Terry Gross

Washington Post chief defense correspondent George Wilson. His new book, Mud Soldiers: Life Inside the New American Army, is an analysis of the efficiency and morale of the all-volunteer Army Infantry, the combat branch that would bear the brunt of any war, and which almost certainly sustain the highest loses. Wilson spent a year with 200 recruits, following them from basic training to maneuvers in the Mohave Desert, to their first assignments. Wilson's other books include Army in Anguish and Supercarrier.

Comic monologuist David Cale. He is one of the rising stars of the loosely-knit New York performance scene that brought out stars like Spalding Grey, Eric Bogosian and Laurie Anderson. In "Smooch Music," one of his best-received monologues, Cale, accompanied by a saxophonist, interweaves 23 vignettes on romance in New York City, with characters that range from the president of a swinger's club to pubescent boy who makes hickeys on his neck with a vacuum cleaner hose.

Grammy Award-winning blues singer John Hammond performs two songs in Fresh Air's weekly performance segment. Hammond has performed for nearly twenty years, and in that time his style has evolved from straight-forward, rural blues to a harder-edged, urban style of blues. He is the son of music impresario John Hammond Sr. who helped launched and nurture the careers of Bob Dylan, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday.

Vocalist Fred Schneider and singer/keyboardist Kate Pierson of the rock band The B-52's. In the late 70's, the group came to New York from Athens, Georgia and scored a hit with their song "Rock Lobster." Their danceable music and 60's style stood out among the new wave groups of New York's downtown music scene. They have a new album titled "Cosmic Thing."

Writer Michael Dorris. He and his wife, Louise Erdrich, have written several novels together, including Love Medicine and Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Both are part Native American, and Dorris spent several years of his childhood on an Indian reservation. He has adopted many children, one of which he later discovered was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Dorris's new book, The Broken Cord, is about this syndrome, and also his personal story of dealing with it in his family.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "When Harry Met Sally," the new romantic comedy by director Rob Reiner ("Stand By Me," "This is Spinal Tap") that stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

Writer Mary Kay Blakely. In 1984, shortly after a divorce, a recent diagnosis of diabetes, the suicide of a brother and a series of missed deadlines in her job as a journalist, Blakely collapsed into a coma. The coma lasted nine days, and when Blakely awoke, she saw the coma as a signal that the crush of commitments and societal pressures had overwhelmed her body, that "the life she planned no longer fit the woman she had become." Blakely writes about her journey back from her coma and her decision to redirect her life in her book Wake Me When It's Over.

Medical examiner Michael M. Baden. In his new book, Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner, Baden, the former chief medical examiner for New York City, reviews the record of famous autopsies of the last 30 years as evidence of a pattern of bungled investigations of unnatural deaths. Baden, who has been a medical examiner for 30 years, views his profession as a historian or anthropologist who revisits ruined or questionable autopsies in the hopes of correcting history. Baden is now director of the forensic sciences unit for the New York State Police.

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon, commentator Stewart Brand shares his thoughts on space exploration and how it has changed us. Brand is founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.

Novelist Cynthia Kadohata. Her first novel, The Floating World, is a `road novel' about a second generation Asian American teenager who leads a nomadic life with her parents as her father travels the country from one job to the next. As her journey unfolds, the protagonist struggles to find her place in her family and in America. Kadohata's short stories have appeared in The New Yorker and the quarterly The Pennsylvania Review. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)