Journalism & Photojournalism

In her memoir, Susannah Cahalan writes about the month she descended into madness, experiencing seizures, paranoia, psychosis and catatonia. At first, her family was frightened, and her doctors, baffled. The eventual prognosis? A rare autoimmune disease that was attacking her brain.

Thomas Ricks' new book, The Generals, is about what he sees as a decline of American military leadership and accountability. He says that in World War II, generals were held accountable for their lack of success — but that started to change with the Korean War.

Michelle Shephard has traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, more than two dozen times and has been following the stories of men who've been released from the U.S. detention center. She's the author of Guantanamo's Child and Decade of Fear: Reporting From Terrorism's Grey Zone.

In the early days of the Iraq War, during a firefight in Baghdad, Lu Lobello's Marine unit mistakenly opened fire on a family of civilians, killing three. Years later, and after enlisting the help of reporter Dexter Filkins, Lobello reached out to that family for forgiveness.

Statistical analyst Nate Silver says humility is key to making accurate predictions. Silver, who writes the New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog, has just written a new book called The Signal and the Noise.

Writer Michael Lewis was given unusual access to the president for six months for an article for Vanity Fair. Lets tells Fresh Air that he found a "weird disjuncture between his powers and his powerlessness."

In this week's New Yorker, the journalist details how the electoral climate since the Citizens United ruling in 2010 has negatively affected the Obama campaign's appeal to Democratic donors. Mayer tells Fresh Air that Obama has to make a "terrible choice between his principles and politics."

Journalist Seth Rosenfeld spent three decades pursuing government documents about the FBI's undercover operation in Berkeley, Calif., during the student protest movements in the '60s. His new book details how the FBI "used dirty tricks to stifle dissent on campus" and influenced Ronald Reagan's politics.

"We've had time to act — and essentially we haven't acted," says science journalist Michael Lemonick. He describes the threats posed by climate change in his new book, Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas, and the Weather of the Future.

Writer and humorist David Rakoff, who died Thursday at the age of 47, wrote with a perfect balance of wit and gravity about the cancer that would ultimately take his life. Fresh Air remembers Rakoff with excerpts from two interviews in 2001 and 2010.

Moran believes that most women who don't want to be called feminists don't understand what feminism is. Her new book How to Be a Woman is a funny take on housework, high heels, body fat, abortion, marriage and, of course, Brazilian waxes.

She's never been heard on the show, but producer Melody Kramer has created a singular voice for Fresh Air online and in social media. Today we send her off, affectionately, to medical school and the next phase of her career.

College is now four times more expensive than it was 3 decades ago, pushing student loan debt over $1 trillion. A key reason for this growth is the competition among schools for status and prestige, says Kevin Carey, education policy director at the New America Foundation.

Anne-Marie Slaughter left her position as the State Department's director of policy planning to spend more time with her children. Slaughter, now a Princeton professor, details what needs to change both in workplaces and in society to create equal opportunities for all working women.

The evangelical radio host recently made national news for leading an attack against Mitt Romney's openly gay national security spokesman, who later resigned. But Fischer's viewpoints on abortion, gay marriage, education and taxes have been influencing his listeners long before this.

Tom Philpott, who covers food and the agricultural industry for Mother Jones, joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross for a wide-ranging discussion about health and other issues affecting the meat industry.

Louisiana imprisons more people per capita than any other state or country in the world. One out of every 86 adults in the state is behind bars. Times-Picayune reporter Cindy Chang says the state's correctional system has created financial incentives for local sheriffs to keep prisons full.

Yemen is now considered to be "the greatest external threat facing the U.S. homeland in terms of terrorism," says investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Horst Faas, who captured iconic moments during the Vietnam War, has died. In 1997, he talked to Terry Gross about covering the conflict. "Being in Vietnam and being around a major story of the time was always a great shot of adrenaline," he said.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the New York City Police Department transformed itself into an aggressive domestic intelligence unit and monitored hundreds of Muslims in their mosques, workplaces and schools. Journalist Matt Apuzzo, who helped uncover the story, just won a Pulitzer Prize.