Terry Gross

Part two of our interview with "Mr. Horror," writer Stephen King. He'll talk with Terry about his greatest fear, his first writing efforts and about his childhood. His new collection of stories is "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" (Viking). (This portion rebroadcast from 7/23/92).

Documentary film maker Allie Light. Her new film, "Dialogues With Madwomen," won the 1994 "Freedom of Expression Award" at the Sundance Film Festival. In the film, seven women describe their bouts with mental illness, including Light who checked herself into a day psychiatric facility for three months in 1963 because of problems with depression. Light co-produced the film with Irving Saraf. Their previous work, "In The Shadow of the Stars," won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Former Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello. At the age of 12, she was discovered by Walt Disney at a dance recital; he was looking for kids for his new show, "The Mickey Mouse Club." Funicello became the "most popular" Mouseketeer, and went on to star in a number of Disney films: "The Shaggy Dog," "Babes in Toyland," and "The Monkey's Uncle." Before she went to star in the beach party movies for which she is also known, Disney requested that she wear a one-piece bathing suit instead of a bikini. Funicello agreed.

Texas-born musician and Nashville songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. At 54, he plays with his son in a band called "Shaver" -- their new album is "Tramp on Your Street" (Zoo/Praxis), his first recording in ten years. Shaver's songs, as recorded by Waylon Jennings on the 1973 "Honky Tonk Heroes" album, began the "outlaw" movement in country music. Since then, his songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.

Writer for the Village Voice and The Nation Pagan Kennedy. Kennedy ("Pagan" is not her real first name) has staked out a niche for herself as a "1970's survivor and devotee." Kennedy has written an investigation of that decade, seen through its artifacts and social upheaval, "Platforms: A Microwaved Cultural Chronicle of the 1970's" (St. Martins). In the 70's she says, "we inherited this idea of recycling culture.

Columnist and commentator Murray Kempton. The New Yorker says he's "surely among the greatest of all living newspapermen" . . . "the one true original in the business." For years he wrote a column for the old New York Post. Now he writes for New York Newsday and The New York Review of Books. At 76, he bicycles around Manhattan in his elegant attire to gather material for his columns on the City's "rebels, losers and rascals." His latest book is a collection of his newspaper pieces.

Physician and author Kenneth Iserson, M.D. Iserson wanted to promote organ and tissue donation. So he wrote a book about what happens to dead bodies. It's called "Death to Dust" (Galen Press). Iserson believes that death is the pornography of our culture. He says that after-death activities are shrouded in secrecy. His book explores the mundane--burial choices and advance directives--and the arcane--head shrinking, cannibalism and cryonic preservation.

Ted Hawkins is a singer, a songwriter, and a guitarist who for almost 30 years was a street musician in L.A. His music isn't the blues though he's qualified to sing them: he grew up in poverty in Mississippi, his mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father. As a teenager, Hawkins spent time in jail. His first two marriages ended quickly: one was annulled, his second wife died two months into the marriage.

Writer, feminist, organizer, and the founder of Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem. She has a new book of essays, "Moving Beyond Words, (Simon & Schuster). In one of the essays she wonders -- what if Freud were female? -- and imagines what life would be like if one of the most "enduring, influential, and fiercely defended thinkers" in Western civilization were Dr. Phyllis Freud. In her new book Steinem also reflects on turning 60.

Floyd Cochran used to be a recruiter and public relations man for the racist, anti-Semitic Aryan Nations, based in Idaho. About two years ago, Cochran left the group and denounced it and its racist views. Now he travels the country speaking out against white supremacy movements, and the philosophy of hatred.