Ann Fessler talks about her new book, The Girls Who Went Away. Using her own story of adoption as a basis for her book, Fessler tells the story of over a million women who surrendered children for adoption prior to legalized abortion. Fessler is a photography professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Two archaeologists test the historical accuracy of some of the Bible's oldest stories in a new book, David and Solomon. Neil Asher Silberman talks about the findings in the book he co-authored with Israel Finkelstein.
The popular NBC White House drama The West Wing wraps up seven years on the air on Sunday night with a final episode. Our TV critic has a retrospective of the series, and we feature previous interviews with some of the actors.
The late actor John Spencer was best known for his character Leo McGarry, the president's chief of staff, on The West Wing. Spencer's and McGarry's lives ran parallel: Both were recovering alcoholics and both had driven personalities. McGarry suffered a heart attack on the show, and Spencer died of a heart attack. Spencer was previously a regular on "L.A. Law" and began his career on "The Patty Duke Show." This interview originally aired on April 5, 2000.
Music critic Milo Miles reviews the new album St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley, a persona of two Americans: producer and DJ Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton and rapper and songwriter Thomas "Cee-Lo" Calloway.
Journalist Michelle Goldberg, a senior writer for the online magazine Salon, and covers the Christian Right. In her new book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, she writes that Christian nationalists believe the Bible is literally true — and they want to see the nation governed by that truth.
Neurosurgeon Katrina Firlik's new book is Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside. Firlik is now a private practitioner in Greenwich, Conn., and a clinical assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine. She is also the daughter of a surgeon
There have been several waves of pop music in New Orleans since World War II, with each one subsiding as its celebrated musicians realize they can't make a living in the city they grew up in. In 1960, another of those waves crested, and with it came a pioneering effort for racial equality. Ed Ward has the story of AFO Records: All For One.
Forced out of New Orleans after Katrina hit last year, historian Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Tulane University, soon returned. He helped with rescue efforts and immediately began the task of collecting oral histories of the catastrophe.
The result is his new book, The Great Deluge, which offers a multi-perspective account of the storm and its aftermath. Brinkley is the author of three other historical narratives, including Tour of Duty.
British guitarist and vocalist Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers talks about the band's music. The other members are his sister Michele, and Sean and Angela Gannon (also siblings). In sound, they've been compared to early Beach Boys and the Mamas and the Papas.
Philip Roth's new novel is about a 71-year-old multi-divorced, successful advertising man who is facing his physical deterioration and approaching death — without the aid of religion or philosophy. One reviewer called Everyman a "swift, brutal novel about a heartbreakingly ordinary subject."
How many words are in the English language? 500,000? 1 million? Our linguist says there is no way to really count all the words. What's more, he wonders why people even care.
Director and choreographer Busby Berkeley was noted for Hollywood musicals featuring lots of scantily clad show girls filmed from overhead in intricate kaleidoscopic patterns. After seeing some of these films again in a new DVD collection, our critic notices a connection between Berkeley and the avant-garde artists of an earlier generation.
National Guard Lt. Paul Rieckhoff is the founder and executive director of the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (formerly Operation Truth). One of the group's aims is to see that troops in active duty and veterans are properly provided for.
He has written a memoir about his tour in Iraq shortly after the occupation: Chasing Ghosts: A Soldier's Fight for America from Baghdad to Washington.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Living with War, a new CD by Neil Young that includes the song "Let's Impeach the President." He posted the entire album on his website last week for free. It's now on sale as a CD.
Bill Carter reports on the television industry for The New York Times and has written about TV for almost 30 years. His new book is called Desperate Networks and it has a mouthful of a subtitle: Starring Katie Couric, Les Moonves, Simon Cowell, Dan Rather, Jeff Zucker, Teri Hatcher, Conan O'Brien, Donald Trump and a Host of Other Movers and Shakers Who Changed the Face of Prime-Time TV.
We remember author and TV host Louis Rukeyser, who died Tuesday from a rare cancer of the bone marrow. He was 73. Rukeyser hosted Wall $treet Week With Louis Rukeyser on PBS from 1970-2002. We listen back to a 1984 interview with him.
