Terry Gross

His album, Down in the Alley has been nominated for a Grammy as Best Traditional Blues Recording. He's been playing acoustic blues for nearly 20 years. Though he was raised in California, his roots musically and otherwise are in rural Mississippi. He was influenced by Charlie Patton, Leadbelly, Blind Willie McTell and others. Later he was also influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Taj Mahal.

He directed and co-wrote the satirical films Citizen Ruth and Election. His newest film, About Schmidt, is also a social satire. It stars Jack Nicholson and Kathy Bates who have both been nominated for Academy Awards for their roles. About Schmidt is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Louis Begley. Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor won the Golden Globe for best screenplay for About Schmidt.

They cover the military for The Washington Post. They'll discuss military preparedness for the war with Iraq. They collaborated on the special report "Unrivaled Military Feels Strains of Unending War: For U.S. Forces, a Technological Revolution and a Constant Call to Do More." In it they said, "The more capable the U.S. military has become, the more it has been asked to do, and now strains are beginning to show."

Lake County State's Attorney Mike Waller, who served on former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's commission to evaluate capital punishment.

Lawyer, former federal prosecutor and best-selling novelist Scott Turow. Last month, before leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of all inmates on the state's Death Row. Turow served on the governor's commission to evaluate capital punishment. Turow's latest book is Reversible Errors.

He'll talk about the fears and controversies surrounding interracial relationships in the United States which is he subject of his new book, "Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption." He is also author of the book "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word." Kennedy is a Rhode Scholar and he served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Dr. Shirley Glass discusses "the new infidelity crisis." She's studied extramarital affairs since the mid 1970's and has written a new book called "NOT Just Friends: Protect Your Relationship from Infidelity and Heal the Trauma of Betrayal." She says that the workplace has become the new breeding ground for extramarital affairs. GLASS is, by the way, the mother of Ira Glass, of public radio's "This American Life."

Composer Alf Clausen, the man behind the music of The Simpsons. This interview first aired May 14, 1997.

In her first professional role, she played Brenda Morgenstern, the insecure younger sister of the title character of the television series Rhoda. She received an Emmy award for that role. She also co-starred in The Tracey Ullman Show and now can be heard as the unforgettable voice of Marge on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, for which she also received an Emmy. This interview first aired Ferbuary 2, 1994.

Both have been with the show since it went on the air. They're part of the "Harvard Mafia," comedy writers from Harvard who have influenced the comedy business from Saturday Night Live to The Muppet Show. This interview first aired July 17, 1992.