Terry Gross

Robert Rector is a policy analyst at the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. He is credited wiith being the driving force behind the rightward swing of the newest GOP welfare reform. He believes the welfare system creates illegitimacy, and that, "the more you spend [on welfare] the more clientele for the programs you create." He also believes to bring people out of their "behavioral poverty," they need to work for their assistance.

Child care innovator and reformer Richard Clifford. In 1993-94 he took a year leave from his professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to establish and direct the North Carolina Smart Start Early Childhood Initiative under Governor Hunt. The program is a working model of partnership between public and private groups. It has been considered a success and is being expanded into other counties of North Carolina.

Professor Nicholas Negroponte's new book "Being Digital" explores the future of new information technology and how it will challenge today's perceptions of the future. Ten years ago, Negroponte created the now famous and innovative Media Laboratory at MIT. He believes a fundamental change in how we live is coming with the newest computer technologies. He is also a popular columnist for Wired Magazine.

The Australian director made the new film based on the popular nineteenth century novel. In 1978, Armstrong's career took off with the critically acclaimed film "My Brilliant Career" -- the first in Australia directed by a woman. Armstrong has garnered many film awards since, including the Australian Film Institute Awards, U.S. National society of Film Critics Award, and a best film at the Festival International de Creteil, France.

The New Yorker called Trevor"probably the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language." Besides his eight volumes of short stories, he has written eleven novels, several plays for stage and for radio and television, and stories for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other magazines. Early last year he published his memoir, "Excursions in the Real World," in which he writes about his family and childhood in Ireland. His most recent novel is "Felicia's Journey."

Poet Mark Halliday reads "Separated Father," a poem about the differences between familial and romantic love.

Professor Michael Kazin's new book, "The Populist Persuasion: An American History," explores the rise and change of populism and its effect on the political structure. He examines populism's roots as a leftist, liberal movement, and how populist ideas came to be used as rhetoric of conservative Presidents Nixon and Reagan.

Monette died of complications from the AIDS virus on Friday, at age 49. His 1988 book "Borrowed Time: An Aids Memoir," was the first memoir to be published about AIDS, and won a National Book Award. In it, Monette told the story of his "beloved" friend and lover's two year struggle with AIDS. The book was called "a gallant, courageous love story." In 1992, he wrote a memoir about his own life before he came out of the closet at the age of 25, "Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story." (Rebroadcast)

Aciman is the author of "Out of Egypt: A Memoir." The book follows Aciman's close-knit, flamboyant Jewish family through 50 years of residence in Alexandria. The family was forced to leave Egypt when Aciman was 14, during a long wave of Anti-Semitism and Arab nationalism.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new movie, "The Secret of Roan Inish."