TV critic David Bianculli looks at The Apprentice, the NBC reality show. After all other contestants are eliminated, the winner gets to work as a corporate president for Donald Trump.
He's the author of the new book, Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life. He writes the monthly "Emerging Technology" column for Discover and is contributing editor at Wired. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Guardian. Johnson is also the author of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, which was named as a finalist for the 2002 Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism.
He was once crowned the "The Pope of Trash" by William Burroughs. Waters has a new book and art exhibit, which began when he started photographing video stills off his television screen. Many of the stills are collected in his new book John Waters: Change of Life. He also has his first major museum exhibit of the same name at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, which runs through April 18.
Engel was the only American television correspondent who was in Baghdad before, during and after the war. On the next Fresh Air, Engel talks about how he bribed officials, woke to gunfire and witnessed atrocities of battle. His new book is A Fist in the Hornet's Nest.
Marty is one of the foremost authorities on religion and society. He is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he taught for over 35 years. His new book is a biography of Martin Luther, one of the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation. The book is Martin Luther. Marty is also the author of a five-volume work on religion in the 20th century.
Coll is managing editor of The Washington Post. His new book is Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Coll previously covered Afghanistan for the Post and was the paper's South Asia bureau chief between 1989 and 1992. He won the Pulitzer in 1990 for explanatory journalism.
She wrote and directed the film Lost in Translation. It's up for four Academy awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. The film stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannsen as two Americans visiting Tokyo. Sofia Coppola is the daughter of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
Mayer is a staff writer for The New Yorker. She talks about Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the company where Cheney served as chief executive for five years. Halliburton is the world's largest oil-and-gas-services company, and is now the biggest private contractor for American forces in Iraq. Mayer's article "Contract Sport: What Did the Vice-President do for Halliburton?" is in the current issue of the magazine (Feb. 16 and Feb. 23 issues).
Milbank, a reporter for The Washington Post, covered the last presidential campaign and aftermath. He wrote the book Smashmouth: Two years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush.
Boyle is a Jesuit priest who has worked with gangs in East Los Angeles since 1986. He was originally supposed to work with the Dolores Mission there for a six-year term, but when the time came to leave, the community revolted, and he was allowed to stay. He's received national acclaim for his work helping the people he works with to find jobs and quality schooling.
Rubin worked with Johnny Cash for the last 10 years of Cash's life, collaborating on four critically acclaimed and Grammy award-winning albums (American Recordings, Unchained, American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around.) At the time of Cash's death, they were collaborating on a box set that collects many unreleased tracks from those previous sessions, as well as a best-of CD. The five-CD collection is called Unearthed.
