Terry Gross

How do you talk people out of truly desperate situations? Gary Noesner, who spent 30 years as a hostage negotiator for the FBI, details some of his most noteworthy cases and explains the techniques he used to defuse tense, potentially life-threatening encounters.

A house located on C Street in Washington, D.C., is home to many powerful conservative members of Congress who share both an ideology and an address. Jeff Sharlet details the house's mission in C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy.

Now that President Obama has declared the end of America's combat mission in Iraq, questions remain about the country's stability. New York Times foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid explains what the war means for the future of Iraq and the future of the Middle East.