Terry Gross

Animation director J.J. Sedelmaier is the animator of the TV Funhouse skits which run on Saturday Night Live. They include The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Fun with Real Audio, and The X-Presidents. Sedelmaier and his animation company work on many other projects for TV and commercials. They have worked for MTV and Nickelodeon. He also has his own Cartoon Network series, Capt. Linger.

John Lithgow is one of the stars of the animated hit movie, Shrek. His comedy TV series Third Rock From the Sun just finished its run on NBC. Lithgow also writes children's books. He's just published the book Marsupial Sue (Simon and Schuster), and he has released a new CD of music for children called Farkle and Friends (Watershed Records). Lithgow is currently performing his children's material live in concert.

Singer-songwriter Steve Earle has released ten critically acclaimed albums; his latest CD is called Transcendental Blues. He's just published his first book, a collection of short stories called Doghouse Roses. Earle is also politically active. He currently serves as a board member of the Journey of Hope and is affiliated with both the Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the Abolitionist Action Committee.

Alan Ball is the creator of the new HBO series Six Feet Under. Ball won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for American Beauty. He also has production credits on the TV shows Cybill and Oh Grow Up. Ball has served as producer, writer and director on Six Feet Under. Ball is a return guest on the show. His first visit was in December of 1999.

Poet Billy Collins has just been appointed the next Poet Laureate. His books include Picnic, Lightning (University of Pittsburgh Press), The Art of Drowning, (University of Pittsburgh Press), and Questions about Angels (William Morrow & Co.), which was selected as a winner of the National Poetry Series Competition in 1990. John Updike says of Collins' poetry, "Billy Collins writes lovely poems...

In 1999, Stephen King, the prolific and popular horror writer experienced something that could have come out of one of his books: he was struck by a car while walking along a rural road in Maine and nearly killed. Six operations and a long recovery followed. Five weeks after the accident King started writing again, and published the novella, The Plant over the internet. His latest book is Dreamcatchers.

Journalist Jon Cohen has just written a book called Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine. (Norton) He is a leading AIDS reporter who covers science and medicine for Science Magazine. Hell talk about the work that is being done to develop the AIDS vaccine, trials, funding issues, and when the future of AIDS prevention.

South African journalist Charlene Smith writes about the spread of AIDS in Southern Africa. In 1999, she was raped, and feared the man who raped her could have given her HIV/AIDS. Smith had a hard time obtaining the drugs that could lessen the potential of her getting HIV. Smith then wrote about her experience and helped spread awareness about rape and HIV in South Africa. Statistics say every 26 seconds, a woman is raped in South Africa— the country with the fastest growing HIV rate.

Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Michael Baime, M.D. discuss God and the brain: tracking transcendence. Newberg conducted brain scans while people prayed and meditated to see if he could locate the brain function that caused the feeling of oneness and the presence of God. His book on the subject is called Why God Wont Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief, by Newberg, Eugene DAqulli M.D. and Vince Rause (Ballantine).

New York Times reporters David Barstow and Don Van Natta, Jr. went to Florida following the closest presidential election in history. During a six month investigation, the two journalists found –under intense pressure from the Republicans, Florida officials accepted hundreds of overseas absentee ballots that failed to comply with state election laws.— (NYT 7/15/01) However, the outcome of the investigation is inconclusive. If all invalid overseas ballots had been thrown out, Bush would have still maintained a narrow margin over Gore.