The biologist, special effects expert, and bug wrangler was responsible for the moths in the movie, "Silence of the Lambs" and the cockroaches in "Creepshow."
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new comedy "Defending Your Life," starring director Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep as a recently deceased couple who fall in love while living in a squeaky-clean purgatory.
Peebles is the son of the legendary director Melvin Van Peebles. His film New Jack City is set in Harlem, and features a grim, gritty, and violent world of crack dealers and users.
We explore the roots of the Israeli-Arab problem with Charles Smith, a professor of Middle Eastern history at San Diego State University, and the author of "Palestine and the Arab Israeli Conflict."
The PBS program marks its first decade on the air with the showing of two broadway productions: Steven Sonheim's "Into the Woods," and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." Television critic David Bianculli reviews them both.
National Affairs Director of the National Black Police Association, Officer Ron Hampton, has been a policeman for 19 years. He's gotten a reputation for speaking out against the misuse of power in the police force, which Hampton says is distressingly common. He'll discuss the beating of Rodney King by LAPD officers.
World class mathematician and world class juggler Ron Graham talks to us about his two great loves. He works at the AT&T Bell Labs, and is one of the few people in America who can juggle seven balls at once.
Rock historian Ed Ward plays some of the forgotten recordings released by the Apple Label. The label was started by the Beatles, whose members often produced those records.
Professor Bill Beeman of Brown University discusses the historical and cultural background of the Kurdish population in the Middle East. Without a country of their own, the Kurds have taken what support they can get from other players in the region. With the Gulf War over, there has been a Kurdish uprising in Iraq, which threatens Saddam Hussein.
Book critic John Leonard reviews Denis Johnson's novel, "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man," about a man recovering from a botched suicide attempt who goes on to become a part-time private eye in Provincetown.
McPherson is currently working on a new book about the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution. An excerpt of the book recently appeared in the literary magazine, "Granta."
In 1971, writer Lorene Cary was one of the first black female students to be enrolled at St. Paul's, a private prep school in New Hampshire; Cary grew up middle class in Philadelphia. Her memoir about entering the privileged, elite world of the school is called "Black Ice."
Film critic Owen Gleiberman reviews "Class Action," the new courtroom drama starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as father-daughter lawyers on opposite sides of a high-profile lawsuit.
The author and educator has written a new book call "A Man Without Words." It's a first-person account of her struggle to teach sign language to a deaf man who had reached adulthood without anyone making any effort to teach him how to communicate.
James Fallows, the Washington editor for "The Atlantic Monthly." Fallows will discuss the ways America is still punishing Vietnam through economic means, despite the end of hostilities between the two countries.
Tammy Bruce of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women. That group opposes Ellis's book, and claims it's scenes of violence against women are pure exploitation, devoid of social commentary. NOW has set up a hotline explaining their objections to the book, featuring an excerpt from the novel.
Richard Mkhondo is a black South African who reports on his home country. He says the government's recent legislation to roll back apartheid will have minimal impact on blacks, and does nothing to to address the issue of restitution.
Joe Davidson is a Black American reporter who has been covering the recent apartheid reforms for the Wall Street Journal. He shares his take on the situation on the ground, and describes some of the discrimination he's faced.
The young novelist has been vilified for his new novel, which contains many graphic scenes of violence against women, including ape, murder, mutilation, and cannibalism. The book was dropped by its original publisher, and has divided readers and critics alike.
