Terry Gross

Actor Nicolas Cage. His latest film, Windtalkers, has recently been released on DVD and video. A group of Navajo soldiers developed an unbreakable code based on their language for use during World War II. Cage plays Joe Enders, a Marine guard assigned to protect the Native American code talkers. Cage won an Academy award for his role in the film Leaving Las Vegas. He's starred in many other hit films, including Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Bringing Out the Dead, Face/Off and The Rock. He got his start in the film Birdy. This interview first aired June 13, 2002.

Actor Philip Hoffman is one of the stars of Punch-Drunk Love. Hoffman also had parts in the films Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Happiness and Next Stop Wonderland. This interview first aired Nov. 30, 1999.

Singer Jimmy Scott. There's a new biography on Jimmy Scott called Faith in Time by David Ritz. Scott's album, Falling in Love Is Wonderful, has just been reissued. He sang with Lionel Hampton's band in the late 1940s and early 1950s and influenced such singers as Nancy Wilson, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Qunicy Jones who played with Hampton's band then said of Scott's singing, "It's a very emotional, soul-penetrating style.

Investigative journalist Robert Bryce. His new book is Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego and the Death of Enron. It's a gossipy, irreverent analysis of the Enron scandal. Bryce has written about Enron since 1997.

Former White House Director of Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin has co-authored the book The Age of Sacred Terror with Steven Simon, the former Senior Director of Counterterrorism. Benjamin and Simon began writing the book more than a year before Sept. 11, 2001. As director and co-director at the National Security Council, they saw the rise of al Qaeda. In the book, they warn about the new generation of terrorists and set out to understand the enemy. Additionally, the authors wish to explain how we let our defenses down and what to expect in the future.

Journalist Jonathan Landay co-wrote an article in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer called "Officials' Private Doubts on Iraq War." Landay and his co-writers say that "Intelligence professionals and diplomats... privately have deep misgivings about the administration's double-time march toward war." The report says the White House is spreading misinformation that includes distortion of Saddam Hussein's ties with al Qaeda, overstatement of international support, and understatement of repercussions of a Middle East war.

Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Daniel Yergin will talk about the changing economy of oil in light of the possibility of war with Iraq. Yergin's 1991 book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, is highly acclaimed. He is president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. His new book, co-authored with Dr. Joseph A. Stanislaw, is The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace that is Remaking the Modern World. The Prize was adapted into an eight-hour PBS/BBC series.

Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller, authors of the new book, Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (Little Brown and Company). The book is a history of the late-night comedy mainstay, which first aired in 1975. Shales and Miller interviewed the shows' producers, writers, cast members and guest hosts, including Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Al Franken, Will Farrell, Tom Hanks and many more. Tom Shales is the Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic of The Washington Post and a movie critic for NPR's Morning Edition.

Journalist Richard Preston is the author of the best seller The Hot Zone, about the ebola virus. His new book, The Demon in the Freezer, is about the smallpox virus and the scientists at the CDC who are working with live smallpox in order to develop a drug that could fight it — should the virus be used in biological warfare. The smallpox virus was eradicated from humans in 1979. Now it can be found — officially — in two high-security freezers: one at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, and at Vector Institute in Siberia.

Actor Bill Paxton made his directing debut earlier this year with the psychological thriller Frailty, which is now out on video and DVD. He co-stars in the film, with Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe. Paxton previously starred in the films Twister, A Simple Plan, One False Move, and Apollo 13. This interview fist aired April 29, 2002.