Biomedical ethicist Arthur Caplan. He discusses the right to die and the implications of doctor-assisted suicide -- specifically how Dr. Jack Kevorkian has been helping patients die. Caplan is Director of Biomedical Ethics and a professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Surgery at the University of Minnesota.
Wu Ningkun, author of a new personal and political memoir, A Single Tear, talks about surviving three decades of Communist rule in China. Wu was born in China, went to college in the United States, and returned to China in 1951 with hopes that the new Communist regime would benefit his country. Instead, he was labeled counter-revolutionary for teaching works by Western authors and sentenced to serve time at various labor camps and prisons. He now lives in the United States with his family.
We remember the boundary-breaking African American athlete with an excerpt from a 1989 interview. Ashe died over the weekend from complications related to the AIDS virus.
Sociologist and research associate at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, Elliott Currie. He has a new book, "Reckoning: Drugs, the Cities, and the American Future." He believes that effective drug control depends on curtailing poverty and improving the economy in inner cities.
Director of Health Policy, Department of Public Health, Mathea Falco. She was an advisor to Clinton during the presidential campaign. She's written extensively about drugs, drug abuse, and drug policy. She has a new book, "The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs that Work."
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "The Vanishing," starring Jeff Bridges and Keifer Sutherland, and "Sommersby," starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster.
Weinberg received the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics. He's the author of "The First Three Minutes," about the Big Bang. He's currently working on what he calls the "final theory," the search for the ultimate laws of nature--for the final answer to our questions about why nature is the way it is. That search is tied up with work on the Superconducting Super Collider. His new book is called "Dreams of the Final Theory,"
Betty Pendler is the mother of a 36 year-old developmentally disabled daughter. Pendler conducts sexuality workshops for parents of the developmentally disabled, teaching them how to talk to their children about sex and relationships.
The daughter of Marlene Dietrich, Maria Riva. Dietrich died last May at the age of 90, with her mystique still intact. Riva has written a memoir, "Marlene Dietrich," which relies on Riva's memories and on Dietrich's letters and diaries. It's been called a "sympathetic" book about a woman who is "uncaring," and who had a complex relationship with her own sexuality. Riva also describes her mother's decline into alcoholism.
TV critic David Bianculli previews the season finale of "I'll Fly Away," on NBC. It deals with civil rights in the 1950s American South and, because of low ratings, will likely face a premature death.
The novelist is best known for his books "Crooked Hearts," and "The Geography of Desire." His writing focuses on families, and the connections between people. Boswell's new novel is "Mystery Ride," about a failed marriage that nonetheless endures in the hearts of the couple. Boswell teaches at New Mexico State University and at the Warren Wilson Master of Fine Arts Program for Writers in North Carolina.
From the relief and development organization CARE, President and CEO Philip Johnston. Guest host Marty Moss-Coane talks with him about the organization's next efforts in Somalia, helping farmers rehabilitate farms, and training village health workers to monitor the nutritional status of mothers and young children.
Rock historian Ed Ward continues his look back at rock's evolution over the decades. In 1963, while the genre flourished in England, American audiences listened mostly to pop music -- some great, some not so much.
NPR commentator and political analyst Kevin Phillips. He's known for his ability to tap into the mood of American voters and forecast what's to come: in 1969 he predicted the conservative era with his book, "The Emerging Republican Majority." His 1992 book, "The Politics of Rich and Poor," was described as the "founding document" of the 1992 Presidential campaign. He has a new book, "Boiling Point: Democrats, Republicans, and The Decline of Middle-Class Prosperity."
Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Alvin Poussaint. He was a consultant to "The Cosby Show." He co-authored the book, "Raising Black Children," about the parenting of African American kids in a way that affirms their identity and addresses reality of racism.
Gonzales has a new book about his love affair with flying, called "One Zero Charlie: Adventures in Grass Roots Aviation." He grew up listening to the stories his mother told of his father's last flight in a B-17 bomber over Dusseldorf in World War II. Gonzales is a commercial pilot who competes in aerobatics flying.
