Guest host Dave Davies interviews Rabbi Michael Schudrich, chief rabbi of Poland — and a New York native. He moved to Warsaw in 1990 to help rebuild Jewish communities there. It was a homecoming of sorts: Schudrich's grandparents emigrated from Poland before World War II.
Zombies, car chases, and fake trailers for a string of films that don't exist: Grindhouse is a kind of meta-exploitation double feature from directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.
HBO's long-running hit The Sopranos returns this Sunday, with the first of nine episodes that will wrap up the mob drama. Guest host David Bianculli weighs in on the final act of this widely acclaimed series.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf faces protests at home — and given his stance on the Taliban, eroding support in the West as well. Journalist and author Ahmed Rashid parses the challenges and possibilities of contemporary Pakistani politics.
The TV Set, starring David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver, satirizes the punishing process of producing a TV pilot. Writer and director Jake Kasdan knows his material: He directed and co-produced the pilot for the acclaimed but short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks.
With nearly 40 films to his credit, including Days of Heaven, American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Cotton Club, and Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Richard Gere knows an iconic character when he sees one.
In his latest film, The Hoax, Gere plays a scam artist who lands a seven-figure book deal with a major publisher. It's based on the true story of Clifford Irving, who claimed to be an authorized biographer of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.
In a single monologue, the protagonist of Mohsin Hamid's sophomore novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, tells his life story to an American stranger over dinner in a Pakistani cafe. Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
New cancer-fighting techniques, including drugs designed to target cancer cells, mean thousands of patients are surviving cancer. Researcher and author David G. Nathan explains The Cancer Treatment Revolution.
Novelist A.M. Homes writes about her real life — including her reunion with her biological parents, 31 years after they gave her up for adoption — in a memoir called The Mistress's Daughter.
Maz Jobrani, Ahmed Ahmed and Aron Kader make up the Axis of Evil Comedy group. (They're of Iranian, Egyptian and Palestinian descent, respectively). Their special premiered on Comedy Central last month. It's out on DVD this week.
In the new film Blades of Glory, comic actor Will Ferrell plays a boorish figure skater forced to team up with another man in a pairs skating competition. The role is Ferrell's latest in a series of characters that have parodied macho men.
Geneticist Francis Collins is director of the National Human Genome Research Project. He is also an evangelical Christian, and author of the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
As Time magazine reinvents itself for the Internet age, the editors announced they'd be dropping some old features of the magazine's distinctive verbal style. There was once an age when Time's style helped remake journalism — and the English language itself.
In his most recent book, British scientist Richard Dawkins writes about the irrationality of a belief in God, examines God in all his forms and sets down his arguments for atheism. The book is The God Delusion.
Dawkins is a professor of "the public understanding of science" at Oxford University.
The New York Times Book Review has hailed him as a writer who "understands the issues so clearly that he forces his reader to understand them too."
Amy Winehouse is a 23 year-old British singer-songwriter who takes much of her inspiration from American soul and R&B. Her American debut album, Back To Black, topped the British charts and hit the American charts at number seven.
Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren is an expert on bankruptcy and is an outspoken critic of consumer lenders.
Recently she appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to discuss the abusive lending practices by credit card companies. She considers the interest charges and late fees imposed by credit card companies to a "hidden tax" on cardholders.
Warren is also the author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Ned Rothenberg has always been a musical cosmopolitan.
Early on, he studied jazz with George Coleman and shakuhachi flute in Japan. Later, Rothenberg put together his North African-influenced Double Band, and toured in duos with the Tuvan throat singer Saimkho Namtchylak, the shakuhachi virtuoso Katsuya Yokoyama and English saxophone improviser Evan Parker.
Rothenberg's new album, Inner Diaspora, sends him back to his roots.
With his band the MGs, Booker T. Jones created the classic instrumental "Green Onions." But they were also the studio band for Stax Records, making music with soul artists such as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. A new two-CD box set features Stax highlights and Booker T. is now back on tour.
