Books

Researcher David Mech tracks and studies wolves. He was able to earn the trust of a pack in the Arctic, which granted Mech and his team unprecedented access to the animals. He witnessed the care of their pups and joined them on their hunt.

Wall Street Journal reporter Brooks Jackson details how election campaigns raise funds by finding ways to circumvent legal donation limits, and coordinating with special interests and political action committees. Corporations and other groups are exploiting these actions in an attempt to influence policy. Jackson's new book is called Honest Graft.

Writer Noel Hynd looks at the history of baseball by profiling the New York Giants in his new book, The Giants of the Polo Grounds.

Simon Frith is a rock critic and sociologist. He believes the genre has been emptied of its rebellious spirit, and is often sanitized or commercialized by the corporations that distribute it. Yet recent developments in rock have some benefits: its globlalization has allowed for the participation of lesser known, international artists; music videos have the untapped potential for further artistic expression.

Journalist Elaine Shannon's new book, Desperados, looks at the international impact of the illegal drug trade. She says that major banks and state governments have been complicit in drug trafficking by accepting bribes and laundering money. The U.S. government has faced difficulty curtailing these crimes, in part because of its desire to maintain diplomatic relations with the countries involved.

The writer's new book, An Empire of Their Own, examines the long-neglected history of how a group of Jewish European emigrees created the screen's idea of the American Dream, and how America adopted that dream.

Paul Nitze has advised both Republican and Democratic presidents over the decades on arms control. While working in the Reagan administration, he helped reopen negotiations with the Soviet Union. Nitze also reluctantly advocated for the Strategic Defense Initiative as a deterrence program. Journalist Strobe Talbott's new book, Master of the Game, details Nitze's career.

Host Terry Gross continues her series of interviewers with Fresh Air contributors. Today she talks with John Leonard, whose criticism appears widely. As a college student he considered a life of political activism before deciding that writing was were his strengths lay. A recovering alcoholic, Leonard describes how, even while he bottomed out, he still delivered copy to his editors.

Critics and network executives hated it, but fans loved Gilligan's Island; it's been on the air for twenty-five years. Show creator and writer Sherwood Schwartz -- who also wrote the Brady Bunch and My Favorite Martian -- has a new book about the program, called Inside Gilligan's Island.

Accomplished stage and screen actor Simon Callow wrote a biography of Charles Laughton, from whom he drew tremendous inspiration. Callow says Laughton's skill in part stemmed from the late actor's self-hatred and closeted homosexuality.