Terry Gross

Film director and actor Sydney Pollack died Monday. He was 73. Pollack is known for his many films including Out of Africa, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Marine Lt. Col. Steve Beck and journalist Jim Sheeler talk about the book Final Salute.

Pulitzer Prize winner's 2007 novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union imagines that the fledgling Israel collapsed in 1948 — and part of Alaska was set aside as a temporary refuge for Jews. The inspiration: A real proposal to do just that.

Now a military expert for Human Rights Watch, Marc Garlasco was a Pentagon analyst for seven years — and he was there when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He tells Fresh Air about his experiences that morning.

After American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, it took firefighters three days to stop the blaze. Firefighter Patrick Creed and journalist Rick Newman discuss the Pentagon blaze and the book they wrote about it, Firefight.

In his new biography, Kirby: King of Comics, TV and comics writer Mark Evanier details the life and career of noted comic artist Jack Kirby, the co-creator of the Marvel Comics characters the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and X-Men.

U.S. Senator Jim Webb, a onetime Republican who won his Senate seat as a Democrat, has stayed clear of endorsing a candidate in the Democratic primaries. The retired Marine explains why — and talks about his disagreements with the Bush administration, the legislation he's introduced to expand benefits for Iraq War veterans, and his new book, A Time to Fight.

Reverend Carroll Pickett was the death-house chaplain at the Walls prison unit in Huntsville, Texas for 13 years. During his tenure, he ministered to 95 inmates executed by lethal injection. He is the subject of a new documentary, At the Death House Door.

Chris Gaffney, vocalist and accordion player for the Hacienda Brothers, died last week from liver cancer at the age of 57.