Terry Gross

Music legend Johnny Cash has been recording albums and performing since the 1950's. He has been inducted into the Songwriters, Country Music, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. Cash suffers from Parkinsons disease and will 70 next week. This interview was first broadcast onNov. 4, 1997.

Irish writer Nuala OFaolain. Her first novel, My Dream of You, (Riverhead Books) has just come out in paperback. Her critically acclaimed 1998 memoir, Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman was on the New York Times bestseller list. OFaolain is also a columnist for the Irish Times; she has been at the paper for over 12 years. This interview was first broadcast on April 2, 2001.

His TV series, Primetime Glick, is a spoof of celebrity talk shows. Short plays Jiminy Glick, the self-absorbed host of the fictitious talk show. He interviews A-list celebrity guests, but often gets information about these guests wrong. The new season of Primetime Glick premieres this weekend. Martin Short was a cast member on both Saturday Night Live and SCTV. His movies include Father of the Bride, The Three Amigos, and Innerspace.

His book is called Them: Adventures with Extremists. (Simon and Schuster). He traveled around the world interviewing different types of extremistsfrom Islamic fundamentalists in a Jihad training camp, to Ku Klux Klansmen at rallies. Them was first published in the U.K. in the spring of 2001.

South African surgeon, journalist and documentary filmmaker Jonathan Kaplan has treated patients in many war torn locations, including Kurdistan, Mozambique, and Eritrea. He writes about his experiences in his new book, The Dressing Station: A Surgeons Chronicle of War and Medicine (Grove Press). He began his medical career in South Africa, where he first cared for patients wounded by political violence.

Michael Kinsley, editor of the online newsmagazine Slate. Hes just announced that hes stepping down from the position. Slate has been a very successful Web site, with over 2 million visitors each month. Kinsley told the New York Times that throughout his career, he has changed jobs every five or six years since he tends to get bored. He will continue to write for the Web site. Previously, Kinsley was editor of the New Republic magazine and co-host of CNNs Crossfire.

Jane Farrell-Beck and Colleen Gau, authors of the book, Uplift: The Bra in America. It's a sociological and historical look at the undergarment. Farrell-Beck is Professor of Textiles and Clothing at Iowa State University. Colleen Gau is President of CPRTex, Inc., a home-based conservation of textiles business, and a writer.

Singer Brenda Lee is one of the early rock 'n' roll singers, with hits such as "I'm Sorry," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "Break it To Me Gently." She's just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, class of 2002. She's also in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Lee was born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta. At the age of 13, in 1957, she made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry. She's performed around the world. Her new memoir is Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee.

Founder of the Federal Witness Protection Program, Gerald Shur, and journalist Pete Earley. They've collaborated on the new book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program (Bantam Books). Shur started the program in the 1960s after realizing that many witnesses would not testify because they were afraid of being killed as a result. WITSEC assigns a new identity and relocates witnesses and their dependents. Witnesses have included everyone from mobsters to drug traffickers to terrorists in the first world trade center bombing. Shur headed the program for 34 years.

Journalist Christopher Dickey is the Paris bureau chief and Middle East regional editor for Newsweek magazine. He's co-author of the cover story for the Sept. 23 issue, "How We Helped Create Saddam: And Can We Fix Iraq After He's Gone?" Dickey is also a novelist, and author of Summer of Deliverance: A Memoir of Father and Son about his relationship with his father, poet and novelist James Dickey.