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Novelist Joseph Heller.

Novelist Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, Something Happened and No Laughing Matter, his 1985 account of being stricken with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a neurological disease in which the peripheral nervous system is attacked. Within two weeks of the first symptoms, Heller could hardly breathe or swallow. It took him two years to relearn his basic motor functions. Heller's best known work is still his first, Catch 22, a satire of the military bureaucracy and the madness of war.

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Other segments from the episode on January 29, 1988

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, January 29, 1988: Interview with Joseph Heller; Interview with Winnie Winston; Interview with Jane Rule; Review of the television program "Aventures de Tintin."
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07:04

Performance by Winnie Winston.

Banjo and pedal steel guitar player Winnie Winston will perform several pieces. A four-time world champion on the banjo at the country's top bluegrass competition, the Union Grove Old Time Fiddler's Convention in North Carolina, Winston has played with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Dave Bromberg and the late Steve Goodman.

Interview
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09:49

Jane Rule on Images of Lesbians in Fiction.

Canadian author Jane Rule, one of the best known and most widely read lesbian writers. Rule is best known for her 1985 novel Desert of the Heart, which was later adapted into the movie "Desert Hearts." Her new book is titled Memory Board.

Interview
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02:42

"The Adventures of Tintin" and other Home Video Releases.

Ken Tucker reviews the home video release of "The Adventures of Tintin," a European comic strip that featured a boy reporter accompanied by a wire-haired terrier. The strip, which first appeared in 1929, captivated children and adults alike, winning the praise of Winston Churchill and Charles DeGaulle. In 1962, the strip was made into animated cartoons by the American producer Charles Shows.

Review

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How Margaret Mead's research into utopias helped usher in the psychedelic era

Psychedelic science began much earlier than you may think - back in the 1920s and '30s. At the center of that research was Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, and her third husband, Gregory Bateson, one of the most controversial anthropologists of his time. That early history is covered in the new book by my guest, Benjamin Breen. The book is called "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, The Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science".

Interview

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A humorist faces life with Stage 4 lung cancer: 'The future disappeared for me'

Terry Gross interviews humorist, memoirist and actress ANNABELLE GURWITCH about her new memoir called The End of My Life is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker. It is a national bestseller.

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