Terry Gross

Writer Edmund White. He has been called "unquestionably the foremost American gay novelist." White's novels draw significantly from his own experiences in a style he calls "auto-fiction." In his newest book, "Genet: A Biography" (Knopf), White documents the life of controversial French writer, Jean Genet.

American artist Roy Lichtenstein. He was one of the inventors of pop art in the 1960's, finding inspiration for his paintings in comic books and advertisements. (More recently, he's found it in the yellow pages of the phone book). Lichtenstein's work often replicates the heavy black outlines, bright colors and dots of a color comic strip found in a newspaper. Called by one critic the "supreme virtuoso of pop", his work is filled with constant references to high and low arts as well as to his own work.

Comedian Al Franken: He plays the sensitive twelve-stepper Stuart Smalley on "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley" on Saturday Night Live which was based on Franken's own experience with a 12-step group. He is a co-producer of SNL and works on the cable network "Comedy Central," where he anchored the Democratic and Republican Conventions for "Indecision '92." He has a new book, (written by Stuart Smalley) is "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me." (Dell Trade Paperback).

Dr. Al Mooney, a specialist in Addictive Medicine and his mother Dot Mooney. Doctor Mooney is the author of The Recovery Book, a guide to drug and alcohol recovery and runs the Willingway Hospital,a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Statesboro Georgia. Doctor Mooney knows about addiction first hand. His late father, who was also a doctor, became addicted to drugs and alcohol...so did his mother. When the parents kicked their habits, they turned their house into a rehabilitation center for other addicts.

Should you get a flu shot? We hear from Robin Marantz Henig, author of a book about viruses "A Dancing Matrix," and Dr. W. Paul Glezer, epidemiologist at the Influenza Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

Novelist David Leavitt discusses his new book "While England Sleeps." Themes are the betrayals, loyalties, and dilemmas of gay men in the 1930s.

Disaster relief expert Fred Cuny discusses efforts to rebuild gas and water lines in the battle zone of Sarajevo.

Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee discusses her memoir.

Slovak novelist Martin Simecka discusses life after the split of Czechoslovakia. His latest novel to be published in the U. S. is "Year of the Frog." Prior to the fall of Communism, Simecka and his father were dissidents.

Star Trek star William Shatner joins the show to discuss his book "Star Trek Memories."