Terry Gross

Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren is an expert on bankruptcy and is an outspoken critic of consumer lenders.

Recently she appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to discuss the abusive lending practices by credit card companies. She considers the interest charges and late fees imposed by credit card companies to a "hidden tax" on cardholders.

Warren is also the author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.

With his band the MGs, Booker T. Jones created the classic instrumental "Green Onions." But they were also the studio band for Stax Records, making music with soul artists such as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. A new two-CD box set features Stax highlights and Booker T. is now back on tour.

Comedian and actor Will Ferrell stars in the new film Blades of Glory. He plays a former Olympic ice skater who, banned from competition with a rival (played by Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite fame), discovers a loophole allowing the men to skate as a pair.

Ferrell became famous as a member of Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2002. Among his other films: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Stranger Than Fiction, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Old School and Bewitched.

This interview originally aired on Nov. 9, 2006.

Middle East policy expert Daniel Byman talks about the effect of the war in Iraq on state-sponsored terrorism.

Byman is the director at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he is also a professor.

Journalist George Packer's article in the March 26 issue of The New Yorker magazine is called "Betrayed: The Iraqis Who Trusted America the Most."

He reports that men employed by Americans as interpreters, construction workers, drivers and office workers are now being marked for death and hunted down as collaborators.

Packers most recent book is The Assassins Gate: America in Iraq.

Weapons expert Joseph Cirincione's new book is Bomb Scare: the History and Future of Nuclear Weapons. He talks about how nuclear threats will evolve in coming years.

Cirincione is senior vice president for national security and international affairs at the Center for American Progress. He also teaches at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. And he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Record producer Joe Boyd has worked with Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Richard and Linda Thompson, R.E.M. and many other musical acts. He has a new memoir, called White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.

Shes up for an academy award for her portrayal of the mother of a drug addict who is also an addict herself in the film –Requiem for a Dream.— This is her 5th nomination and could be her second win. She won the Academy Award for the 1974 film –Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore.— Burstyns other films include –The Last Picture Show,— –The Exorcist,— and –Same Time, Next Year— (she starred in the Broadway version too and won a Tony).

Ramos is considered a pioneer of Tejano music, the sound known for its traditional Mexican roots infused with the big-band sound of the 1940s, and heavily influenced by blues and rock. He is the bandleader of Ruben and the Texas Revolution. Their most recent recording is –El Gato Negro: A Class Act—. Hes also part of the all-star band Los Super Seven which has a new CD –Canto—

Blackwater USA is a secretive private army based in North Carolina with a sole owner: Erik Prince, a right-wing Christian multimillionaire. Jeremy Scahill talks about his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.