Terry Gross

Lonny Shavelson writes about five people who were considering assisted suicide. His book A Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide explores the agonizing dilemma that family and friends must face in deciding whether to assist. Shavelson argues in favor of legalized Physician-assisted suicide. Shavelson is a writer, photojournalist and emergency-room physician living in Berkeley, California. A Chosen Death is published by Simon and Shuster 1995.

Record producer and musician Don Was. He co-founded the funk rock group, "Was (Not) Was." This year he won a Grammy for Producer of the Year. In addition, he's produced a number of albums for Bonnie Raitt (Was produced Raitt's "Nick of Time" album which revived her career), Rolling Stones, Lyle Lovett, Al Green, Iggy Pop, and the B-52's. He's ventured into documentary film production with "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," about ex-Beachboy Brian Wilson. Was directed the film.

Fred Cuny is an American relief worker who is believed to have been killed this year in Chechnya. He was there assessing the Chechen needs in an effort to one day help rebuild the ruined cities. Russian troops have battled Chechen fighters since late last year to quell the Chechen move towards independence. Cuny was the founder and president of the Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Corporation, which is based in Dallas. His work has taken him to Somalia, Northern Iraq, the Sudan, Nicaragua, Mexico, Biafra and other places where there is war, famine or natural disaster.

Novelist Russell Banks. His new novel is Rule of the Bone (Harper Collins). It's been compared to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because of it's young first-person narrator, and use of comedy to convey grim realities. Banks's narrator is 14 year-old Chappie from upstate New York who wears a nose ring and Mohawk. He steals from his parents to pay for dope, is kicked out of the house, becomes homeless, and sets off on a low-life adventure. Banks is the author of twelve novels including The Sweet Hereafter, Affliction, and Continental Drift.

From The Alloy Orchestra, composer and keyboardist Caleb Sampson. The band has gained a reputation for composing and performing exciting, percussive silent film scores. Their repertoire includes scores for "Metropolis," "Nosferatu," "Lonesome," and their newest, for the Russian classic "Man with a Movie Camera." The film has a "sneak preview" at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, and it premieres at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy in October. They have two CD's.

Veteran television announcer Bill Wendell retires this week after 37 years at NBC. Wendell is currently the announcer for "Late Night with David Letterman." He's famous for adding the long "A" in his introduction "Here's...Daaay-vid Letterman" Wendell also emceed several games shows and was the Tonight Show announcer in 1956 and 1957.

Senior curator of the motion picture collection at the George Eastman House, Paolo Cherchi UsaiI. He is also Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Rochester. He is an expert on silent films, and is co-director and co-founder of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. He has worked with Alloy Orchestra on several film projects. And he restored the print of "Lonesome." He's the author of numerous articles and studies of silent film.

Novelist Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Her new novel is The Fatigue Artist, (Scribner) about a 40 year old woman who comes down with chronic fatigue syndrome. One reviewer calls it "witty and hopeful and fierce." Schwartz is also the author of Disturbances in the Field, and Leaving Brooklyn.

Monologist, actor and writer Spalding Gray. He's written and performed several monologues including, "Monster in a Box" about all the distractions that prevented him from completing his novel, Impossible Vacation, and Swimming to Cambodia about filming a movie in Cambodia. Now Gray has a new monologue and book about his eye problems, and his adventures in the mainstream and alternative health care industries. It's called Gray's Anatomy. (Vintage Books).

Film director Larry Clark. He's making his directing debut with the new film "Kids." The film has generated controversy for its "throwaway brutality," and its graphic portrayal of a group of antisocial teenagers in Manhattan, where sex is easy and deadly and drugs are common place. Clark has photographed the gritty side of teenage life for two books, Tulsa, and Teenage Life. The film's screenwriter is a 21 year old skateboarder Clark met while hanging out with a group of them in Manhattan's Washington Square Park.