Jerome Groopman, MD. His new book is "Second Opinions: Stories Of Intuition And Choice In A Changing World Of Medicine." (Viking) The Harvard Medical School doctor and researcher says patient and doctor should be working together, using intuition, cutting-edge science and personal values to make critical medical decisions. The book's case histories include Goodman’s infant son, who was misdiagnosed in a hospital emergency room and almost died.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to Fats Waller on the centennial of his birth, and reviews Fats Waller: The Centennial Collection, a CD and DVD.

Shakespeare's King Lear is one of the most challenging and prestigious roles in theater — and one that's traditionally played by a man. But now a new production of King Lear on Broadway stars Glenda Jackson in its title role. The British actor, who is 82, is fine with the gender bending casting. She recently returned to acting after 23 years away, when she served as a Member of Parliament.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a robbery thriller directed by Sidney Lumet, is perfectly weighted and expertly crafted.

It's a crime-and-punishment story starring Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman as brothers who are desperately in debt; when Hoffman's character talks Hawke's into a scheme to alleviate the cash crunch, events go from very bad to even worse — to as grotesquely awful as possible.

Under Lumet's sympathetic direction, the brothers' anguish gets into the viewer's bloodstream, and the movie transcends melodrama.

Journalist Bill Buford. He traveled for eight years with "soccer thugs" -- England's hardcore soccer fans known for their violent outbreaks surrounding England's soccer games. Buford witnessed "lads" urinating on fellow spectators, commuter trains being demolished, a pub being robbed, and saw stabbings. He wanted to understand the violence that has caused many deaths (including the death of 66 fans asphyxiated in a crush of people trying to get out of a stadium in Glasgow in 1971).

Dame Edna Everage. Dame Edna describes herself as a housewife, megastar, investigative journalist, chanteuse, swami and polymath. She's become a media star in England and Australia, and has just written her memoir, called "My Gorgeous Life: The Life, The Loves, The Legend" (published by Simon and Schuster). Dame Edna, in case you didn't know, is a fictitious creation, the alter-ego of Australian comic Barry Humphries.

After a chart-topping and occasionally controversial music career, she is now turning out children's books, publishing four in just over a year. Her latest is The Adventures of Abdi. The others are The English Roses, Mr. Peabody's Apples and Yakov and the Seven Thieves. Her fifth, Lotsa de Casha, is due out in April 2005.

Actor Dennis Hopper co-stars in the new film "Carried Away." Hopper plays Joseph Svenden a school teacher who has an affair with a 17 year old female student. The film is based on the Jim Harrison novel "Farmer." Hopper made his feature film debut in "Rebel Without a Cause" in 1955.

With his wide leaps between long tones and a sometimes generous use of space, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith nods occasionally to 20th-century European concert music. But he's also one of the modern improvisers most grounded in African-American vernaculars; he's the stepson of Mississippi bluesman Alex Wallace, and he played for a spell in Little Milton's blues band. Smith's projects are all over the map, but often have this much in common with the blues: the byplay between a strong voice — his horn, in this case — and percussive strings.

Darren Aronofsky's latest film is a big-budget Bible story called, simply, Noah. Russell Crowe plays the title character, and the movie also features Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson.

Transplant surgeon pioneer Thomas Starzl. Last June he supervised the surgical team that transplanted a baboon's liver into a 35 year-old man who was dying of hepatitis B. It has since become known that the patient was HIV-positive, though he showed no symptoms of the disease. The case raised questions about whether it's ethical to "experiment" on a person who is HIV-positve. Starzl has a new book, called "The Puzzle People."

He began his career with Chicago's Second City improv group. He went on to win a Tony on Broadway, in Carl Reiner's play Enter Laughing, and to star in Glengarry Glen Ross, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Wait Until Dark, Catch-22 and The In-Laws. This interview first aired September 29, 1995.

Patrick Murphy is the Public Guardian of Cook County, Illinois. He represents abused or neglected children in Chicago’s . In his new book Wasted: The Plight of America’s Unwanted Children (Ivan R. Dee, Inc) he argues that while keeping families together may sound like good public policy, there are many cases in which it only endangers the lives of children. His previous book is titled Our Kindly Parent the State. (Viking) (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Rock critic Ken Tucker looks at three new albums by by performers who are relatives of the already famous--Lenny Kravitz (Lisa Bonet's husband), Michael Penn (Sean Penn's brother), and Jason Bonham (son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham). Ken says in acting, there's no stigma in cashing in on fame by association, but rock and roll relations can have a hard time of it.

A natural gas mining company sent Josh Fox a letter offering him $100,000 in exchange for the rights to drill on his land. Instead of saying yes, Fox made a documentary called Gasland about the unexpected results of natural gas drilling -- and why he believes there is continued cause for concern.

Character actor John C. Reilly. He's starred In all three of director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson's films. He played a small-time gambler In "Hard Eight," a porn star In "Boogie Nights," and a police officer In the new "Magnolia." Reilly has also worked with directors Brian DePalma ("Casualties of War") and Terrence Malik ("The Thin Red Line"). Reilly got his start In Chicago at the Goodman School of Drama and worked with the Steppenwolf theatre.

Inspired by a ride at Disneyworld, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a surprise blockbuster in 2003, grossing close to half a billion dollars and winning an Oscar nomination for Johnny Depp -- a rare honor for a comic lead performance. Virtually the same cast and crew returns for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

Historian Stephen E Ambrose's new book is “The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys who Flew the B-24s Over Germany.” (Simon & Schuster) It’s about the 18-22 year old men, including the young George McGovern, who flew dangerous missions in the plane they called “The Liberator.” The casualty rate was nearly 50 percent. Ambrose is the author of a number of books of history, including the New York Times number one bestseller “Nothing Like it in the World.”

After "Robert Galbraith" was revealed to be the pen name for J.K. Rowling, many readers have been circling back to a "debut" novel they'd initially overlooked. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the mystery is respectable, but she will shelve it in the "I've read worse, but I've read better" category.

Sharon Jones, head of the old-school funk and soul band Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, is working it. She and her band have a new album, their third, called 100 Days, 100 Nights. They've been touring to support the album, and Jones was recently part of the cast of Berlin, along with Lou Reed. She also shot a part for the upcoming Denzel Washington film The Great Debaters.