Terry Gross

Oz's new crime comedy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, stars Steve Martin and Michael Caine. Oz also worked with Jim Henson to create several Muppets, including Miss Piggy and Fozzy Bear.

Investigative reporter Howard Kohn has covered stories like the Patty Hearst kidnapping and the death of Karen Silkwood. When his father's health started to fail, Kohn decided to move back to the family farm in Michigan. His new memoir, The Last Farmer, documents that experience, and considers the relationship between parents and their adult children.

Russo's latest book, The Risk Pool, is set in an upstate New York town, similar to where the author grew up. He says he didn't realize until later in his career how much inspiration he could draw from his formative years.

The new Barry Levinson movie, also starring Tom Cruise, tells the story of two brothers, one of whom is severely autistic -- and the inheritor of three million dollars. Film critic Stephen Schiff says, despite Hoffman's masterful performance, Rain Man lacks focus.

New Fresh Air performer-in-residence Dr. John performs a few of his favorite Hoagy Carmichael songs.

New Yorker staff writer Alex Shoumatoff has a new book of essays called African Madness, about his travels throughout the continent. He joins Fresh Air to talk about the brutal reign of Emperor Bokassa in the Central African Republic, Dian Fossey's blind spots regarding the human populations near gorilla habitats, and the spread of AIDS.

Towne is widely considered to be the best screenwriter in Hollywood. His latest film -- his first since 1982 -- is called Tequila Sunrise, about cops, drug dealers, and betrayal. Towne talks about the tension between the intent of the screenwriter and the interpretation of a script by an actor or director.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says the movie turns the story of murdered civil rights workers into a stiff police procedural with a reductionist view of race relations.

Hansen's books feature a gay man in the hyper-masculine role of private detective. Hansen himself is gay, and hopes that his novels will help his readers become more accepting of homosexuality.

The writer inherited his family's ranch, but later sold it when he moved to Iowa for graduate school. Kittredge critiques the belief that humans have the moral authority to develop and tame the American West. This mythology, he says, has led to ecological destruction and the genocide of American Indians. His new collection of essays about the subject is called Owning it All.