Places & Travel

Writer Joan Didion. Known for her self-reflective essays and reporting, Didion is one of America's most important writers. Her books include A Book of Common Prayer, Slouching Toward Bethlehem and Salvador. With her husband John Gregory Dunne, she co-wrote the screenplay for "True Confessions." Her new book is titled Miami.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews The Dresden Gate the novel by Michael Schmidt that explores the misbegotten efforts of Europeans to export their systems of civilization - religion, government, culture - on the Latin American soul.

Hanif Kureishi, a Pakistani-Briton, wrote the screenplay for 1985's surprise hit "My Beautiful Laundrette," which explored the oppression of Pakistanis in England. His new film is titled "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid."

Rock historian Ed Ward profiles The Stooges, A Detroit group that was pioneered punk, even before the famed British punk bands.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews Belfast Diary, the non-fiction account of the civil war that has flared through Northern Ireland. The author is Chicago journalist John Conroy.

Father Niall O'Brien. He has worked for over 20 years as a missionary priest in the Philippines. He was imprisoned by the Marcos regime because he helped the poor to start self-reliant Christian communities. He continues his work in the Philippines under the Aquino government.

James Conaway, author of The Kingdom in the Country, which looks at the wide expanse of public lands in the West and how the myths of the west - cowboys, gunslingers, gold miners - are enduring.

Ron Koslow, creator of "Beauty and the Beast," the new CBS television series that modernizes the fable and sets it in the tunnels of the New York City subway system.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg will discuss the effects of Minitel, the computer distributed by the telephone system in France that has brought a word processor to every home with a phone.

Indian writer Ved Mehta. He's written several books of autobiography, most all of which have been serialized in "The New Yorker" magazine. His autobiographies are poignant accounts of his blindness, his education in England, and the role that language came to play in his life.

Guest commentator Randall Grass pays tribute to reggae superstar Peter Tosh, who was killed in a robbery last weekend in Jamaica.

Hanson also directed The River Wild, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, 8 Mile and the TV movie Too Big to Fail. He died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 71. Originally broadcast in 1997.

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.

Film producer Ismail Merchant, who, with film director James Ivory, is responsible for films like "The Bostonians," and "Room with a View." His upcoming film, "Maurice," is, like "Room with a View," an adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel.

Rock historian Ed Ward will look at Cal-Mex music - the sound from East L.A. - and the legacy of "La Bamba."

Jehan Sadat, wife of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Film critic Stephen Schiff doesn't think The Big Easy is a particularly smart film, but he praises star Dennis Quaid who, along with costar Ellen Barkin, delivers one of the sexiest scenes of the summer.

While vacationing in France, linguist Geoff Nunberg visited a museum exhibit showcasing an early edition of the Grand Larousse dictionary. He considers the cultural significance of this text, and what it says about how the French view language.

Fresh Air book critic John Leonard reviews a new book by Robin W. Winks, which tells the story of the OSS and CIA's recruitment of scholars at Yale University.

Jazz critic Francis Davis says John Carter's new album, Dance of the Love Ghosts, is both experimental and structurally sound; each "electrifying" track needs to be heard in its entirety.