Terry Gross

Freberg created several humorous and memorable ad campaigns for television and radio, and continues to work in the trade today. His new memoir, the first of two volumes, is called It Only Hurts When I Laugh.

As a reporter, Ward Just covered the Vietnam War and, later, Washington politics. Now, he devotes himself to fiction writing. While his novels often draw on his knowledge of D.C. culture, Just is careful to invent his own characters, rather than use fictionalized versions of real politicians.

Peter Nabokov cowrote a book with Robert Easton about the dwellings of American Indians, which he uses as a lens through which to learn more about their lives and traditions. For his research, Easton lived near several reservations and visited the homes of Native American families.

Davies began his working life as an actor in England. At the start of World War II, he returned to his home country of Canada and became a journalist. Now a popular author best known for his Deptfod Trilogy, Davies says he still only "squeaks by" as a writer.

Urban planner and designer Lawrence Halprin designs public spaces which take into consideration how people move through a city -- a process he likens to dance choreography.

Unlike many young writers, Carpenter avoided the siren call of New York City, instead documenting the life around his hometown of San Francisco. His new novel is called From a Distant Place.

Journalist Isadore Barmash joins Fresh Air to explain the process of leveraged buyouts and hostile takeovers of corporations, and how these affect employees, customers, and shareholders. His new book, Macy's for Sale, offers a case study.

Oklahoma-born Singer writes the Talk of the Town feature for the magazine, as well as profiles of ordinary people in New York. A new book, Mr. Personality, collects the best of his New Yorker pieces.

Writer Joe McGinniss lived in the Toms River, New Jersey area to investigate how the community reacted to the murder of Maria Marshall at the hands of her husband. Two of Marshall's sons eventually came to believe in their father's guilt; the youngest still maintains his innocence. A book about that experience is called Blind Faith.

Mountaineer Joe Simpson suffered a severe fracture while descending a cliff in the Peruvian Andes. His climbing parter Simon Yates took extraordinary measures to save him, but was ultimately forced to abandon Simpson. Simpson tells his story of survival in a new book, Touching the Void.