Terry Gross

Richard Turley is managing director of the Family and Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City.

Krakauer is the author of the book Into Thin Air, about the disastrous 1996 Mount Everest climb in which eight climbers were killed. His new book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, is about Mormon fundamentalism and the story of the two Lafferty brothers who murdered a woman and her infant daughter because they say that they had received a revelation from God to do so. Krakauer reports there are some 40,000 Mormon fundamentalists in the American West, Canada and Mexico. The Mormon Church does not recognize fundamentalists as part of their faith.

He was Laura Hillenbrand's editor on the book Seabiscuit. He'll talk about working with Hillenbrand, who has chronic fatigue syndrome, while she was writing the best-selling book.