Senior Editor at National Review, Richard Brookhiser. Recently the conservative magazine has come out in favor of some kind of drug legalization. Brookhiser is also a columnist for The New York Observer. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)
Ethan Nadelmann, Director of The Lindesmith Center, a research center devoted to broadening the debate on drug policy, and looking at strategies that have been overlooked or ignored. (The Lindesmith Center is located in New York City, 212-887-0695) (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)
Journalist and musician James McBride. His new book, is "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother" (Riverhead) about his mother who was white and Jewish, but refused to admit her race. McBride's father was black. For years, McBride knew nothing about his mother's early life. It wasn't until he started work on the book, that she opened up to tell him that her father was a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, a racist, and he sexually abused her.
Pianist and composer Leon Fleisher. The 67 year old musician was a child prodigy. Thirty years ago he lost the use of his right hand, because of a disability, (later diagnosed as "repetitive stress syndrome") and so he began to play the left-hand repertory. Last year he made a "two-handed" comeback. It culminated with a performance on January 13, with the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall. He credits the increased movement in his right hand to the deep message therapy, rolfing. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)
Walter Turnbull is the founder and of the Boys Choir of Harlem. He has written about his work in "Lift Every Voice" by Hyperion. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
Tom Blanton is the editor of the book "White House E-Mail: The Top Secret Computer Messages The Reagan/Bush White House tried to Destroy." It is published by New Press. Blanton is the executive editor of the National Security Archive, a freedom of information advocacy group. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
Sidney Jones, is regional director of Human Rights Watch in Asia. Recently Human Rights Watch published a report on abandoned children in China, and their treatment in China's state-funded orphanages, "Death by Default: A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China's State Orphanages." The report finds the death rate in the orphanages "staggering," and in some cases constitutes a sinister "systematic program of child elimination." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane) f
Kay Ann Johnson does research on adoption and abandonment in China, for the Committee for Scholarly Communications with China 1995-1996. She says that the Human Rights Watch report misrepresents the scope of the problem in Chinese state-run orphanages and that she has seen no systematic official policy of letting children die. Johnson is a Professor of Asian Studies and Political Science at Hampshire College. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
British filmmaker Kate Blewett. Using a concealed camera, Blewett and crew visited eleven state-funded orphanages in China and filmed in nine of them. They documented such things as toddlers whose hands and legs were tied to potty chairs all day, and the rooms where children are left to die. They also say that many of the children were girls, victims of China's One Child Policy, and the Chinese tradition that favors sons over daughters. "The Dying Rooms: China's Darkest Secret" debuts on CINEMAX (Jan 24 at 8 PM). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
Janice Neilson, Executive Director of World Association for Children and parents (WACAP), a non-profit organization for parents who are interested in adopting children at risk worldwide. She has worked with Chinese children's institutions since 1991. Neilson says her observations are "at variance" with the conclusions of the Human Rights Watch report. Neilson urges that China not be judged by our standards but by the "standards of the developing world." She says that Chinese authorities are trying to improve the situation. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
Biologist Joel E. Cohen. He heads the laboratory of populations at Rockefeller University in New York City. His new book is "How Many People Can the Earth Support?" (W.W. Norton). Cohen's book is "neither an alarmist tract nor a cornucopian lullaby." Cohen considers the central population issues: Has rapid population growth, brought us close to destruction? And what is the carrying capacity of the earth?
Arranger and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan died Saturday, January 20th, from complications due to surgery. He was 68. We will rebroadcast a 1989 interview with him. Mulliagn was an innovator in modern jazz orchestration. Early in his career he was staff arranger for Gene Krupa's big band. In 1949 he collaborated with Gil Evans and Miles Davis in the Nonet. The nine-piece band shook up jazz arrangers and launched the era of so-called cool jazz. He achieved international acclaim when he started a "pianoless" quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker in the early 1950's.
Washington Editor of "The Atlantic Monthly," and NPR commentator James Fallows. He won a National Book award for his 1981 book "National Defense" about the post Vietnam War era national defense establishment. Fallows new book examines what has gone wrong with the media, how it has failed to meet its public responsibilities, and what can be done about it. His new book is "Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy," (Pantheon).
Political satirist Al Franken. He was one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live. He's won four Emmys for his writing on the show. His most popular character is Stuart Smalley, the new age cable TV host. He left the show last season. His new book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations" (Delacorte Press) is his look at American politics and the Republican revolution. The Kirkus Reviews writes, "he attacks with a wonderful lack of civility. . .and he does it with two murderous weapons: satire and facts. . ."
