Terry Gross

Investigative reporter Lowell Bergman is the producer of the new documentary, News War: Secrets, Spin and the Future of the News. The series is about the mainstream news media and the political, legal and economic forces at play.

Lead singer/guitarist Pat DiNizio and drummer Dennis Diken from the band The Smithereens. Their new album, Meet the Smithereens, is a track-by-track homage to the Beatles' Meet the Beatles.

Former Vice President Al Gore has been on the forefront of warning against global warming for many years. His critically acclaimed documentary on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, is up for Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Music Written for a Motion Picture. This interview originally aired on May 30, 2006.

Actor Mark Wahlberg is an Academy Award nominee for best supporting actor for his role as a police sergeant in the film The Departed. After a number of smaller film roles, Wahlberg became known for his role as a porn star in Boogie Nights. Wahlberg's other films include The Perfect Storm, Three Kings, The Italian Job, and Invincible.

In his new book, Dr. Michael Stein uses the stories of patients, including that of his terminally ill brother-in-law, to explore the personal side of sickness. Stein, a professor of medicine and community health at Brown University Medical School, discusses The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness.

When Elif Shafak's novel The Bastard of Istanbul was published in her home country, the best-selling author was was accused of "public denigration of Turkishness." She was eventually acquitted. As many as 60 writers, journalists, publishers, scholars and intellectuals have been prosecuted under the Turkish penal code. One of them was editor Hrant Dink, who was assassinated last month by a Turkish fanatic.

Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, and writer Michael Arndt. Little Miss Sunshine, their bittersweet film about a dysfunctional family, has been nominated for four Academy Awards. This was Faris and Dayton's feature film debut after directing hundreds of music videos, and also the first screenplay of Arndt's to be produced.

Cultural historian Christopher Frayling is the author of Once Upon A Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone. The book chronicles the history of the spaghetti western. Ennio Morricone, who composed music for the Sergio Leone films, will be awarded an honorary Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. This interview originally aired on Aug. 1, 2005.

Peter O'Toole starred in Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, and My Favorite Year. He has been nominated for an Oscar for his role in the film Venus. This interview originally aired on Apr. 16, 1993.

In this week's issue of The New Yorker, Michael Specter writes about the murders of 13 journalists in Russia that have taken place since Vladimir Putin took office in 1999. Specter's article is "Kremlin, Inc: Why are Vladimir Putin's opponents dying?"