Richard Prelinger is a archivist of films you probably thought were not worth saving: educational, industrial, and public-service films made from the 1930s through the 1960s.
The former head of NBC's television programming Pat Weaver (Sylvester L. "Pat" Weaver, Jr.). He began that job in the early days of the medium - in 1949 - and was the creator of two of television's longest running shows, the "Today" show and the "Tonight" show. Weaver started his career in radio, where he worked with comic Fred Allen. And he was advertising manager for the American Tobacco Company, under the eccentric tobacco magnate George Washington Hill. Weaver has a new memoir of his career, "The Best Seat in the House," (Knopf).
British Journalist Timothy Garton Ash. George Kennan has compared Garton Ash's powers of political observation to those of de Toqueville's. ASH's beat is Eastern Europe, and he has been on hand to chronicle the popular disavowal of Communism there (Garton Ash's classic account of the Prague Uprising in 1986 is "The Magic Lantern"). His most recent book concerns the German Re-Unification, and what Germany's role will be in the new Europe: "In Europe's Name: Germany & the Divided Continent" (Random House).
Medical Examiner and "detective of death", Michael Baden, the former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City. Baden argues that there is a national crisis in forensic medicine. He writes that the search for scientific truth is often sullied by the pressures of expediency and politics. His memoir is "Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner" (Ivy Books).
Classical Music critic Lloyd Schwartz on a live performance of Bellini's opera "I Puritani" which features Luciano Pavarotti and Beverly Sills. (Legato Classics)
Contributing Editor and essayist for Newsweek magazine Ellis Cose. His new book, "The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why are Middle-Class Blacks Angry? Why Should America Care?" (HarperCollins) is about what many middle-class blacks feel, but few white americans understand: that middle-class blacks still struggle against racial stereotyping, discrimination, and alienation, despite their financial success and their best efforts to "play by the rules." Cose argues that many white americans make assumptions about Blacks which are at odds with reality.
Harry Wu is a resident scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He came to the U.S. from China where he was held in a prison labor camp for 19 years. The son of a wealthy banker, Wu was a newly graduated college student when he was arrested in 1960 and denounced as an "enemy of the revolution." In the camps he endured torture, starvation, and he learned to "stop thinking in order to survive." In 1979 he was released.
Wu, who survived 19 years in Chinese labor camps, died Tuesday. Born in China, Wu had lived in the United States since 1985 and was an active proponent of human rights. Originally broadcast in 1994.
Astrophysicist George Smoot. Since 1974 he's worked on NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, leading the instrument team that detected cosmic "seeds." In 1992 he announced that he and a team of researchers had detected the biggest, oldest objects ever observed in the universe, the "cosmic seeds" that were the origin of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new movie "Shadowlands" starring Anthony Hopkins and Deborah Winger. It's based on the lives of British writer C.S. Lewis and the American poet who became his wife, Joy Gresham. Whitehead, who is Fresh Air's regular jazz critic, is filling in for film critic Stephen Schiff this week.
Comic writer and actor Chris Elliott. He was an Emmy award winning writer for "Late Night with David Letterman," where he originated such characters as "the panicky guy" and "the guy under the seats." Elliott followed his success on the Letterman show with his own FOX TV-series, "Get A Life," about a young adult man who lives with his parents and has a paper route. It was a cult hit. Elliott comes to the business naturally.
Poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje. He won Britian's highest literary prize, the Booker Prize, for his novel set in post World War II, "The English Patient," (Vintage Books). Ondaatje was born in Cyelon (now Sri Lanka), emigrated to England, and now lives in Canada. He also has written a personal memoir, "Running in the Family," (Vintage) about his eccentric family. Both books are now out in paperback. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)
Jazz Vibraphonist Gary Burton. He invented a four-mallet grip for the instrument that is used by many contemporary players. Burton left Stan Getz's quartet in the mid 60's (at the age of 24) to form his own combo; a few years later he hired a young guitarist named Pat Metheny, giving Metheny his first taste of big time jazz. Burton has been teaching percussion and improvisation classes at the Berklee School of Music in Boston; in 1985 he was named Dean of Curriculum there. Burton has over fifty albums to his credit and three Grammy award.
Former special assistant for National Security Affairs under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, McGeorge Bundy. He's co-authored a new book with Admiral William Crowe, "Reducing Nuclear Danger," XXXX. Terry will talk with Bundy about the threat that still exists of nuclear disaster from such countries as Iraq and North Korea.
