Health & Medicine

Kushner is the author of "Angels in America," for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Best Play. It's a two-part "seven hour epic about gays, AIDS and Reaganism" (New York "Newsday"). Kushner reads a new poem, a plea to God about the AIDS epidemic.

Trinidad's latest book is "Answer Song." He and Dennis Cooper are co-editing a volume of selected poems by Tim Dlugos called "Powerless."

Doty won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle award for his poetry, My Alexandria. He is currently a Fannie Hearst Visiting Professor at Brandeis University. He tells Terry about caring for his lover, who died of AIDS.

Hemphill is the author of two books of poetry, "Earth Life" and "Conditions," and a collection of prose and poetry called "Ceremonies." He's also the editor of "Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men." He reads an excerpt from his poem "Vital Signs," published in the collection "Life Sentences: Writers, Artists, and AIDS," edited by Thomas Avena.

Michael Denneny is currently an editor at Crown Publishers. He worked with many gay authors in his 17 years at St. Martins Press, where he had his own imprint, Stonewall Editions.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Junior," Ivan Reitman's new comedy in which Arnold Schwarzenegger gets pregnant.

White is the author of seven books, including "Forgetting Elena," "States of Desire: Travels in Gay America," and "Genet: A Biography," for which he was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Lamda Literary Award. He has a new collection of essays from the past 25 years, "The Burning Library," many of which focus on gay life in America.

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.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "Our Cancer Year," about a couple's battle with cancer, by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner.

We continue our interview with Laurie Garrett. Her new book about communicable diseases is called "The Coming Plague."

Writer Laurie Garrett has been a science reporter for NPR, New York "Newsday," "Omni," and other publications. She wrote the new book, "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance." It explores the emergence of new infectious viruses like AIDS and Ebola, and the new strains of known diseases that are resistant to many treatments. Garrett examines the conditions that favor the spread of these microbes and looks at possible solutions to stop the diseases.

Grumbach has written a second memoir, which picks up where her first, "Coming into the End Zone," left off. "Fifty Days of Solitude" chronicles her life in Maine, her travels, and coming to terms with mortality. Grumbach is a book reviewer for National Public Radio, and was literary editor for "The New Republic.

Sociology professor John Gagnon co-authored the new book "Sex in America: A Definitive Survey." This two year study overturns common beliefs about sexual practices in America, and finds that "the public image of sex in America bears virtually no relationship to the truth." Gagnon claims that this study is more representative of the population because they used a scientifically selected group, instead of a random sample.

Sexton has just written "Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton," her seventh book. She spent a long time coming to terms with her relationship with her mother, who committed suicide in 1974.

In 1989, there was a small outbreak of an extremely contagious virus, the Ebola virus, in a lab in Reston, Virginia. The Army was brought in to stop the spread of the disease. The disease causes its victims to bleed to death. Richard Preston has written a new book about the incident, called "The Hot Zone."

As a child, Lucy Grealy spent five years being treated for cancer, which left her face disfigured. She has since had over thirty reconstructive procedures and years of living with a distorted self-image. She's just written "Autobiography of a Face," her memoir about coming to terms with looking less than perfect in a society that values female beauty.

Lucas was the number one draft pick for the NBA in 1976, before his career went downhill as a result of drug use. He conquered his addiction and started a recovery program for other drug-addicted athletes. He coached the San Antonio Spurs to the playoffs twice, and is now the head coach, general manager, and vice president of the Philadelphia 76ers. Lucas has just written a memoir, called "Winning a Day at a Time."

Conway grew up in a remote sheep station in the Australian outback, and later became the president of Smith College. Her girlhood memoir, "The Road from Coorain," was a bestseller, In her new book, "True North," she continues her story, writing about organizing for women's rights on campus, and creating a marriage in which she and her husband are equal partners. Conway was the first female vice president of The University of Toronto, and from 1975 to 1985 was the president of Smith.

Jonathan Mann, M.D. talks about the connection between health and human rights. Mann is the director and one of the founders of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center For Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was the founding director of the World Health Organization's Global AIDS Program from 1986-1990.

Psychiatrist and novelist Roderick Anscombe. He oversees a psychiatric ward at a hospital outside of Boston, and has written a new novel that retells the Dracula myth, called "The Secret Life of Laszlo: Count Dracula." Anscombe says he wanted to "humanize" Dracula by making him more a man than a monster. In writing the book, Anscombe drew on his previous experience working with the criminally insane.