Government & Politics

Journalist Frederick Kempe is a foreign correspondent and Berlin Bureau Chief for The Wall Street Journal. He spent five weeks traveling thru Sibera and has written an account of it in, "Siberian Odyssey." In many areas, Kempe was the first American there. He visited a nomadic tribe of reindeer herders, a former Gulag site, and the site of a Stalinist mass grave, talking to survivors of the former, and children of victims from the later. Kempe made the trip shortly before the August 1991 coup that ushered out the Communist Party.

TV critic David Bianculli takes a look at the proliferation of coverage of the Democratic National Convention and the election more broadly.

Terry will talk to three people about the recent events revolving around RU-486, the abortion-inducing drug. The drug is in use in France and Britian but is illegal in the U.S. Two weeks ago, a pregnant woman, Leona Benten, tried to bring the drug into the country, but it was seized by authorities. The case is about to go before the Supreme Court. Today's guests include FDA spokesperson Gary Fendler, Simon Heller of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and Leona Benten's physician, Dr. Louise Tyrer.

Journalist Nicholas Lemann is a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine. He's talks about how politicians need to stop pandering to the middle class at the expense of the working class and minorities.

We talk with the new crime movie's director Carl Franklin's and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton. "One False Move"is a low-budget movie about a drug deal gone bad, a brutal murder, and the dealers' flight from the police. Despite playing in only a few cities, it's getting critical acclaim.

John Powers, who's been a film critic for Fresh Air, is covering the Democratic National Convention this week for the L.A. Weekly. He tells Terry about what he's seen on the floor so far.

Feminist, journalist and essayist Barbara Ehrenreich talks with Terry about the Clinton/Gore ticket. She's disappointed by the conservative currents in the Democratic party.

Jacob Weisberg, deputy editor at The New Republic, talks about the Democratic Leadership Council. Both Bill Clinton and his running-mate Senator Al Gore are members of this group, which was founded seven years ago in an effort to bring the party closer to center. The DLC opposes what it sees "as an interest-group beholden party leadership," writes Weisberg.

In the first ten years of the AIDS epidemic, the Food and Drug Administration approved only two drugs to treat the disease. Yet a third drug, approved last month, took only eight months. Health economist Peter Arno's new book, "Against The Odds" tells how AIDS activists have sparked sweeping reforms of the drug approval process, and sped up access to drug development for all illnesses.

Drakulic's recent book is called "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed." Now we'll talk to her about living in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. Refugees from nearby Sarajevo are flowing into the city from their civil war-torn country.

Phelps is the Supreme Court reporter who broke the Anita Hill story (along with NPR's Nina Totenberg) in New York Newsday. He's co-written an account of the Clarence Thomas hearings, called "Capitol Games," which looks at how the press failed to see the whole story of now-Justice Thomas, including just how conservative he really is.

Critic Maureen Corrigan compares the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and George Bush by way of two new books: "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America," by Garry Wills, and "Bushisms: President G.H.W. Bush in his own Words," compiled by the editors of the "New Republic."

Belzer talks with Terry about the candidates for president. He's performed off-Broadway, on radio, in movies, and on television.

Journalist Richard Ben Cramer won a Pulitzer Prize for The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1979. His new book, "What it Takes: the way to the White House," explores the lives of the candidates who ran for president in 1988, and tries to discover what made them think they could lead the United States.

Two views of the Supreme Court's decision on "Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania V. Casey," the latest case that brought Roe V. Wade, and a woman's right to an abortion, into question. They'll react to the Court's decision to uphold most of the Pennsylvania restrictions, including parental notification for minors, a 24-hour waiting period, and provision of information about the development of the fetus and alternatives to abortion. The Supreme Court felt that notification of a husband was an undue burden, and that the precedent set by Roe V.

Attorney Bryan Stevenson is the Executive Director of the fledgling Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center. He represents prisoners on Alabama's death row, and tries to persuade other lawyers to do the same on a pro bono basis. He's a graduate of Harvard Law School, and he earns $25,000 a year in his job. He was raised in rural southern Delaware, and says the people he defends are much like people he grew up with, but who didn't get the breaks he did.

Physician and photographer David Heiden. Heiden worked in the refugee camps of eastern Sudan during the Ethiopian famine of 1985. His book, "Dust to Dust," chronicles the experience using his personal journal entries and photographs. Heiden has also been a medical relief worker at refugee camps in Thailand and Somolia. (published by Temple University Press, Philadelphia).

Thomas Blanton is the Executive Director of the National Security Archive, and a nationally recognized expert on the Iran-Contra scandal. We talk to him today in the wake of the indictment of former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger. The trial is set for November 2, one day before the presidential election, which raises the possibility that President Bush might face some embarrassment, since as Vice President he attended some of the meetings concerning arms shipments to Iran.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Paul Tsongas. He talks with Terry about the campaign process and being on the campaign trail. Also his book, "Heading Home," has just been reissued. It's about his fight with and recovery from cancer. (Vintage Books).

Publisher and Editor of "Le Devoir," Lise Bissonnette. The paper is the province's most influential French-language newspaper. (Richler says in his book that the paper has told readers to avoid Jewish shopkeepers who have "cheating and corruption in their bloodstream.")