Government & Politics

Carter has a new book called "Helping Yourself Help Others." She talks with Terry about helping others and about providing care to the sick and her life since she and her husband left the White House.

The former congresswoman became Louisiana's first woman member of Congress in 1972. She was elected after her husband, then House majority leader Hale Boggs, died in a plane crash. Boggs was an advocate for civil rights and women's issues before her retirement in 1990. She is the mother of NPR and ABC-TV's Cokie Roberts, Washington lobbyist Thomas Hale Boggs, and the late Barbara Sigmund, who was mayor of Princeton, New Jersey. Boggs has new autobiography is called "Washington Through a Purple Veil: Memoirs of a Southern Woman."

Journalist Misha Glenny has been covering the war in former Yugoslavia -- first as correspondent for the BBC and now as an independent journalist. He is the author of the book "The Fall of Yugoslavia: The Third Balkan War." He will talk about the decision of the U.S. to no longer participate in the enforcement of the arms embargo to Bosnia.

Will is a conservative commentator and regular contributor to "Newsweek" and "The Washington Post." He has just published a collection of his best essays from the past four years, "The Leveling Wind: Politics, the Culture & Other News 1990-1994." He talks with Terry about last week's elections.

Terry speaks with Wilbert Rideau, an inmate serving a life term at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He reports on various aspects of life, culture and rehabilitation at the penitentiary. This segment will focus on the issue of literacy, education programs and self-education at Angola. These reports from prison have been arranged in cooperation with prison officials, who administer a number of outreach programs to educate the public about prison policies and rehabilitation efforts. Rideau is an eighth grade dropout and taught himself to write while in prison.

Washington political commentator Elizabeth Drew, author of "On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency." The book examines Clinton's first eighteen months in office. She talks with Terry about last night's election and what it will mean for the White House.

"Wall Street Journal" senior writer Jane Mayer is co-author of "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas,: She and fellow journalist Jill Abramson, investigated sexual harassment allegations against Thomas made by Anita Hill. They found other women who had had similar experiences with Thomas, but who were never called to testify. They wanted to write an objective account of the process, and they bring their harshest criticism on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Journalist Steve Roberts. He's the senior writer for "U.S. News & World Report." Before that he covered Congress for "The New York Times." He'll talk about Tuesday's elections.

TV dramas are becoming wildly popular again. Critic David Bianculli says two stand out from the rest: "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "Picket Fences."

Anne Maguire and her son Patrick were part of the Maguire Seven, the family who was wrongfully arrested in 1974 on suspicion of manufacturing bombs for the Irish Republican Army. The family was tortured, tried, convicted, and jailed, and was not reunited for eleven years. Anne spent eight years in prison; Patrick spent four after being convicted at the age of 13. Anne has written a book about their experience, called "Miscarriage of Justice."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Pulp Fiction." He says it's far from perfect -- but it's so good, you won't care.

Journalist and professor Fred Halliday. He's a professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, and has written extensively on the Cold War and the Third World for "The Nation," and "The Middle East Report." He'll talk about the possible threat of another military showdown in Iraq.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the season premiere of "NYPD Blue," which he says continues to be good. On the other hand, he can't stomach "Roseanne: An Unauthorized Biography."

Grossman has just written his third novel, "The Book of Intimate Grammar." It tells the story of a young Israeli boy struggling with his family and the world he lives in. Grossman's hero has been compared to Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield, as a boy fighting against growing up.

Congress has decided to conduct a study of the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-Cold War world. The agency suffered a shake-up following the discovery of the double agent Aldrich Ames. Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner writes about the CIA for "The New York Times." He talks with Terry Gross today about what changes may take place in the agency as a result of the investigation.

Activist and preacher Jim Wallis is the editor of "Sojourners" magazine, and the author of the new book, "The Soul of Politics." In it, he asserts that "the world isn't working," and neither the liberal left nor the conservative right know how to fix it. Wallis says the solution will come from a new morality that combines social justice and personal responsibility.

Editor, author, and Jewish theologian Michael Lerner is founder and editor of "Tikkun" magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society. In his new book, "Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation," Lerner presents a new interpretation of Jewish texts and history, and a new approach to God and prayer.

Computer viruses are computer users' worst nightmare, but a mystery to many of us. Computer expert Corey Sandler has written an easy-to-understand article about viruses in the September issue of "PC Computing." Today, Sandler explains how viruses work and talks to virogens, the writers of virus programs.

Author and activist Mahnaz Afkhami lobbied for many years for women's rights in her native Iran. For the past fifteen years, she has been in exile from her country for this work. During that time, she talked with other women in exile from all over the world. Twelve of these women's stories are recorded in her new book, "Women in Exile."

Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn were Beijing correspondents for "The New York Times" from 1988 to 1993. They won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. They have just written a book called "China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power." It explores the contradiction in China of a booming economy paired with terrible human rights abuses, as the country struggles to become a new world power.