheid government are most effective.

It was recently revealed that Wise's character on Twin Peaks was the killer of Laura Palmer. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his role as Leland Palmer, whom he says he thought of as a good friend.

Pollack faced difficulty filming his new movie, in light of the antagonistic relationship between the United States and Cuba. His other films include Tootsie and the Oscar winning Out of Africa.

The accordion player learned how to play by studying with his father, the late Clifton Chenier. C.J. joined his father's band, The Red Hot Louisiana Band, ten years ago, and took over as leader after Clifton Chenier died in 1987. Their new record is called Hot Rod.

Aldridge played in two Superbowls and started a successful career as a broadcaster. In the 1970s, he developed schizophrenia and lost his job, money, wife, family and home. Aldridge now travels the country, talking about his disease and recovery, and about our incorrect attitudes toward mental disease.

Kurys's films include Entre Nous and Peppermint Soda. Her new film, C'est La Vie" is the semi-autobiographical story about the summer when she was a young girl and her parents marriage broke up.

In light of the Gulf crisis, Terry talks with Andrew Whitley, executive director of Middle East Watch. That group is a division of Human Rights Watch, an organization that monitors human rights violations in different regions of the world. Next, Terry talks with Sergeant George Rowen, of the of the New York National Guard. Rowen leaves for the Gulf in two weeks; his wife, who's also in the Guard, is stationed in Saudi Arabia.

Daniel Yergi is president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an international energy consulting firm. He is one of the leading authorities on the oil business, and has a new book called, "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power," which details how European interventions in the Middle East in the wake of World War I shaped the modern petroleum trade.

Terry talks with Marie Burke, a wife and mother in Calhoun, Georgia. Burke has three sons, all of whom are in the Georgia National Guard and have been called to active duty.