Terry Gross

Palestinian author, journalist and literary critic Samir El-Youssef was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon. He now lives in London, and has collaborated with his friend, Israeli writer Etgar Keret, on a book, Gaza Blues. El-Youssef provides his views on recent events in the Middle East.

Etgar Keret, a best-selling author in Israel whose books have also been published in the United States, talks about recent events in the Middle East. Keret collaborated with Palestinian author Samir El-Youssef for the book Gaza Blues. Keret contributed a collection of short stories and El-Youssef, a novella.

Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid is a visiting fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He says that while growing up in Syria in the '70s and '80s, it wasn’t fears of an Israeli attack that kept him up at night. His concern was the dreaded Syrian security apparatus and certain government officials.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman just returned from a trip to Israel, Jordan and Syria. He talks with us about the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and where Syria fits in. Friedman's most recent book is The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century.

Christopher Dickey, Paris bureau chief and Middle East regional editor for Newsweek magazine, discusses the crisis in the Middle East.

Singer and musician David Johansen was the lead singer for 1970s pre-punk punk rock band New York Dolls. The band has recently reunited and has a new CD, One Day it Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Johansen is also known as Buster Poindexter, a pompadour- and tuxedo-wearing lounge lizard. This interview originally aired on Dec. 7, 2004.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are marking their 30th year in the business with a U.S. tour, and Petty has a new solo album, Highway Companion.

Professor Daniel Byman talks about new book, Deadly Connections: States That Sponsor Terrorism. He explores the symbiotic relationship between terrorist organizations and their state sponsors. Byman is associate professor in Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and director of Georgetown's Security Studies Program and Center for Peace and Security Studies.

Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, talks about his new book, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, takes a hard look at the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Political reporters Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten talk about their new book, One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century. The authors are reporters for The Los Angeles Times.