Terry Gross

Today, as Christians around the world commemorate Good Friday, Christian scholar and former priest John Dominic Crossan joins Fresh Air to discuss the historical Jesus, the role of crucifixion in antiquity, and the beginnings of Christianity.

Levon Helm, former drummer and vocalist for the '60s and '70s rock group, The Band, recounts his early fame, his battle against throat cancer and his continuing solo career.

Dr. Nick Trout joins Fresh Air to talk about his memoir Tell Me Where It Hurts. Trout is a staff surgeon at Boston's Angell Animal Medical Center, a 185,000-square-foot facility that treats 50,000 pets a year. In his day, he's given a CAT scan to a rat and done an ultrasound on at least one frog.

A journalist goes undercover to take all-expenses-paid, round-the-world sex tour in Willing. That's the newest novel from Scott Spencer, author of Endless Love.

Foreign correspondent Charles Sennot recently returned from Iraq, where he witnessed the U.S. military's "troop surge" first-hand as an embedded reporter with the Army's 28th Infantry Regiment.

Secularist Shiite politican Ahmad Chalabi was for years part of an opposition group dedicated to overthrowing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He's also the subject of the new book The Man Who Pushed America to War.

The fact that she is a British-born white woman hasn't stopped jazz pianist Marian McPartland from playing for nearly 50 years in a world that is largely male and black. Now about to turn 90, McPartland has a new CD called 'Twilight World.'

Quincy Jones started his career as a trumpeter in Lionel Hampton's big band in the early '50s. But Jones never became a noted instrumentalist. What made him famous and wealthy was his work as a record producer — perhaps, most notably, for the Michael Jackson mega hit Thriller.

Comedian Robert Schimmel has suffered tragedies, including the death of his child and his own battle with cancer. But throughout it all, Schimmel managed to find strength in humor. His recent memoir is Cancer on $5 a Day.

Was America meant to be a Christian nation? Steven Waldman, founder of Beliefnet.com, debunks myths about religion in the lives the Founding Fathers, and in the early history of America in his new book, Founding Faith.