Society & Culture

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the book "It Happened in the Catskills," an oral history of the resorts that made up what was known as the Borsht Belt.

Bok is the author of several books on the ethics of lying and keeping secrets. Her newest is a memoir about her mother, the Nobel Prize-winning Alva Myrdal, who was called the most modern woman in the world.

The Fresh Air language commentator explains his neologism "cacophomism." It's the opposite of euphemism, and describes all those words that make something sound worse than it is.

E.J. Dionne's new book is an analysis of what's gone wrong in American politics. He will soon start publishing a column in the Washington Post.

Dees co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center and has been involved in civil rights cases for years. In 1988 he made legal history when he fashioned a seven million dollar verdict against the Klu Klux Klan that effectively bankrupted the group. He has a new memoir out, called "A Season for Justice: The Life & Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees."

Duberman has written a memoir about being gay in the 1950s -- before the gay liberation movement, and at a time when homosexuality was considered deviant behavior by the psychiatrists. It's called "Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey.

Nugent has written an account of his trip to India and the Himalayas in search of one of the world's rarest birds.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg examines the evolution of the term "politically correct."

The American artist is credited with reviving the art of lithography in this country. In 1960, Wayne founded the Tamarind Workshop in Los Angeles. She's considered one of the prominent lithographers in this country. Throughout her career, she's had to contend with sexism which impugned her professional status.

Heimel writes about the perils of being a single woman in the 90s for both The Village Voice and Playboy. There's a new collection of her columns out, titled "If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?"

Mapfumo is known as "The Lion of Zimbabwe," for his outspoken political stance during his home country's struggle for independence. Mapfumo and his band, The Blacks Unlimited, have a new album, called "Chamunorwa."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews Sylvester Stallone's new movie "Oscar," a 1930s gangster comedy that feels like a 1960s French stage play. Schiff says it lacks the over-the-top approach needed to make farce succeed.

Marin is writing a long essay on the moral basis for pacifism, nationalism, and war. His reflections were precipitated by the war in the Gulf.

Actress Daisy Eagan and her father, actor Richard Eagan. Daisy is starring as the young heroine, Mary Lenox, in the Broadway production of "The Secret Garden." Richard is working on a performance piece about stories from Coney Island. Guest host Frank Browning talks to them about pretending, acting, and how a Broadway career affects their family life.

Nuyen played Susie Wong in the Broadway production of "The World of Susie Wong," was in the film version of "South Pacific." And she played the Vietnamese doctor on the television show, "St Elsewhere." She's now starring "China Cry," a new movie on the Christian Broadcasting network

Anthropologist Richard Parker went to Brazil a decade ago to do field work. He's written a book about the fluid ideas of gender and sexuality in that country, called "Bodies, Pleasures, & Passions."

Mira is a third-generation Japanese-American who, in 1984, visited Japan for the first time. His own grandfather left that country at the turn of the century, and during World War II Mura's parents were interned in a relocation camp. He's written a memoir about his heritage, called "Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei."

Cisneros' first book, "The House on Mango Street," told the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Latino quarter of Chicago. Cisneros has a new collection of stories, called "Woman Hollering Creek."

Novelist Mary Gordon has a new collection of essays, "Good Boys and Dead Girls: And Other Essays." Catholicism has been a constant theme in her novels, which include: "Final Payment," and "The Company of Women." American fiction by men, Catholicism, and abortion are some of the issues she write about in her new book

Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee and editor Marilyn Levine. He made the film, "Sherman's March," in which he set out to trace William Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea -- but it really traces his entanglements with Southern women along the way. During the editing of that film, he and Levine fell in love. McElwee's new film, "Something to Do With The Wall," began as a story about the eternal presence of the Berlin Wall, but ended up a story of the wall's breaking down.