Terry Gross

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. She is also former President of Ireland. Robinson visited Sierra Leone recently. She warned that the United Nations will not recognize the amnesty, brokered in the peace accord, as applying to gross violations of human rights.

Birder and naturalist Scott Weidensaul author of "Living on the Wind" (North Point Press) discusses the habits of migratory birds, what makes them do what they do, and how they're able to do it.

Julia Ericksen is the author of the new book "Kiss and Tell: Surveying Sex in the Twentieth Century" (Harvard University Press). Ericksen is Associate Professor of Sociology at Temple University.

Novelist A.M. Homes. Her new book is "Music for Torching" (Rob Weisbach Books/William Morrow). Her previous novels are "The End of Alice," "In a Country of Mothers," and "Jack." She teaches writing programs at Columbia University and the New School.

We feature a panel discussion about the cable-tv series "The Sopranos" recorded recently in L.A. at a Writers' Guild Foundation conference. The participants include show writers David Chase, Frank Renzulli, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess.The Sopranos is an HBO Original Series depicting the life and times of a modern-day Mafia family living in New Jersey. The series is created by David Chase ("I'll Fly Away"), who also serves as executive producer. It has been nominated for 16 Emmy awards this year including "Outstanding Drama Series."

Executive producer and writer, Tom Fontana of HBO's, "Oz," the realistic drama about life in an experimental unit of a maximum security prison. Fontana also created "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the 1980s drama set in a city hospital, "St. Elsewhere."

World War Two combat veteran Robert Kotlowitz has written about his experiences in "Before Their Time: A Memoir." 1997 Hard cover and just re-printed this year on Anchor Books. Kotlowitz was part of a platoon that was ordered to charge the German front, an order that killed all but 3 men. His previous books included: The Boardwalk, His Master's Voice, Sea Changes, and Somewhere Else. (THIS CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW.)

Former fighter pilots Ed Mechenbier and Ron Bliss. During the Vietnam War they were both shot down, and became POWs in Hanoi. They are interviewd in the new documentary "Return with Honor." The film was made by Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders, the team that made the Oscar winning film, "Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision."

Stand-up comic Margaret Cho. Her new one-woman show "I'm The One That I Want" is about her foray into the TV sitcom, when she was the first Asian-American to star in her own TV show. The series, "All-american Girl" was short lived, and a nightmare for Cho.

Novelist, screenwriter and biographer A.E. Hotchner. His memoir "Papa Hemingway" (Carroll & Graff) about his friend and colleague, Ernest Hemingway has just been republished. Hotchner met Hemingway when he was a 20-something journalist, on assignment to interview Hemingway for Cosmopolitan magazine. That first interview in 1948 developed into a 14 year friendship.