Terry Gross

The NPR foreign correspondent has a new book, called "Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege." During the height of the conflict, the city was in ruins. But one symbol of hope remained constant for its people: Oslobodjenje, the city's multi-ethnic daily newspaper. When the siege began, the paper's editor vowed, "As long as Sarajevo exists, this paper will publish everyday."

Sexologist Leonore Tiefer has written a new book called "Sex Is Not a Natural Act: and Other Essays." She looks at our society's anxieties towards and ignorance about sex. She also questions what is "normal" sex. Tiefer received a Ph.D. in physiological psychology, and later specialized in clinical psychology to become a sex researcher, sex therapist and an Associate Professor at the Montefoire Medical Center in New York City. Tiefer has also been a sex columnist for the New York Daily News.

New York Times defense correspondent Michael Gordon and retired Marine Corps General Bernard Trainor. They have collaborated on a book about the Persian Gulf War, called "The General's War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf." The book examines why the war was "an incomplete success."

Golden in the author of the new memoir, "Saving Our Sons." She writes about bringing up her son in Washington D.C., where homicide is the leading cause of death for Black males between 18 and 24. In the preface, she says, "I stopped work on a novel in order to write this book. The unremitting press of young lives at risk, the numbing stubbornness of annual, real-life death tolls, rendered fiction suddenly unintriguing, vaguely obscene."

Graffin is the lead singer of the punk band Bad Religion. The group started 15 years ago and helped pioneer the hard rock/punk style of bands like Green Day and Offspring. Bad Religion's eighth recording is "Stranger Than Fiction," and it's their first on a major label. When Graffin isn't performing, he's spending time with his wife and child or working on his Ph.D. in Biology at Cornell.

Rutkow is a surgeon and the author of the book, "Surgery: An Illustrated History." The book has 386 illustrations related to surgery, including documents, photographs, cartoons, drawings and paintings taken from museums throughout the world. Rutkow is consulting editor for surgical history for the Archives of Surgery, founder and surgical director of The Hernia Center in Freehold, N.J., and clinical associate professor of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. (Rebroadcast)

Physician and author Kenneth Iserson wanted to promote organ and tissue donation, so he wrote a book about what happens to dead bodies. It's called "Death to Dust." He believes that death is the pornography of our culture, because after-death activities are shrouded in secrecy. His book explores the mundane -- burial choices and advance directives -- and the arcane -- head shrinking, cannibalism and cryonic preservation. (Rebroadcast)

Special correspondent Wilbert Rideau is editor-in-chief of the award winning prison magazine The Angolite. He's also an inmate of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, serving a life term for murder. When the prison was under a state of emergency in 1990, warden John P. Whitely was hired. In his five year tenure, Whitely's management style helped turn the prison around garnering national and international attention. It also gained the attention of the inmates, who recently hosted a farewell dinner in honor of the departing warden.

William Greider is a political reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. His most recent contribution is titled, "Why the Rich Get Richer." Greider speaks with Terry about his most recent article, the status of our economy, and the just announced interest rate hike. Greider is also author of two best-selling books "Secrets of the Temple" and "Who Will Tell the People: the Betrayal of American Democracy."

Steven Levy is an expert on computer technology, a Fellow of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center in New York, and a columnist for the magazine "Macworld." His new book is "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything."