Terry Gross

Foreign policy expert Joseph Cirincione is senior vice president for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. He s been called a nonproliferation guru. His soon-to-be-published book is called Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons.

Conservative thinker Michael Ledeen holds the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, but prefers the term "democratic revolutionary" to "neoconservative." He discusses the current and future U.S. policy toward Iran, arguing that the United States should encourage change from within the country, rather than launching an all-out attack.

Disaster science specialist Ivor Van Heerden is the cofounder and deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center and director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes. His new book is The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina -- the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist.

Monsignor Doug Doussan and Sister Kathleen Pittman discuss the status of their church and the surrounding neighborhood, one year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Doussan is pastor and Pitman is pastoral associate at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in New Orleans.

Episcopalian minister Barbara Brown Taylor's new book, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, describes her decision to leave her job after 15 years as a full-time minister.

The Fox TV show House is nominated for four Emmys. David Shore is the executive producer. David Foster is the medical consultant and writes for the series -- and for Hugh Laurie, playing an irreverent and controversial doctor who trusts no one. (Original airdate: May 5, 2005.)

Mitchell Hurwitz created the Fox TV series Arrested Development, which was canceled, but is still up for two Emmys. Hurwitz created the dysfunctional Bluth family after serving as a writer and producer for more conventional sitcoms, including The Golden Girls and The Ellen Show. (Original airdate: Nov. 3, 2005.)

Actress Lisa Kudrow and executive producer Michael Patrick King joined forces for The Comeback, an HBO series that cast Kudrow as a celebrity desperate to return to the spotlight. The canceled effort is nominated for one Emmy. (Original airdate: June 22, 2005.)

Before most Americans had heard of the Taliban, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote a book about them. After the Sept. 11 attacks, it became a best-seller. Rashid's recent reporting for English-language newspapers involves Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Middle East peace expert Sari Nusseibeh is the founder of the Palestinian Consultancy Group and the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization, the president of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem and a professor of Islamic philosophy. He co-wrote the People's Voice Initiative to build grassroots support for a two-state solution. Until December 2002, he was the representative of the Palestinian National Authority in Jerusalem.