Terry Gross

Writer Andrew Leland started losing his sight 20 years ago, when he was in high school, as a result of a progressive eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition that leads to the deterioration of the retinas.

Moran talks jazz and plays selections from his latest recording, which borrows from the music of James Reese Europe, the composer and musician who led the Harlem Hellfighters regiment band during WWI.

We remember Reubens, who died July 30, by listening back to a 2004 interview with him, and to archival interviews with Laurence Fishburne and S. Epatha Merkerson, who appeared on Pee-wee's Playhouse.