Terry Gross

Sokolove is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. His new book, The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw, is about the former baseball star whose drug addiction ended his career and the high school team he played for in South Central Los Angeles. Sokolove calls it the greatest assemblage of talent in the history of high school baseball.

Witte is Jonas Robitscher professor of law and ethics, and director of the law and religion program at Emory University in Atlanta. He is the author of From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition.

Cott is a professor of history at Harvard University. She testified before Vermont's judiciary committee. Vermont became the first state in the country to make civil unions legal for gay and lesbian couples. Cott is the author of Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Harvard University).