Terry Gross

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts the life and work of Abraham Lincoln, and key characters of his information. Her most recent book is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Goodwin has just won the 16th Annual Lincoln Prize for the book. (This interview was first broadcast on Nov. 8, 2005.)

David Schwartz, chief curator of film at the American Museum of the Moving Image, talks about the history of political commercials, from their inception in 1952 to the present.

Schwartz is the organizer of the exhibit "The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004." (This interview was first broadcast on July 29, 2004.)

Ben Affleck's role in Hollywoodland (as the ill-fated Superman star George Reeves) has made it to DVD. Affleck also wrote the screenplay for the upcoming film Gone, Baby, Gone, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. (This interview was first broadcast on Sept. 25, 2006.)

Actor and director Clint Eastwood's most recent films, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, examine the World War II battle for the island of Iwo Jima from competing perspectives. (This interview was first broadcast on Jan. 10, 2007.)

Journalist Matt Beynon Rees is now a crime novelist, too. The Collaborator of Bethlehem follows a Palestinian schoolteacher who turns detective to solve a murder set in the violence-ridden West Bank. Rees was based in Jerusalem as a Middle East reporter for Time magazine for more than a decade, serving as bureau chief from 2000 to 2006.

Victor Garber will star in the upcoming ABC drama Eli Stone. He has just finished a short run of Stephen Sondheim's Follies for the New York City Center's Encores! series. Viewers may remember him best as Jack Bristow on the hit TV show Alias. Broadway credits include Death Trap, Noises Off and Sweeney Todd.

The legendary singer and songwriter's most recent album is Songbird. He's also an actor, of course — Blonde Ambition gives him his latest film role. This interview was originally broadcast on May 25, 2006.

Writer Nuruddin Farah's new novel, Knots, is about the terrible conditions for women in Somalia. The central character is a Somali-Canadian woman who returns to Mogadiscio, her native city.

Underground comic book artist Robert Crumb created ZAP COMIX and is the artist behind such 1960s and 1970s icons as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat, and Keep-on-Truckin. His wife, Aline Kominsky Crumb, was one of the earliest underground female cartoonists. Her new book, Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir, chronicles her life and career. Robert's new book is The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb.