Terry Gross

David Denby is a staff writer and film critic for The New Yorker. His new book, American Sucker, is a memoir about his brief obsession with the stock market — during the height of irrational exuberance in 2000-2001. It started with his wife's announcement that she was leaving him. Denby began an attempt to make $1 million so that he could buy out his wife's share of their New York apartment. (This interview continues into the second half of the show).

He just won a Golden Globe for the film Osama, which he wrote and directed. It was shot in post-Taliban Afghanistan. It's based on a true story about a mother who disguises her 12-year old daughter as a boy so that she can work and earn an income under the Taliban regime. Barmak also runs the Afghan film organization and is director of the Afghan Children Education Movement, an association that promotes literacy, culture and the arts.

Phillips is a former Republican strategist and a regular contributor to The Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio. And he's the author of nine books including The Politics of Rich and Poor. In his new book he takes a look at the Bush family legacy, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush.