Terry Gross

Rebroadcast of an interview with singer/songwriter Carole King. In the 60s, she wrote hit songs like "Up on the Roof" and "Will you still love me tomorrow?" But in the 70s, she achieved lasting fame with songs like "Natural Woman" and her best-sellingalbum "Tapestry." King has a new album, "Colour of Your Dreams."

Business journalist Mark Pendergrast. His new book is "For God, Country, and Coca-Cola" shows how the soft drink became the world's most widely distributed product, and a symbol for the Western way of Life.

Journalist Stan Sesser is a reporter covering Southeast Asia for the New Yorker. He has collected some of those pieces in a new book "The Lands of Charm and Cruelty: Travels in Southeast Asia." He discusses the recent elections in Cambodia which featured violence, twenty political parties and massive voter turnout

Allen and Albert Hughes, 21-year old twins, and directors of "Menace II Society." Their mother steered them away from drugs and gangs when they were twelve by buying them video equipment. After making several music videos and short films, they've made their first feature. It's firmly in the gangster genre, an unflinching film about young men growing up in Watts. The film's 23-year old screenwriter Tyger Williams explains: "For every 'good' kid that makes it out of the ghetto, there are five more who don't.

Halberstam has a new book -- a social, political, economic, and cultural history of what he considers the most pivotal decade of the century -- called "The Fifties." His other books include, "The Best and the Brightest" and "The Powers That Be."

Pierce won the "Songwriter of the Year" award at the 1993 Austin Music Awards. A tribute album of her songs performed by other singers, "Across the Great Divide," won the Album of the Year Award. She's originally from Lubbock, Texas, and little known outside the state. Her songs are quirky, and spiritual. Pierce also wrote and performed the one-woman show, ""Bad Girls Upset About the Truth," told in story and song about her problems with men and Jesus.

Psychiatrist Peter D. Kramer wrote "Listening to Prozac," an examination of the larger issues behind drugs that reshape temperament. Prozac is the most widely prescribed antidepressant today, with some four and a half million users since its introduction in 1987. Kramer raises serious questions about this "miracle mood enhancer": are we headed into an age of cosmetic pharmacology?

Kurtz is media reporter for "The Washington Post." He has a new book, called "Media Circus: The Trouble with America's Newspapers." In the book, he looks at how the press has bungled some important stories like the HUD scandal and the S&L mess, the William Kennedy Smith trial, and the Clarence Thomas hearings.

Handler has played leading roles in seven Broadway productions including, "Six Degrees of Separation," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," and "Master Harold. . . and the boys." He's 32 now; seven years ago he was diagnosed with leukemia. He had a bone marrow transplant, and he's now considered free of the disease. He has a new monologue, "Time on Fire," about his four year struggle with leukemia.

Actor and director Kenneth Branagh . Branagh and his wife, Emma Thompson are currently starring in the film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." This interview was recorded and originally broadcast in 1991 at the time of the release of their movie, "Dead Again," a psychological thriller. In 1989, Branagh made a film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry the Fifth;" he played the title role. That movie was nominated for an Oscar as best film.