Terry Gross

The new documentary Murderball looks at the rough-and-tumble world of quadriplegic rugby -- otherwise known as "murderball." Fresh Air talks to top-rated player Mark Zupan and Dana Adam Shapiro, the film's co-producer and co-director.

Clowes' new book is called Ice Haven. It's the story of a small Midwestern town populated by characters including poet laureate Random Wilder, Julie Patheticstein and Blue Bunny. Ultimately, it's based on the story of Leopold and Loeb.

Lisa Kudrow (Friends) stars in and executive producer Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) created the new HBO comedy series The Comeback. It's a mock reality show that follows the career of a celebrity desperate to return to the spotlight.

Judas Priest has a new album out, Angel of Retribution, and is on tour this summer. Originally from Birmingham, England, Judas Priest pioneered the heavy metal sound in the 1970s and '80s. Lead singer Halford left the band in 1991, citing internal tension, and in 1998, he disclosed that he is gay during an interview on MTV. Nicknamed the "Metal God," Halford returned to Judas Priest in 2003.

The legendary jazzman turns 87 on July 31, 2005. He and his trio have just released a new CD, For My Father, and he joins John Patitucci and Jack De Johnette for the Great Jazz Trio's upcoming CD, S'Wonderful.

In his autobiography, Batman and Me, Kane tells how he came up with the idea for the caped crusader, and what influence he had on the TV series and previous Batman movies. Kane drew Batman from its inception in 1939 to the late 60s. DC Comic still publishes Batman. The new movie Batman Begins has just hit theaters nationwide. This interview was originally broadcast on March 23, 1990.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is on many bestseller and book club lists, and Haddon won the U.K.'s prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Jack Coughlin, a gunnery sergeant in the Marines, is the author of the new book Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper. He grew up in a wealthy Boston suburb and joined the Marines at age 19, spending the next 20 years behind the scope of a long-range rifle as a sniper. He has more than 60 confirmed kills, 38 of which took place during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Economists Isabel Sawhill and Brian Riedl discuss the federal deficit: how the country reached this point and how it might get back into the black. Sawhill is a senior fellow and vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Brian Riedl is lead budget analyst and the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank also based in Washington.

The latest novel from best-selling English author Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down, focuses on a group of suicidal people who accidentally meet atop a tall building — and how that meeting changes their fates. He also writes "Stuff I've Been Reading," a column for The Believer magazine. Many of Hornby's novels have been made into films, including About a Boy, High Fidelity and Fever Pitch.