Jazz critic Kevin Whithead reviews "Nightingale," the new release by Scottish saxophonist Joe Temperley, who carries on the musical legacy of Duke Ellington sax player Harry Carney.
Sociologist Teery Williams spent four years in a New York City crackhouse, and talks about the complex culture that's evolved around the drug. Williams teaches at the New School For Social Research in New York, and he's previously published books about a teenage cocaine ring and inner-city poverty.
John Powers, who's been a film critic for Fresh Air, is covering the Democratic National Convention this week for the L.A. Weekly. He tells Terry about what he's seen on the floor so far.
We talk with the new crime movie's director Carl Franklin's and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton. "One False Move"is a low-budget movie about a drug deal gone bad, a brutal murder, and the dealers' flight from the police. Despite playing in only a few cities, it's getting critical acclaim.
Bagge's cartoons are a mixture of bitter social observation and slapstick silliness. He's best known for his "Hate" bi-monthly comic books published by Fantagraphics, about the life of Seattle slacker Buddy Bradley, his pal Stinky, and his girlfriend, Val.
Dr. Barry Bloom teaches at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was chair of the Tuberculosis Committee of the Special Programme for Vaccine Development at the WHO. He'll talk with Terry about the the return of tuberculosis fueled by poverty, homelessness, and AIDS.
Jacob Weisberg, deputy editor at The New Republic, talks about the Democratic Leadership Council. Both Bill Clinton and his running-mate Senator Al Gore are members of this group, which was founded seven years ago in an effort to bring the party closer to center. The DLC opposes what it sees "as an interest-group beholden party leadership," writes Weisberg.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the film adaptation of the Broadway hit, about different spirits inhabiting the bodies of newlyweds. It stars Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan.
Feminist, journalist and essayist Barbara Ehrenreich talks with Terry about the Clinton/Gore ticket. She's disappointed by the conservative currents in the Democratic party.
Warrington and Reginald Hudlin produced and directed the new Eddie Murphy film "Boomerang," said, at $40 million, to be the largest big budget film made by African-Americans. Their previous film, "House Party," was made for $2.6 million and was one of the most profitable movies ever made by African-Americans. Despite their success, the brothers say that Hollywood still hasn't made enough progress with regard to black actors and directors.
In the first ten years of the AIDS epidemic, the Food and Drug Administration approved only two drugs to treat the disease. Yet a third drug, approved last month, took only eight months. Health economist Peter Arno's new book, "Against The Odds" tells how AIDS activists have sparked sweeping reforms of the drug approval process, and sped up access to drug development for all illnesses.
At the age of 72, Farrell has had a long career: she began in radio in the 1940s with her own show on CBS. In the fifties, she started singing opera, and has performed with every major opera company and symphony orchestra in the U.S., including five seasons with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Starting in the sixties, she began putting out albums of jazz standards, and has just released her twelfth, called "It's Over."
Drakulic's recent book is called "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed." Now we'll talk to her about living in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. Refugees from nearby Sarajevo are flowing into the city from their civil war-torn country.
The Village Voice says classically trained Niemack is like "Barbra Streisand without the hysterics....She combines the best of both worlds; a cabaret singer's respect for melody as written and a jazz singer's eagerness to have a go at it." Her new album is called "Heart's Desire."
Book critic John Leonard reviews "Chinese Roundabout: Essays in History and Culture," by Jonathan D. Spence. Leonard says it's an improvisatory and obsessive take on the China and the way Westerners look at it.
Wills has analyzed the legendary speech in a new book called "Lincoln At Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America." He says that, speaking for only three minutes that day, Lincoln changed the history of American political thought.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews new rap albums by Me Phi Me, Basehead and Arrested Development, all of which bring a cool, bohemian intensity to the genre.
Critic Maureen Corrigan compares the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and George Bush by way of two new books: "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America," by Garry Wills, and "Bushisms: President G.H.W. Bush in his own Words," compiled by the editors of the "New Republic."
