Singer/Songwriter Elvis Costello. In the late 1970s he burst out of Britain's pop-music scene with a sound and attitude never seen before. He was the angry young-man with a fresh sound. He's known for making connections between different musical communities. He's collaborated with Paul McCartney, Ruben Blades, Aimee Mann of "'til Tuesday," David Was of "Was (Not Was)," and T. Bone Burnett.
TV critic, David Bianculli, reviews new prime-time cartoon series, "The Critic," created by a team of three writer-producers from "The Simpsons." "The Critic" is about New York film reviewer and single father, Jay Sherman.
Author and former British prisoner, Belfast-born Gerry Conlon. In his memoir, "In the Name of the Father," he tells the story of his wrongful conviction and fifteen-year imprisonment by the British Government for the 1974 terrorist bombings of two pubs near London. He was in prison with his father, Giuseppe, who was also falsely convicted as a co-conspirator in the bombings.
Film director Jim Sheridan. An Academy Award nominee for Best Director of "My Left Foot," he directed, produced and co-authored the screenplay for the new film, "In the Name of the Father," starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It's based on Gerry Conlon's memoir of the same name.
Clarinetist, jazz musician, and klezmer virtuoso Don Byron. He's an unlikely candidate to play klezmer, a product of Eastern European Yiddish culture: Byron is African American and dreadlocked. Byron has become best known for klezmer, but musically he's all over the map: He plays jazz with his Don Byron Quintet, modern classical music with the Semaphore quintet, and he toured Europe last fall with Music for Six Musicians, an Afro-Cuban ensemble. He's also currently writing a classical piece for the avant-garde Kronos Quartet.
Physicist James Trefil. His new book, "A Scientist in the City," (Doubleday) is a exploration of how the laws of nature and technology came together to make our cities. Trefil starts by looking at cities as natural ecosystems, and then looks at the key scientific discoveries that made cities possible. Trefil has written more than ten books on science, including, "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Science." Trefil is also a regular commentator for NPR, and he teaches at George Mason University.
Novelist Stephen Wright. He's written three novels, all described by one critic as creating a "bleak vision of America haunted by Vietnam, desperate with boredom, eager to kill, gaga over flying saucers, addled by drugs, lobotomized by television." Wright's latest novel is "Going Native," (Farrar Straus Giroux) about a serial killer who seems to come from out of nowhere. In fact, he emerges out of a suburban neighborhood, steals a car, and heads for California.
Journalist Erik Larson of the Wall Street Journal. Larson has been on the show before to talk about polling, privacy and direct marketing and about how a gun goes from the manufacturer to the hands of a teenager. In fact he's written a new book, "Lethal Passage: How the Travels of a Single Handgun Expose the Roots of America's Gun Crisis," (Crown Publishers). Today Terry will talk again with Larson about guns, about gun control laws, the NRA, etc. Larson is also the author of "The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities."
Mary Fisher was the face of AIDS/HIV at the Republican National Convention in 1992 where she gave a speech imploring the party to lift the "shroud of silence" about the disease. Fisher comes from a wealthy prominent Republican family. Her father, Max Fisher was Honorary Chairman of the Bush/Quayle '92 National Finance Committee. Since she went public about her HIV-positive status, Fisher has been an eloquent voice in the fight against AIDS misinformation and discrimination. She's also the founder of the Family AIDS Network, Inc.
The final report on Iran contra by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh has just been released. Terry talks with Peter Kornbluh about the reports findings. Kornbluh is senior analyst on U.S.-Latin America policy at the National Security Archive and editor of "The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History," (published in 1993 by the The New Press).
War correspondent and CNN's international correspondent Peter Arnett. He's best known for his reporting from Baghdad during the allied bombing raid which heralded the start of the Gulf War. Arnett has over 30 years of experience reporting, mostly for the Associated Press. He won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Vietnam war . Later he covered wars in Cyprus and Lebanon. In 1981 he made the switch to television, when he joined CNN. After learning the ropes, he was sent to El Salvador, Moscow, and then Iraq.
Musical theater historian Robert Kimball. Kimball compiled and edited The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin (Knopf) and is artistic advisor to the estate of Ira Gershwin. Kimball knew Ira Gershwin and his wife Leonore. He also edited The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter.
Documentary filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus. Their film, The War Room, is a behind the scenes look at the Clinton presidential campaign from the New Hampshire primary to the election. Pennebaker and Hegedus chronicled the campaign through the eyes of its two main strategists, James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.
