Terry Gross

Boogie Nights writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson. The film has been released on video. The movie is about the pornography film industry in the late 70's and early 80's in the San Fernando Valley. Anderson's first film was the independent "Hard Eight." (originally aired 10/30/97)

Maxwell Taylor Kennedy is the youngest son of Robert F. Kennedy. He has edited a new collection of his father's private journal entries called "Make Gentle The Life of this World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy." (Harcourt Brace) Max Kennedy, as he is called, has written stories for the Santa Monica News, and for the magazines Doubletake and Conde Nast Traveler. He also served as a prosecutor in Philadelphia. He lives in Boston.

Jack Newfield wrote the highly acclaimed 1969 book "Robert Kennedy: A Memoir by Jack Newfield." (Dutton) This Sunday, The Discovery Channel will air a 3-hour documentary co-produced by Newfield. The series is based on his book.

Actress Jane Alexander talks about her 4 years as Chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts. She served from 1993 through 1997 when the GOP controlled Congress targeted the agency for budget cuts. She was the first artist to head the NEA. Alexander has returned to acting and is writing a book on her experiences at the NEA.

Bill Ivey is the new Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He won Senate confirmation last month. He last served as the director of the Country Music Foundation. There he co-produced a new 3 CD set called "From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music." (Warner Bros) The collection traces the contributions African-Americans have had in country music. (stations: This was recorded before his confirmation hearings. He declined to talk about the NEA at that time.)

We'll hear from two people who worked on a new Maisin (My-sin) tribal art exhibit "Tapa Style" now showing in Philadelphia. The goal of the exhibit is to promote Maisin culture as an alternative to selling logging rights to their portion of a rainforest in Papau New Guinea. John Wesley Vaso is a Maisin tribal leader. Larry Rinder was the curator for the exhibit and is Director of the Institute for Exhibitions and Public Programs at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Singer and songwriter John Fogerty. He has just released the double CD "live" concert album "Premonition." (Reprise) Featured on the recording is many of his biggest hits with Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Down on the Corner," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Proud Mary." Fogerty won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his album "Blue Moon, Swamp." Fogerty will also be featured on this month's VH-1 Biography.

Author Diane Wood Middlebrook has written "Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton." (Houghton Mifflin) It traces the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton who passed as a man most of her life. Middlebrooke also wrote "Anne Sexton: A Biography." She is a professor of english at Stanford University in California.

Nicholas Papandreou is the son of former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Nicholas as written the novel "A Crowded Heart." (Picador) It is a fictional retelling of his own childhood in Greece. Born in Berkeley, California, he now lives in Athens, Greece.

A 'Fresh Air' concert with Nick Lowe. This was recorded after his 1994 recording "The Impossible Bird" (Upstart Records). Lowe in the early 1970s played London's pub rock scene in the band Brinsley Schwarz. After the band broke up in 1975, he produced five albums for Elvis Costello. Lowe worked with Dave Edmunds in the group Rockpile. In 1992 he was one quarter of the band "Little Village" with John Hiatt and Ry Cooder. His newest CD is "Dig My Mood" released by Rounder Records. Originally aired 1/ 24/95