Health & Medicine

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Jernigan," the first novel from writer David Gates. It's about an erudite alcoholic's frustration with suburban life.

Adair's new documentary, "Absolutely Positive," profiles 11 people, including Adair himself, who are HIV positive. It airs this week on PBS.

On the eve of the 7th International Conference on AIDS, we talk with the man in charge of the previous conference, Doctor Robert Wachter. Wachter's new book, "The Fragile Coalition," chronicles Wachter's struggle to make the conference a forum for both scientists and AIDS activists.

Getz recently passed away after a bout with liver cancer. We remember him with a rebroadcast of an interview from last year. Getz talks about dropping out of school and going on the road at 15. He learned while traveling and playing with other musicians.

The travel writer has a new book called "Wall to Wall: From Beijing to Berlin by Rail." She took the trip five years ago as reforms were beginning to be implemented in the Soviet Union, and before the government crackdown in Tiananmen Square and the Eastern European revolutions. She's particularly interested in what it's like to travel abroad as a woman alone.

Duberman has written a memoir about being gay in the 1950s -- before the gay liberation movement, and at a time when homosexuality was considered deviant behavior by the psychiatrists. It's called "Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey.

We examine the current craze surrounding low-fat and low cholesterol foods. First, nutritionist Jane Hurley of the advocacy group, Science in the Public Interest talks about recent marketing trends in "healthy" food...things like McDonald's "McLean" burger. Second, Wall Street Journal cultural writer Raymond Sokolov talks about America's obsession with food and fat. Third, cardiologist Thomas Graboys of the Harvard School of Public Health gives us some sane advice about diet and health.

Anthropologist Richard Parker went to Brazil a decade ago to do field work. He's written a book about the fluid ideas of gender and sexuality in that country, called "Bodies, Pleasures, & Passions."

Television critic David Bianculli takes a break from talking about his current favorite show to review the season premiere of "Northern Exposure."

We examine how our notions of sex and gender has changed over the centuries with historian Thomas Laqueur, author of the book, "Making Sex."

Author Franz Lidz. His new book, "Unstrung Heroes," is a memoir growing up with four crazy uncles. He writes regularly for Sports Illustrated.

Johnson says he feels, by virtue of being talented writer, he has the responsibility to report on conflict zones. His new novel is "Resuscitation of a Hanged Man," about a man recovering from a botched suicide attempt who goes on to be a private investigator.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Freud, Dora, and Vienna 1900," by historian Hannah S. Decker. It's an account of Sigmund Freud's work with his patient Dora -- a case which has often been viewed and critiqued through the lens of contemporary feminist scholarship.

Psychiatric-social worker Raymond M. Scurfield is the Director of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Program at the American Lake V.A. Center in Washington State. He served in Vietnam, treating psychiatric casualties. He talks about the typical problems found in combat, the dilemma of sending G.I.'s back into battle, and he speculates on the difficulties G.I.s will face in the Gulf.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews the newest installment of the documentary series, "The Koppel Report." It presents a savvy, unexpected, and often sad picture of sexuality abroad.

Critic Owen Gleiberman reviews the newest Stephen King film adaptation, about a romance novelist who is kidnapped and tortured by an obsessive fan.

Barkalow was among the first women to enter the military academy at West Point. Her new memoir, "In the Men's House," chronicles her rise from cadet to commander. She currently works in the Pentagon as a special assistant to the Army Chief of Staff.

White's books include an autobiographical novel called, "A Boy's Own Story," and the nonfiction work, "States of Desire: Travels in Gay America." White was recently diagnosed with AIDS, and is working on a biography of Jean Genet.

Callen's new book profiles the longest surviving people with the virus, including himself; he was diagnosed in 1982. Also an AIDS activist, he co-founded the People With AIDS Coalition and the Community Research Initiative.

Cunningham's new novel, A Home at the End of the World, is about the friendship and sexual relationships between two men and woman. It was inspired in large part by Cunningham's own ambiguous sexuality, as well as living through the AIDS crisis.