Terry Gross

Joyce Dixson co-founded "Sons and Daughters of the Incarcerated" a group which helps children whose parents are in prison. Dixson served seventeen years in prison after being convicted of shooting her husband. She left two children behind when she went to prison in 1976. She later became the first woman to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan while incarcerated. Dixson's sentence was reduced, and she was released from prison in 1993. She went directly to the University of Michigan and earned a master's degree in social work.

Photographer John Dugdale is joined by psychotherapist Robert Levithan to talk about a new class of AIDS fighting drugs. Both men have the AIDS virus; they are being treated with protease inhibitors. The treatment is helping them live normal lives. John Dugdale's photographs are collected in the recent book "Lengthening Shadows Before Nightfall." Robert Levithan conducts workshops called "Outliving AIDS" for those with AIDS who are living longer than expected.

Allison's novel "Bastard Out of Carolina" has been adapted to a new movie that will be shown on the Showtime cable channel this weekend. The 1992 novel is about a poor South Carolina family's violence and incest, and it's largely autobiographical. She says that she doesn't like most abuse literature out today because it tends to eroticize abuse. Allison has also written a book of short stories called "Trash" and a book of poems called "The Women Who Hate Me." This interview originally aired 9/9/92.

Forman co-produced with Oliver Stone the new film "The People vs Larry Flynt." In this 1994 interview, Forman talks about his own experiences with censorship. He is originally from Czechoslovakia and began his film career in his native country, apprenticing with some of the country's best film makers for the Communist state-controlled film industry.

A new movie about the Hustler Magazine publisher, "The People vs. Larry Flynt," will open at theaters this month. In addition, Flynt's autobiography "An Unseemly Man: My Life as Pornographer, Pundit and Social Outcast" was published this month by Dove Books. Flynt was paralyzed in 1978 after being shot by a man who said he was offended by an inter-racial depiction of a couple he saw in Hustler. In Feb of 1988, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Flynt and Hustler magazine in a landmark libel case filed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections Warren Williams discusses the Human Rights Watch report. He says the head of the Michigan Department of Corrections is critical and skeptical of the report's findings, which allege there was sexual abuse of female inmates in Michigan state prisons.

For 26 years, Maurice Levine has been director of the 92nd Y's "Lyrics & Lyricist" series. It spotlights American lyricists and composers like Alan Jay Lerner, Stephen Sondheim, and Dorothy Fields. The series has consistently been a sell-out. Levine has also served as musical director/conductor/vocal arranger for Broadway shows and produced for television.

Human Rights Watch/Women's Rights Project has issued a new report which alleges that there is widespread sexual abuse of women prisoners in U.S. state prisons by prison guards. It's based on data conducted from March 1994 to November 1996. Dorothy Thomas, director of the Women's Rights Project researched and wrote the report. Terry Gross will talk with her and attorney Deborah LaBelle, who has represented women prisoners in their grievances. The report is titled, "All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of women in U.S. State Prisons"

The Emmy-nominated, African American actor is known as Lieutenant Arthur Fancy on NYPD Blue, the Emmy Award-winning police drama. He has appeared in numerous television, film and theater productions, including the films "Strictly Business" and"Malcolm X," and the shows "Kate and Allie," "Hill Street Blues," and "L.A. Law," and "Civil Wars."

Rutgers Professor of Science and Public Policy Leonard Cole has written "The Eleventh Plague, the Politics of Biological and Chemical Warfare." In it, he tells about the extraordinary danger posed by biological and chemical weapons. He reveals how the United States Army conducted tests for many years using both biological and chemical agents on Americans.