Terry Gross

Rapper and actor Mos Def is co-starring in the new film 16 Blocks. Recently he played a cop in the indie film The Woodsman, also starring Kevin Bacon. Mos Def's most recent rap album is The New Danger. Def has appeared in the films Bamboozled, Monster's Ball, and Brown Sugar.

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler died Feb. 28 at the age of 58. The cause of death has not been determined. Because she was black and female, Butler was considered atypical of science fiction. But she was also among the genre's most talented writers.

Abortion has been a defining issue since 1973. But for Eyal Press, it was a defining element of his childhood. A colleague of Press's father was killed for performing abortions. And Dr. Press received threats. Eyal Press offers a front-row view in Absolute Convictions.

James Allen is the 81-year-old director of the Addicts Rehabilitation Center. Soon after he founded the center in 1957 — after kicking his own habit — Allen founded the a cappella Addicts Rehabilitation Center Gospel Choir (ARC). Their song "Walk With Me" was heard recently as a sample on the Kanye West song "Jesus Walks."

A new book details the scandalous, sensational, partisan press — of the 1700s. Fox News journalist Eric Burns' Infamous Scribblers: the Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism tells the stories.

A hardened young South African gang leader steals a woman's car -– then finds out her baby is in the back seat. So starts the South African film Tsotsi, which is up for an Academy Award for best foreign film.

Not long ago, "new journalism" referred to changes in approach and style, ushered in by such writers as Hunter S. Thompson and Joan Didion. They're the subject of Marc Weingarten's new book.

Drew Carey's sitcom about an everyday blue-collar guy stuck in the same job for 10 years remains popular in reruns. Now there's a new DVD collection of ABC's The Drew Carey Show. Aside from his work in comedy, Carey is the author of the book Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined.

To many, con man-turned-actor Anderson remains best known as Judge Harry Stone from the NBC comedy series Night Court. A new DVD collection of the show's first season is out now on Warner Home Video. Anderson began his career as a street performer.

In the '50s, Richard Adler collaborated with his partner, Jerry Ross, on the Broadway musicals Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game. Currently, there is a new Broadway staging of The Pajama Game, starring Harry Connick Jr., and Michael McKean. This interview originally aired on August 9, 1990.