Journalist Nicholas Lemann is National Correspondent of The Atlantic Monthly. He's written an essay in the April 28, 1997 issue of Newsweek, "The Limits of Charity." He'll talk with Marty Moss-Coane about the volunteerism touted at the current Presidential Summit.
Former major baseball league scout John Young. He is currently special assistant to the general manager of the Chicago Cubs. In 1988 he began a program in south central Los Angeles to get inner city kids playing baseball. Known as RBI ("Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities"), the program has since expanded to include 51 cities and 40,000 youth.
Writer Leonard Wolf. His latest book "Dracula: The Connoisseur's Guide" is about our attraction to vampires and the curiosity they have provoked over the past 100 years. Wolf is thought of as a specialist on the subject, having written such books as "The Essential Phantom of the Opera," "The Essential Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde," "The Essential Dracula," and a number of other horror related books. Wolf is also the winner of the O.
Sterling is the editor of "Travelers' Tales Food: True Stories of Life on the Road." While in Asia serving in the Navy, Sterling developed an interest in the art of travel and food and claims he is willing to try any dish or drink at least once. He is also author of "The Eclectic Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area" and "Dining with Headhunters" and is the travel editor for "Fiery Foods" magazine.
Writer and former prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin. He's covered the O.J. Simpson trial for the New Yorker and has been a staff writer for the magazine since 1993. Now he is writing about the Oklahoma City Bombing trial and the issues it uncovers, from jury selection to victims' rights. Toobin is also a Legal Analyst for ABC's "Good Morning America" and the author of the bestselling book "The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson."
William Ulrich's new book is "The Year 2000 Software Crisis" (Yourdon Press). It is a guide to solving the problems that will arise in the millennium when computer software will translate the two-digit shorthand '00 as 1900, not 2000. For companies world-wide this computer failure could lead to business failure. Ulrich is President of Tactical Strategy Group, Inc. and a strategic Year 2000 advisor for corporations and government agencies.
Palestinian psychiatrist and human rights activist Dr. Eyad al-Sarraj. He is director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and is considered an authority on the traumas experienced by children under Israeli occupation. Sarraj has been an outspoken opponent of human rights violations whether committed by Israelis or Palestinians. Recently he was detained and interrogated by Palestinian police because of remarks he made critical of the Palestinian Authority. He was released after nine days following protests by Palestinian and international human rights groups.
Journalist Sean Kelly's 1993 book, "America's Tyrant: The CIA and Mobutu of Zaire" provides context for the unrest now in Zaire. Thirty years ago, Kelly covered Mobutu's rise to power. Kelly was with the Voice of America for twenty years. Now he teaches at American University in D.C.
Journalist Adam Hochschild's recent article in the New Yorker "Mr. Kurtz, I Presume" considers the colonial history of Zaire -- once known as the Congo -- looking for the prototype for Kurtz the fictional greedy ambitious white man of Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness."
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new book by our new poet laureate Robert Pinsky, "The Figured Wheel" (Noonday)." She also reviews other poetry books: "View with a Grain of Sand" by Wislawa Szymborksa (Harcourt Brace); "Meadowlands" by Louise Gluck" (Ecco); "Does Your House Have Lions" by Sonia Sanchez" (FS&G).
In this excerpt from the award-winning NPR program, host Ira Glass features a 1967 "letter on tape" which was found in a Salvation Army Thrift Store. It features the father, mother and daughter of a Michigan family who's interactions on the recording reveal much about their relationships with one another.
Scholar and translator Robert Fagles. He is a professor at Princeton University and has gained recognition for his interpretation of "The Iliad." His latest translation of Homer is a new version of "The Odyssey" (Viking). Recently Fagles won the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for lifetime achievement in the field of translation.
