Journalist Tina Cassidy was inspired to write about cultural birth practices after hearing many accounts of birth experiences. Cassidy is a former reporter for the Boston Globe and writes for other publications including The New York Times Magazine.
Film critic David Edelstein reviews Infamous, a new film about Truman Capote based on the book by George Plimpton. Toby Jones and Sigourney Weaver star in the film, which covers the same ground as last year's Oscar-winning film Capote.
Rapper and producer Andre Benjamin's new project is an animated series for the Cartoon Network called Class of 3000. Benjamin (Andre 3000) is half of the Grammy-winning hip-hop duo Outkast. The group is best known for the single "Hey Ya!" from the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Benjamin also appears in the films Idlewild, Four Brothers, and Be Cool.
British journalist Stephen Grey writes about security issues and Iraq. His work appears in The Sunday Times of London, The New York Times, the Guardian, and The Atlantic Monthly. He says that dozens of terror suspects are still being held in secret prisons and interrogated by the CIA despite President Bush's declaration that the CIA is no longer doing so. Grey's new book is Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (St. Martin's Press).
In The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, author Daniel Mendelsohn unearths and reconstructs the lives of six people in his family who died in the Holocaust. Maureen Corrigan has a book review.
David Kuo is the former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He left in December 2003. He says he was disillusioned with the administration because they failed to actually fund faith-based charities, and they used compassion and religion for political ends. He is the author of the new memoir Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.
H. James Towey is the former director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He is David Kuo's former boss. He responds to Kuo's criticisms of the Bush administration's follow through on the initiatives. Towey is now president of the Benedictine Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Penn.
Forest Whitaker played jazz musician Charlie Parker in Bird, a British soldier kidnapped by the IRA in The Crying Game, a mafia hit man who models himself after a Samurai warrior in Ghost Dog, and an internal-affairs detective on the FOX TV show The Shield. In his latest film, The Last King of Scotland, he plays Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
The hit show 'Lost' began its third season Oct. 4 in a year that has, so far, been dominated by the 'CSI' franchise. The success of these crime shows isn't surprising, says critic at-large John Powers, who finds that the difference between the two kinds of shows says a lot about current TV.
Peabody award-winning independent radio producer Jay Allison. His radio series include "Life Stories", "Lost and Found Sound" (with The Kitchen Sisters) and the "Sonic Memorial Project." He created Transom.org -- an online resource for newcomers to radio production. Along with producer Dan Gediman he created the "This I Believe" series, currently on NPR, modeled after the Edward R. Murrow series. Many of the essays are collected in a new book, and on CD.
Director Stephen Frears. His new film The Queen explores the tension between Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Blair in the days following the death of Princess Diana as they struggle to come up with the appropriate official response. Frears's other films include My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick up Your Ears, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Dangerous Liasons, The Grifters, The Hi-Lo Country, High Fidelity and Dirty Pretty Things.
Playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute has earned a reputation for writing characters who are selfish, mean, misanthropic and misogynistic. His films include In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors. His plays include "The Mercy Seat", "Some Girls" and "Fat Pig". The New Yorker's John Lahr says his plays are "complex and unnerving," and that "there's no playwright on the planet who is writing better." "Wrecks" is LaBute's new one-man play starring Ed Harris.
William Cope Moyers is the son of journalist Bill Moyers. He's written a new memoir about his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine and his recovery. He's been sober for twelve years and is the vice president for external affairs at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. His new memoir is Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption
Film critic David Bianculli reviews 30 Rock the new NBC sitcom created by and starring Tina Fey, former head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor on Saturday Night Live. It's the second NBC show about a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional late-night live variety show.
