Terry Gross

Kushner adapted his epic Tony-award winning play Angels in America into a screenplay for HBO (broadcast this month in two three-hour parts). The play is set in New York in the mid-1980s during the midst of the AIDS epidemic. The HBO film is directed by Mike Nichols and stars Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. Kushner also has a new semi-autobiographical musical Caroline, or Change at the Public Theater in New York.

Throughout his life he struggled with a weight problem. Last year he underwent gastric bypass surgery, an operation that reduces the size of the stomach and helps the patient lose weight. Roker lost 100 pounds. He talks about his operation and his new cookbook Al Roker's Hassle-Free Holiday Cookbook.

He's starring in the new film The Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers, and in the upcoming film The Cooler with William H. Macy. Baldwin's other films include State and Main, Glengarry Glen Ross and The Hunt for Red October. He's appeared on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire and Loot. He is also serves on the boards of People for the American Way and the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, named for his mother.

It's been 70 years since the repeal of prohibition in America. Behr is the author of Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America (now in paperback). He has written a number of other books including The Last Emperor, The Artful Eater: A Gourmet Investigates the Ingredients of Great Food and Hirohito: Behind the Myth.

Playboy is the best-selling men's magazine in the world. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 and assembled at Hefner's kitchen table. The magazine turns 50 years old this month. There will be a special 50th anniversary issue in January.Enter Me

He is senior counsel for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. Kennedy thinks Bush will be considered the worst environmental president in history and is concerned that Bush will dismantle 30 years of pro-environmental legislation.

She is senior policy analyst for energy and environment at The Heritage Foundation. Coon researches and writes about energy and environmental policy, such as oil drilling in Alaska and the recent blackouts in California. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

His new book is Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer. Furia documents the life of the legendary lyricist whose songs include Moon River, Come Rain or Come Shine and Skylark. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Mercer dominated the popular song charts. Furia is a professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He's also written biographies of Irving Berlin and Ira Gershwin. The interview continues throughout the entire show.

Her new book is Jung: A Biography. Bair chronicles the life and work of the influential Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung. Bair won the National Book Award for her biography of Samuel Beckett, and she's also written books about the lives of Anais Nin and Simone de Beauvoir.

Michael Cogswell heads the Louis Armstrong House & Archives. The archive contains 5,000 photographs, 350 pages of autobiographical manuscripts, 270 sets of manuscripts band parts and 650 homemade tape recordings. We'll hear excerpts from the tapes. Cogswell has just opened a museum and educational center at the Louis Armstrong House in Queens, where Louis and his wife Lucille lived for almost 30 years. Cogswell's new book is Louis Armstrong: The Offstage Story of Satchmo.