Terry Gross

Nick Hornby talks about his most recent book, A Long Way Down, which is now out in paperback. Many of Hornby's novels have been made into films, including About a Boy and High Fidelity. He also writes "Stuff I've Been Reading," a column for The Believer magazine. This segment originally aired on June 15, 2005.

We listen back to a previous interview with the folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger. He wrote or co-wrote "If I Had A Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." He also made popular dozens of other folk songs, many of which appear on the latest Bruce Springsteen album, We Shall Overcome:The Seeger Sessions. This segment originally aired on Jan. 25, 1984.

Journalist Nicholas Kristof has just won the Pulitzer prize for his New York Times commentary on Darfur. He and John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group deliver an update on the continuing crisis and genocide still under way in the African republic of Sudan.

In the first part of a two-part interview, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins guides us through the new spoken-word four-CD box set Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006.

Daniel Okrent was the first ombudsman of The New York Times, serving from 2003 to 2005. His new book, Public Editor #1, is a behind-the-scenes look at the art and politics of America's most respected newspaper.

Okrent has spent over 25 years in the print media business, with writing and editing jobs at Esquire, Time and Life magazines. He is also known as the founder of rotisserie baseball, the forerunner of popular fantasy sports games.

While the Northern Marianas Islands are a U.S. territory, they are exempt from the usual American laws regulating minimum wage, tariffs, quotas and immigration. Yet clothing sewn in the sweatshops bears the "made in the USA" label. To further complicate matters, the Marianas were a client of Jack Abramoff, who, with the help of Tom Delay, blocked legislation that would have eliminated these exemptions.

Ann Fessler talks about her new book, The Girls Who Went Away. Using her own story of adoption as a basis for her book, Fessler tells the story of over a million women who surrendered children for adoption prior to legalized abortion. Fessler is a photography professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Two archaeologists test the historical accuracy of some of the Bible's oldest stories in a new book, David and Solomon. Neil Asher Silberman talks about the findings in the book he co-authored with Israel Finkelstein.

Actor Brad Whitford was Josh Lyman, the deputy White House chief of staff on The West Wing. In more recent episodes he played campaign manager for a presidential candidate. Whitford began his acting career on the stage, and has also appeared in many films. This interview originally aired on May 16, 2001.