Terry Gross

Cartwright took over Blaine Elementary School in a run-down, drug-infested neighborhood in North Philadelphia. One of her first acts when she took over the school was to get down on her hands and knees and scrub the foul-smelling children's bathroom.

Mary Previte is the great granddaughter of missionary pioneer Hudson Taylor, and grew up in China with her missionary parents. During World War II, she and her fellow students and teachers spent three years in a Japanese concentration camp. Previte credits the structure her teachers' created with making the horrific experience bearable. For the past twenty years, Previte has run the Camden County (NJ) Youth Center, a holding center for boys and girls charged with serious crimes.

Psychiatrist and novelist Roderick Anscombe. He oversees a psychiatric ward at a hospital outside of Boston, and has written a new novel that retells the Dracula myth, called "The Secret Life of Laszlo: Count Dracula." Anscombe says he wanted to "humanize" Dracula by making him more a man than a monster. In writing the book, Anscombe drew on his previous experience working with the criminally insane.

In the 1980's, Mould pioneered alternative rock with the band Husker Du, making what was described as "angry, self-hating music." Mould went solo for a while after the band fell apart. Now he's with the band "Sugar" and they've released their third album, "File Under: Easy Listening." One reviewer writes of the new release that it "shows Mould near the peak of his power-pop form and harbors a few prominently catchy songs."

Juan Garcia Esquivel produced innovative recordings of pop music in the fifties and sixties. His work has been re-issued on a CD called "Esquivel!: Space Age Bachelor Pad Music." Terry speaks with him, his former wife Yvonne de Bourbon, and producer and critic Irwin Chusid.

Evans is an actor and producer of such films as "The Odd Couple", "Love Story", "Chinatown" and "The Godfather." His new memoir about his career's peaks and valleys is called "The Kid Stays in the Picture."

Evan McKenzie is the author of "Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government." He is an assistant professor of political science at Albright College in Reading, PA, and has represented homeowner associations as an attorney in California. McKenzie says that the rise of these entities inevitably affects everyone -- including those who live in communities not bound by their rules.

Writer Colin Escott talks about his new book, "Hank Williams, The Biography." He's also the author of "Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records & The Birth of Rock & Roll", and he produced and annotated the CD Collection "Hank Williams: The Original Singles Collection...Plus."

A concert and interview with singer/songwriter and musician Dave Alvin. He's best known for his guitar "firepower" with the Blasters -- for which he was also primary composer and songwriter. He also had a short stint with the band X. Alvin went solo a few years ago, and began honing his voice. He's just released his third solo album -- his first acoustic one -- called "King of California."

Writer and former filmmaker Gretel Ehrilch is the author of "The Solace of Open Spaces," a collection of essays about life on Wyoming's high plains. It was while walking on the Wyoming plains that Ehrilch was struck by lightning. The force of it threw her forty feet, severely damaged part of her nervous system, and sent her into a "solitary limbo." Ehrlich returned to her parents' home for medical treatment and began trying to understand what happened to her.