Terry Gross

Louisiana State medical examiner Louis Cataldie was the coroner for the East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana from 1998 to 2003. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Dr. Cataldie helped to evacuate patients and set up field hospitals. He also aided the injured and investigated deaths.

The latest project from playwright David Mamet teams him up with Sean Ryan, who created the FX series The Shield. The pair's new show is The Unit, about a covert military unit.

Drummer Paul Motian has spent more than 50 years in music, working with jazz luminaries like Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. At 75, he has a new CD of bebop jazz: Garden of Eden, featuring his own band.

Actor Philip Baker Hall has appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson films Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia. He also played a Joe Friday-type cop in an episode of Seinfeld on the trail of overdue library books.

Film director Sidney Lumet has directed more than 40 films, which have received over 50 Academy Award nominations. His films include 12 Angry Men and Network. Lumet has a new film coming out: Find Me Guilty starring Vin Diesel.

The director James Burrows is being honored this week with a career tribute at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Burrows made his name with classic TV sitcoms including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. After helping to create Cheers, Burrows directed episodes of many other hit sitcoms, including Night Court, Frasier, Friends and Will and Grace.

A middle-aged woman awakens one morning to a sense of dread, a malaise so deep that she studiously analyzes her life — both past and present — to uncover its source. So begins Hilma Wolitzer's new book, The Doctor's Daughter.

Congressional reform of the lobbying system is nettled by competing agendas and concerns over freedom of speech. But in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, the discussion has become more heated. James Thurber is an expert on politics and lobbying who has testified before Congress.

The Six-Day War of 1967 left Israel with a dilemma: what to do with the land it had taken in the process of winning a conflict that also involved Egypt, Syria and Jordan. A new book, The Accidental Empire, looks at what came next.

Stuart Murdoch is the front man for the Scottish indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian. For the group's new CD, The Life Pursuit, they've broken two long-standing traditions: making quietly precious music, and refusing to embrace the media.