Books

Fortune magazine Editor-at-Large, Joseph Nocera, talks about the industry and consumer implications from the on-going trial of Microsoft. The U.S. Justice Department alleges the Microsoft engaged in illegal predatory practices against its competitors. Nocera has been covering the trial for Fortune. Nocera is author of "A Piece of the Action; How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class" by Simon and Schuster. (This book is out of print) He also is a regular business commentator for Saturday Weekend Edition on NPR.

Helen Bamber is the founder and director of the London-based Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. A biography "The Good Listener: Helen Bamber, A Life Against Cruelty" by Neil Belton has just been published. (Pantheon) When Helen Bamber was a little girl growing up in 1930s England, her father read her sections of Mein Kampf to inure her to the evil in the world. In 1945, at the age of 19, she traveled to the former concentration camp at Belsen to help with the physical and psychological recovery of Holocaust survivors.

Scott Anderson is author of the new book "The Man Who Tried to Save the World : The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny ." (Doubleday) He talks about the life of disaster relief specialist Fred Cuny who went to war-torn regions of the world to help the people rebuild their communities. CUNY disappeared in April, 1995 while working in Chechnya. Anderson is also author of the novel "Triage" set in the Kurdish occupied region of Iraq.

Kevin Bales is a leading expert on the modern-day practice of slavery. He is author of the new book "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy." (University of California Press) Bales is a principal lecturer at the Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey, England.

Craig Stanford studies chimpanzees and gorillas in Uganda. In early March, Hutu rebels kidnapped 14 westerners including his field assistant. 8 of the hostages were killed. Stanford had left the region before the attack. Stanford talks about the political situation and its impact on the wildlife there. He is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California. He is the author of "The Hunting Apes," and "Chimpanzee and Red Colobus."

Carolyn Wyman is author of "Spam, A Biography: The Amazing True Story of America's "Miracle Meat."" (Harvest) She also wrote "I'm a SPAM Fan," and "The Kitchen Sink Cookbook." her syndicated weekly column, "Supermarket Sampler," present reviews of new food products in more than 100 newspapers around the country. She is a staff writer at the New Haven Register in Connecticut.

Mohammad Yunus is the founder one of the world's first "micro-lending" banks. These institutions loan money to poor people that other banks consider too risky. Founded in 1983. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has provided over 2.5 Billion dollars in micro-loans. He has written about his efforts in the new book "Banker to the Poor." (Public Affairs) He is the former head of the economics department at Chittagong University, in Bangladesh.

Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, Frederick Kempe. As a journalist, he's covered Germany for over twenty years, and is also the son of German immigrants. His new book "Father/land: A Personal Search for the New Germany" (Putnam) is his exploration into his family's past in Germany, and an analysis of Germany today.

Niall Ferguson is the author of "The Pity of War: Explaining World War I." (Basic Books) Ferguson is Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford. (England) His other books include "Paper and Iron," and "The House of Rothschild." Ferguson talks about why W.W.I was the century's worst war and why he blames Great Britain for prolonging the war.

Congressman Richard Gephardt. He's the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and has written a new book, "An Even Better Place: America in the 21st Century" (Public Affairs). In it he writes about the "cycle of destruction" in politics, the personal attacks on the character and integrity of politicians by other politicians and how it effects the country at large and our sense of democracy.