Terry Gross

We remember the great Broadway songwriter. Coleman died last Thursday at age 75 of heart failure.

His new book is In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom. Crossan looks at the life of Paul, and describes how the most important Christian value is justice. Crossan is professor emeritus of De Paul University, and is considered by some to be the foremost scholar of historical Jesus. His The Historical Jesus is an alternative and fact-based look at the life of Christ.

After a chart-topping and occasionally controversial music career, she is now turning out children's books, publishing four in just over a year. Her latest is The Adventures of Abdi. The others are The English Roses, Mr. Peabody's Apples and Yakov and the Seven Thieves. Her fifth, Lotsa de Casha, is due out in April 2005.

As part of the first cast of Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd helped bring the Coneheads and the Blues Brothers to life.

He went on to star in a number of films, including Trading Places and Grosse Pointe Blank. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Driving Miss Daisy.

We talk with Aykroyd about his two latest projects: the book Elwood's Blues: Interviews with the Blues Legends and Stars, and the upcoming movie Christmas with the Kranks.

His most recent film The Saddest Music in The World is now out on DVD. It stars Isabella Rossellini as a beer baroness in search of the saddest music in the world. It also stars Mark Kinney, best known for his work with the Kids in the Hall. The film is a Depression era musical shot mostly in black and white. This interview was originally broadcast on April 26, 2004.

Downey has a new CD, The Futurist, which includes songs that he wrote and performed. He received an Academy Award nomination and won the British Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the title role of Chaplin. He also starred in Wonder Boys, Two Girls and a Guy, Natural Born Killers, and The Pick-Up Artist. This interview was originally broadcast Oct. 22, 2003.

We feature an excerpt from the radio program Leonard Bernstein: An American Life. The 11-part documentary series is about the life and work of the preeminent American composer/conductor. It's produced by Steve Rowland, narrated by Susan Sarandon, and distributed by WFMT - Chicago.

Writer Augusten Burroughs is the author of two best-selling, often bitingly funny memoirs. In his first, Running With Scissors, he recalled his mentally ill mother, who gave him away to her equally mentally ill shrink — who then adopted him. Of that experience, Burroughs wrote, "I then lived a life of squalor, pedophiles, no schools and free pills." His second memoir, Dry, was about getting sober in a 28-day stay at a gay alcoholism-rehab center. Burroughs' new book is a collection of stories, Magical Thinking.

James Bennet is the former Jerusalem Bureau chief for The New York Times. He recently returned to the Middle East to cover the death of Arafat and the jockeying for power among the Palestinian factions.