Terry Gross

New York Times Reporter John F. Burns. He has followed the latest events of Afghanistan's 18-year-old civil war, concentrating on the rise to power of the Taliban, an Islamic religious movement. Burns examines the Taliban's effect on the war-torn country's laws and punishment, including stoning, amputations, and executions.

Born in Connecticut, Brubeck is the son of jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. He's been involved in classical music since college at Yale, and is a member of the Berkeley Symphony. In addition, he performs jazz both locally and internationally, composes for Club Foot Orchestra and leads the group Oranj Symphonette. Their debut album is"Oranj Symphonette Plays Mancini," which features original interpretations of the easy listening music of Henry Mancini.

Born in Rotterdam in 1931, Wetering was once a motorcycle gang member in South Africa, an aspiring monk in Kyoto, Japan, and a police officer in Amsterdam. He is currently living in Maine. The Dutch author's colorful past has led him to be known as an eccentric and hypnotic storyteller whose latest novel "The Hollow-Eyed Angel," the 13th in his Amsterdam cop series.

She was the mother of director Martin Scorsese, who cast her in several of his movies. Catherine died this past Monday at the age of 84.

Newspaper columnist and the etiquette expert, Judith Martin, otherwise known as Miss Manners. Her new book is "Miss Manners' Basic Training: Communication" (Crown News) about the social issues of phone answering machines, e-mail, and cyberspace.

Fortune Magazine's senior editor Joe Nocera and Ron Chernow. They can both be seen in the new Frontline documentary "Betting on the Market." The documentary is based in part on Nocera's 1994 book, "A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class." It traces America's obsession with Wall Street, and looks at the consequences. Nocera serves as correspondent in the film. Chernow is the author of "The House of Morgan," which received a National Book Award in 1990.

British writer Jonathan Raban. His new book "Bad Land: An American Romance" is based on memoirs, diaries, photographs and letters of immigrants who in the early 1900s traveled to Montana to homestead. Raban himself is something of an immigrant; he settled in Seattle in 1990.

Pacific Northwest Bureau Chief for the New York Times Timothy Egan. His two-part series on urban sprawl in the western United States recently appeared in the Times. Egan writes that cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake are growing rapidly, with growth going mostly unchecked. In Phoenix, he writes that land is being consumed at the rate of "an acre an hour." But in Portland, Oregon city officials over 20 years ago set up guidelines to control rampant growth.

Branagh stars in the new film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." There's a companion book to the new film "Hamlet" which includes the screenplay, introduction, and film diary. Branagh's other films include adaptations of Shakespeare's "Henry the Fifth," with himself in the title role, Othello, playing Iago, "Dead Again," a psychological thriller starring Branagh and Emma Thompson, and "Much Ado About Nothing," also starring himself.

Lane died yesterday at the age of 84. His wife says he suffered a stroke. He's written the scores for several Broadway shows, including "Finian's Rainbow" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." Lane collaborated with Michael Feinstein on the album, "Michael Feinstein Sings the Burton Lane Songbook", which features many of Lane's classic songs, such as "Old Devil Moon" and "How About You." This interview originally aired 11/5/90.