Professor Robert Jay Lifton is distinguished professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of the Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College, City University of New York. He's been studying cults and fundamentalist groups for many years. Lifton will talk about the armed cult in Waco, Texas run by David Koresh of the Branch Davidians--how typical they are, and what can be done to deal with them.
Roth is best known for his books "Goodbye, Columbus" and "Portnoy's Complaint." Since the publication of his first book, Roth has been controversial for his treatment of Jewish themes. Some readers think his satirical take is anti-Semitic. His novel "Portnoy's Complaint," a sexual autobiography of a young lawyer, was labeled obscene by some because of its descriptions of masturbation and sexual conquest.
Executive producer and writer, Tom Fontana. He was writer and producer for the TV show, "St. Elsewhere." He's currently executive producer, along with filmmaker Barry Levinson, of "Homicide: Life on the Street," a new cop drama on NBC. Reviewers say it goes beyond formula to offer a "more complex psychological portrait" of crime fighters and criminals.
Writer and professor Mary Jo Weaver teaches Religious and Women's Studies at Indiana University. Her new book is, "Springs of Water in a Dry Land." It's about the double bind that many Catholic women find themselves in, of either living within a institutionalized and oppressive church structure, or rejecting a church which is a source of spiritual enrichment. Weaver argues that it is possible for a woman to be a feminist and remain Catholic.
Maureen Corrigan reviews, "The Dialectic of Sex," by Shulamith Fireston. First published in the 1970s, it serves as an important document of second-wave feminism.
Attorney and writer Mary Frances Berry. She's a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and a professor of history and law at the University of Pennsylvania. She's written a new book about the tradition of "mother-care" in our society, the notion that women have principal responsibility for childcare.
Medical writer Robin Marantz Henig is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Mirabella, and Vogue. Her new book, "A Dancing Matrix" is about the work being done to understand viruses. The field has taken on new urgency since the spread of the AIDS virus. Hening says scientists have realized that emergence of a new virus is not as rare as previously though, and that it's caused mostly by human error rather than genetic mutation.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the debut album by the hip-hop group, Digable Planets, which is quickly garnering critical acclaim and a growing fanbase.
Journalist Ray Bonner lived in Africa from 1988 until January of this year. He has a new article in "Mother Jones" about why the U.S. sent Marines into Somalia. He questions our role as the world's "missionary." Bonner also reported from Central America. Just recently he was exonerated for reporting on a massacre in El Salvador. Officials denied the event, but archeologists have since uncovered a mass grave.
New York Times journalist Jane Perlez has been covering Africa since 1988 and has been credited with recognizing stories before the rest of the media. She was reporting on the trouble in Somalia, and the threat of famine a year ago, long before it became the focus of world attention.
Sawyer's new television news magazine show, Day One, premieres this Sunday night on ABC. He was recognized for his reporting during the Gulf War, when he split off from the pack and brought in some of the earliest footage of surrendering Iraqi soldiers and the American liberation of Kuwaiti. Sawyer also subs for Ted Koppel on Nightline.
Investigative journalist Tom Powers has written a new book about the German attempt to get an atomic bomb, the threat that terrified American scientists and military during World War II. The book is "Heisenberg's War." At the center of the story is German physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg. While other preeminent scientists left Germany with the rise of the Reich, Heinsenberg chose to stay to defend what was left of "good science." The program weapons program failed.
Journalist, professor, and historian Christopher Simpson teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. Last month the U.N. Security Council voted to create a new international tribunal to try those accused of war crimes in the Balkan conflict. Simpson has written a new book about the use of mass murder as an instrument of state power, beginning with World War I, called "The Splendid Blond Beast." Simpson shows how those who commit such crimes are rarely punished, like high-ranking SS killers from World War II.
Journalist Robert Kaplan has been a foreign correspondent for "The Atlantic," and "The New Republic." In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was the first American writer to warn of the coming crisis in the Balkans. His latest book, "Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History," is a political travel book about his journeys through southern Austria and Croatia, Old Serbia and Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz on the new trends in Baroque music performance. While many musicians strive for historical accuracy, they often lack emotional depth.
