Health & Medicine

Lost creator J.J. Abrams discusses his latest television show, Fringe. The show, which Abrams describes as having a "a slight 'Twilight Zone' vibe," focuses on the unnatural occurrences in the world of a brilliant but mentally-unstable research scientist.

While both John McCain and Barack Obama agree that the American health care system needs reform, the candidates differ markedly in their vision of the remedy. Political scientist Jonathan Oberlander offers an in-depth comparison of the candidates' proposals.

Hostile womanizer, crack addict, New York Times journalist — David Carr has been all of those, sometimes simultaneously. For his memoir The Night of the Gun, Carr put on his investigative-reporter hat — to reconstruct his various sordid lives.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new stoner-action comedy, Pineapple Express starring and co-written by Seth Rogen.

Parsing the presidential candidates' tax plans is necessary to understanding their general takes on the economy. Economist Len Burman has been doing just that. He is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, which has just released a report comparing the candidates' proposed tax policies.

Health care advocate Carol Levine has looked out for the interests of the housebound both at work and at home. For 17 years, she cared for her husband, who had been seriously injured in a car accident. He died recently, and Levine is left coping with a renewed sense of loss.

Fresh Air's film critic reviews Jonathan Levine's film — a comedy, starring Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck, about a drug dealer, his shrink and the difficulty they both have growing up.

The television show Weeds returns for a new season, and creator Jenji Kohan has major changes in store for its drug-dealing soccer mom protagonist.

In her new book, The Wisdom of Whores, epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani interviews sex workers, drug users, health officials and bureaucrats in an effort to determine why 40 million people are living with HIV — and what can be done to curb the epidemic.

Dr. Nick Trout joins Fresh Air to talk about his memoir Tell Me Where It Hurts. Trout is a staff surgeon at Boston's Angell Animal Medical Center, a 185,000-square-foot facility that treats 50,000 pets a year. In his day, he's given a CAT scan to a rat and done an ultrasound on at least one frog.

Comedian Robert Schimmel has suffered tragedies, including the death of his child and his own battle with cancer. But throughout it all, Schimmel managed to find strength in humor. His recent memoir is Cancer on $5 a Day.

Drug addiction doesn't just affect the addict, it changes the whole family. Journalist David Sheff and his son Nic join Fresh Air to talk about Nic's addiction to methamphetamine and the separate memoirs they've written about the experience.

For all of us who have ever wandered into a room only to freeze, wondering blankly, "Why did I come in here, again?," Martha Weinman Lear has an answer. Lear, the author of Where Did I Leave My Glasses?, discusses the twin issues of memory loss and aging — what degree of forgetfulness is normal, and what can be done about it?

If there's one thing the presidential primary candidates agree on, it's that the American health-care system could use some treatment — if not a complete overhaul. Political scientist Jonathan Oberlander diagnoses the ailments and examines the remedies offered by each candidate.

Diagnosed with cancer for the third time, Susan Sontag signed on for a harsh treatment regimen in hopes it would keep her alive. But it only added to her suffering. Her son, journalist David Rieff, has published a memoir about his mother's "revolt against death."

Historian Drew Gilpin Faust writes that Civil War deaths — both their number and their manner — transformed America. Her new book is This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.

Two million patients get bacterial infections from health-care workers each year. Nearly 100,000 of them die as a result. Dr. Richard Shannon argues that those infections — and deaths — are preventable.

Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.

Say "Christopher Plummer," and some people automatically think of The Sound of Music, in which he played the Baron von Trapp.

But that's just one of about 100 films Plummer has been in; recent highlights from his big-screen career include Syriana, The Insider, A Beautiful Mind, and Inside Man. He's also had long stage career, won two Tony Awards, and performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Charles Reynolds teaches at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and directs research into late-life mood disorders; now he has co-written a book about depression in the elderly and how to treat it. It's titled Living Longer Depression Free: A Family Guide to Recognizing, Treating, and Preventing Depression in Later Life.