Terry Gross

She is a leading portrait photographer specializing in writers. Over the years her subjects have included Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, William Styron, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, Sue Miller and Sarah Vowell, among others. She is currently working on a book of her author portraits to be released next year.

New York Times reporter and columnist Lisa Belkin writes the "Life's Work" column for the paper. Her recent article "The Grief Payout" in The New York Times Magazine (Dec. 8, 2002) is about the Victim Compensation Fund set up to benefit the families of victims from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and examines the controversies surrounding how the money is distributed. Lisa Belkin is also the author of the book Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom.

He is a national icon in Brazil. Along with Gilberto Gil, Veloso created the provocative "Tropicalismo" movement which combined the richness of Brazil's musical past with 1960s rock 'n' roll, surrealism, and dada -– in reaction to the military junta in 1964. Veloso and Gil were jailed and exiled for their efforts. Veloso's memoir Tropical Truth a Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil (first published in 1997) is now translated and published in the United States (Knopf).

Journalist Owen Bennett Jones is the author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm. In the book, he examines the country's turbulent 55-year history. He'll discuss Pakistan's history and its current relationship with the United States. Jones lives in England and has written for The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Independent newspapers and the London Review of Books. He has also reported for BBC Radio and BBC World Television.

Doctors Quentin Young and Marcia Angell of Physicians for a National Health Care Program (PNHP). They advocate a single-payer health insurance plan, in which the government finances health care, but choice of provider remains mostly private. Young is Senior Attending Physician at Michael Reese Hospital and serves as National Coordinator of PNHP. Angell is head of the Physician Working Group and is a senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Economist Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine's panel studying ways to improve health care. She supports improving on existing plans such as Medicare and employer coverage. She served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977-80 and was the first woman to head a U.S. Public Health Service Agency.

This year she received the John Humphrey Freedom Award for her 20-plus years in the field of human rights and democratic development in her country. She was noted for her work to promote women's rights in Nigeria. She helped organize civil protests across the country, demonstrating against the planned adoption of a conservative and discriminatory form of law known as Sharia.

He is starring in the new film Love In the Time of Money and recently starred in the movie The Grey Zone. He directed and produced the movie Animal Factory, a prison drama starring Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong. He made his directorial debut with Tree's Lounge in 1996. Buscemi has acted in more than 60 movies over the past 20 years. He won particular praise for roles in cult favorites such as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Fargo

Bruce McEwen is a pioneering expert on the ways in which the brain influences the body. He is the author of ""The End of Stress As We Know It" (with Elizabeth Norton Lasley, published by Joseph Henry Press). The book examines the response of the body to stress, what happens when the body's stress response turns against us, and how to keep that from happening. Dr. McEwen is head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University in New York City.

She is the Foreign Affairs/U.N. Correspondent for The Boston Globe. She's about to go into a special training camp for journalists planning on covering a possible U.S. war with Iraq. She's also reported on the war on terrorism from Afghanistan. Her recent book, The Key to My Neighbor's House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda, is now out in paperback.