Terry Gross

Most people would call Ullman an actor and comedian. She was the star of "The Tracey Ullman Show," where she played characters including "girls half her age and matrons twice her age; ...

Walser has been called "the best pure cowboy singer in the state" ("Houston Chronicle"). At age 60, he retired from his job as a Texas state internal auditor to concentrate on his music. He just released an album called "Rolling Stone From Texas." He joins Fresh Air with his guitar to sing a few songs.

Brown's new book is a collection of connected short stories about caring for people with AIDS. Though the work is fiction, many of the characters are based on people she herself worked with. Brown is the author of other books including "The Terrible Girls," "Annie Oakley's Girls," and "The Children's Crusade."

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz has served as an expert witness for the prosecution in the murder trials of John Hinkley, Joel Rifkin, Jeffrey Dahmer and others. In each case he presented evidence against the defense of insanity, saying that these men knew that they were committing terrible crimes. Dietz also has a consulting firm, Threat Assessment, which focuses on workplace violence. He is a consultant to the HBO special "Murder 9 to 5," which examines murder at work.

Nelson Peery has just published his memoir, "Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary," about coming of age against a background of racism, the Depression, and World War II. The book chronicles Peery's travels west during the Depression, and his experiences as a soldier fighting in World War II. He writes about his simultaneous love for America and hatred for the people who discriminated against African Americans, especially in the Army.

Sports doctor Rob Huizenga, team doctor to the Los Angeles Raiders for seven years. He is a past president of the National Football League Physicians' Association and has written for "Sports Illustrated" and other publications. His book about his time in the NFL is "'You're Okay, It's Just a Bruise': A Doctor's Sideline Secrets About Pro Football's Most Outrageous Team."

Grimsley is a writer-in-residence at the 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta, and the winner of Newsday's George Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Playwright in 1988. His first novel is "Winter Birds," about an eight-year-old hemophiliac in a poor family who witnesses violent fight between his parents on Thanksgiving. Grimsley says the book is "autobiographical, but not an autobiography." He also has been HIV positive for 14 years, making him one of the longest survivors of the virus.

The Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. He's been playing the trumpet since he was six, and won his first Grammy at 20. Marsalis is also the cofounder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He recently announced that he is breaking up the Septet so he can spend more time with the Lincoln Center. "Sweet Swing Blues on the Road" is his new book, written in collaboration with photographer Frank Stewart.

Canty's stories have been published in "Esquire" and "Story" magazine. His first book is a collection of short stories, "A Stranger in This World." The stories are about people feeling alien in their own world; Canty says, "the moment I'm interested in, the moment I'm working toward in these stories, is when the familiar world seems strange. . . where they are forced to confront how little they know about themselves and about the world around them."

Journalist Steven Levy, author of "Hackers," is one of the premiere writers on technology. He writes The Iconoclast column for "Mac World" magazine, and is a contributor to "Wired," "The New Yorker," and the "New York Times Magazine." He talks with Terry today about e-money — the electronic currency of the future. Levy has an article in the December issue of "Wired" about the computerization of money.