Terry Gross

Michael Harvey created the A&E cable show Cold Case Files, a documentary series that follows forensic experts and detectives as they investigate long-unsolved murder cases. Harvey has also written a novel, The Chicago Way.

In his new film, Resurrecting the Champ, actor Samuel L. Jackson plays a homeless, broken-down former heavyweight contender. The movie is directed by Rob Lurie and set to open Aug. 24. Jackson's other films include Black Snake Moan, Pulp Fiction, Jungle Fever, Coach Carter, Freedomland and Unbreakable. He studied dramatic arts at Atlanta's Morehouse College, and after he graduated he originated two August Wilson roles — Boy Willie in The Piano Lesson and Wolf in Two Trains Running — at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Journalist Frances Harrison has been the BBC's correspondent in the Iranian capital city of Tehran for the past 3 years. She says conditions have gotten worse, especially for women, under the increasing strictures being put in place by the ultraconservative Islamic government. Harrison's husband is Iranian; prior to her posting in Iran, she reported for the BBC from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Malaysia. She's now back in the U.K.

Actor David Duchovny stars in the new Showtime series Californication, which is basically about a lot of sex. (Duchovny plays a novelist with a taste for women.) The actor, who's best known for his role as Agent Fox Mulder on the TV's The X-Files, earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and a graduate degree in English Lit at Yale University.

Singer-songwriter Ben Vaughn talks with Fresh Air producer Amy Salit about Lee Hazlewood, who died Saturday at age 78. Hazlewood was best known for writing Nancy Sinatra's hit "These Boots are Made For Walkin'," and his songs were recorded by other pop stars including Elvis Presley, Nick Cave and Courtney Love. But he had a recording career of his own as well, and he influenced a generation of rockers. Vaughn is a singer, songwriter, producer and composer who's scored many network TV shows and films, in addition to recording 12 albums of his own.

Matt Weiner, a TV writer and producer who landed an Emmy and a Writers Guild Award for his work on HBO's The Sopranos, has created a new show. It's an AMC drama series called Mad Men, set in the fiercely competitive world of Madison Avenue ad execs in 1960s New York.

Ayub Nuri was working with foreign journalists in Iraq as a fixer — a war-zone interpreter, guide, source-finder and occasional life-saver. Nuri worked with increasing autonomy until he became a reporter with his own byline. He wrote about his experiences in The New York Times Magazine on July 29, 2007. Nuri is now based in New York City.

Zack Hample, an obsessive baseball fan, has by his own count snagged 3,123 baseballs at 42 different major league stadiums. And he's turned his obsession with the game into a career, giving tours of stadiums, appearing on TV and radio and writing books — including Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-Experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks.

Malcolm MacPherson's new novel is Hocus POTUS, a political farce about the shenanigans of White House loyalists in Baghdad's Green Zone, written from the point of view of an American journalist stationed there. The book draws on MacPherson's own experiences as a foreign correspondent for Time and Newsweek magazines, during which time he reported from Baghdad on Ambassador Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Jeffrey Blitz's new film Rocket Science is a partly autobiographical coming-of-age tale about a teenager who joins the high school debate team. Blitz won the Dramatic Directing Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival; he also directed 2002's Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, along with several episodes of the hit NBC television series The Office.