Terry Gross

Astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan died today at the age of 62. A spokesman for the Cancer Research Center says Sagan died from pneumonia after suffering from bone marrow disease for two years.

Brooks' latest film is a comedy called "Mother," starring Debbie Reynolds. He joins Fresh Air to talk about humor, writing movies, acting, and his relationship with his own mother.

An excerpt from a recent panel discussion in Philadelphia on the future on the Internet. It was moderated by Terry Gross and took place November 1, 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania. The guests include James Gleick, who writes about technology for the New York Times Sunday Magazine; Paul Ginsparg, a theoretical physicist in Los Alamos; Sherry Turkle, author of "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet"; and Paul Evan Peters, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. Peters died a few days after participating in this panel.