We remember film critic Gene Siskel who was half of the Siskel and Ebert movie-review team. Two weeks ago he left their TV show to recuperate from brain tumor surgery he received last year. He died on Saturday. The duo began their TV collaboration in 1975 on Chicago Public Television .The program later became a national PBS show and then moved on to a successful commercial television run. Gene Siskel was film columnist for the Chicago Tribune. (ORIGINAL BROADCAST 3/21/96)
Neil Gershenfeld is author of "When Things Start to Think." (Henry Holt) He talks about his research into the future technology. This includes shoes with computers in them, Refrigerators that tell you when the milk is expired, and coffee cups that know how you like your coffee. He co-directs the Things That Think research consortium at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Ma.
Tom Standage is author of "The Victorian Internet."(Walker) He explores the development of the telegraph and the parallels it has with today's internet. Standage is a science writer for The Economist in London. He lives in Greenwich, England.
We remember jazz composer and musician Jaki Byard. ("BY-ARD") He was found dead from a gunshot wound a week ago in his house in Queens. His death was ruled a homicide. He was 76. Byard was considered a stylistic virtuoso, who moved quickly in his playing from boogie-woogie to free jazz. He played with Charles Mingus and Rahassaan Roland Kirk and the Duke Ellington orchestra. Byard was also the composer of the first Fresh Air theme. We remember him with an interview and concert that originally aired 6/5/87. Byard is joined by tuba and bass player Ralph Hamperian.
Authority on complementary cancer treatments Michael Lerner. and founder of The Commonweal Cancer Help Program. He's also the author of the book "Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer" (The MIT Press). Lerner won a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for his work in public health in 1983. His research institute was featured on Bill Moyers' PBS series "Healing and the Mind."
Marisa Weiss is co-author of the new book "Living Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins." (Times Books) WEISS is a radiation oncologist at Paoli Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania. In 1992, she formed the support network "Living Beyond Breast Cancer" to help survivors and their families.
Laura Landro has written the new book "Survivor: Taking Control of Your Fight Against Cancer." (Simon & Schuster) In 1991, Landro, then a Wall Street Journal reporter, was diagnosed with leukemia. She used her journalist training to seek out the best form of treatment. She is now senior editor of entertainment, media, and marketing coverage at the Wall Street Journal.
TV critic David BIianculli gives us his top-five favorite TV dramas. "Homicide: Life on the Streets," "NYPD Blue," "Ally McBeal," "The Practice," and "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"
Robert Weinberg is the author of the new book "One Renegade Cell: How Cancer Begins." (Basic Books) Weinberg talks about how cancer develops and what can be done to stop it. He is Director of the Oncology Research Laboratory at the Whitehead Institute in Massachusetts. He is also a professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. He is also author of "Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer."
Rock historian Ed Ward considers the career of Dusty Springfield, and her landmark album, "Dusty in Memphis" the 1969 album which is being re-released in April by Rhino Records, along with a collection of tracks recorded in London.
TV critic David Bianculli takes a look at several television events and episodes this week ("E.R.," Steven King's "The Storm," and the Impeachment proceedings).
A Fresh Air favorite, opera soprano Dawn Upshaw. She has a new CD, "Dawn Upshaw sings Vernon Duke" (Nonesuch). It features Fred Hersch on piano and John Pizzarelli on guitar. We'll also hear from the producer of her new CD, Tommy Krasker. Upshaw has more than two dozen albums to her credit and has become widely known for her ability to perform both in the opera as well as sing Broadway tunes. Upshaw joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 and has performed at the Met.
Editor in Chief of Variety magazine Peter Bart. He's written a new book about what the summer blockbuster means to the film industry, and the resources that go into making them. His new book "The Gross: The Hits, The Flops-The Summer That Ate Hollywood" (St. Martin's Press) takes a look at the 1998 summer season. Bart is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He's also a former Paramount studio executive.
Novelist Arthur Golden wrote the bestseller, "Memoirs of a Geisha" which was on the New York Times Bestseller List for one year. It's now out in paperback, and a movie version will be made by Stephen Spielberg. "Memoirs of a Geisha" was GOLDEN's debut as a novelist.(
Galen Cranz is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. She's the author of the new book, "The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design" (W.W. Norton)
Journalists Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. They are the authors of the new book, "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" (PublicAffairs). The two spent six years researching secret submarine missions like how the Navy sent submarines wired with self destruct charges into Soviet waters to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. Sontag covered government and international affairs for the National Law Journal and has worked at the New York Times, and Drew is a special projects editor at the New York Times.
