News & Media

Cousin Brucie, one of the leading top-40 DJs in New York City in the early 60s when AM radio was king and New York radio set the national tastes in pop music.

Ken Tucker will review the home video release of the 1955 classic "The Night of the Hunter," starring Robert Mitchum as a creepy Appalachian preacher, and Shelly Winters as a gullible widow.

Financial reporter Douglas Frantz, whose new book Levine & Co. follows Wall Street's insider trading scandal.

Gordon Lish, editor of The Quarterly, a journal of new American writing. He's a leading exponent of the minimalist style of writing.

Ken Tucker will review the movies of director Sam Peckinpah, now available on home video. Peckinpah's two best-known films are "Straw Dogs," and "The Wild Bunch."

Investigative reporter Jonathan Kwitny, author of Vicious Circles, which probed Mafia involvement with legitimate businesses. His new book, The Crimes of Patriots, chronicles the demise of the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia, a story that features many of the characters who figured prominently in the investigation into the sales of arms to Iran, and the diversion of those funds to the Contras.

Adam Hochschild, founder of the leftist magazine "Mother Jones." He's written a memoir about his ambivalent relationship with his father, an industrialist who operated a string of gold and diamond mines in South Africa.

Frank Deford, senior writer for Sports Illustrated and a commentator on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." Some of his best essays from Sports Illustrated have been collected in a book titled The World's Tallest Midget.

Enter MeCritic Ken Tucker will review the home video release of the 1933 classic "The Invisible Man," starring Claude Raines.

Francine Du Plessix Gray, journalist and novelist. She has written extensively about women and fashion. Her new book is a collection of essays that cover religion, the idea of home and the current moral climate.

Donald Woods, who worked as a reporter in South Africa. While covering the racial unrest there, he befriended Black activist Steve Biko. He was later placed under house arrest when he pressed authorities to investigate Biko's death in prison. A movie based on his work and his friendship with Steve Biko will be released in November.

Critic Ken Tucker will review two old movies just released for home video: "Double Indemnity," and "Naked Spur."

Lawyer and First Amendment expert Martin Garbus has a new book called Traitors and Heroes. He discusses the Lenny Bruce obscenity trials, the Reagan administration's effect on news coverage, and censorship issues abroad.

Photographer Eve Arnold documented the life of the iconic film actress, but embargoed her photos after Monroe's death. Arnold has now compiled them into a book, called Marilyn Monroe--An Appreciation.

Record producer, musician and songwriter Todd Rundgren joins Fresh Air to talk about his career both in-studio and on the concert stage. Recently, he's branched out into television, writing music for Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg says that, regardless of the language they're written in, newspaper headlines demand a mastery of colloquialisms and pre-existing knowledge of current events--making them difficult for non-native speakers to comprehend.

Gloria Steinem returns to Fresh Air to discuss the history and workplace culture of the feminist magazine she cofounded, as well as the state of the women's movement today.

Former diplomat and journalist William Attwood has a new book about the Cold War, called The Twilight Struggle. Reflecting on the history of McCarthyism, relations with communist countries, and undercover operations, he believes the Cold War's end is in sight.

TV critic David Bianculli has been following the networks' coverage of Oliver North's congressional testimony on the Iran-Contra affair. While each station uses the same camera feeds, they deploy commentary and supplementary information in different ways, in alternately successful and distracting ways.

Former New York Times reporter Joyce Maynard moved to New Hampshire to start a family, where she started her Domestic Affairs column, which examines her new life as a writer and mother. A book of the same name has just been published.