Terry Gross

Sheen has made a name for himself playing real historical figures, including Mozart, Caligula, Prime Minister Tony Blair and British TV host David Frost. Now, in the Showtime drama Masters of Sex, he plays the part of groundbreaking sex researcher William Masters.

Leaked internal documents reveal new insights into the goals and finances of the America Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC brings together stat legislators and representatives of corporations to develop model bills that lawmakers try to pass in their state legislatures.

On the HBO series Enlightened, a naive corporate executive played by Laura Dern wants to change the world. The series' creator and writer, Mike White, says the show's whistle-blowing plot line was inspired, in part, by his own father's experience.

Novelist Delia Ephron says that losing her older sister Nora was like "losing an arm." But for all their collaboration and closeness, Delia writes about the complications of sisterhood in her new collection of autobiographical essays, Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.).

The New York Times calls Stephen Sondheim the "greatest and perhaps best-known artists in American musical theater." Sondheim composed the music and lyrics for, among others, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Company. In 2010 he joined Fresh Air to discuss his career in musical theater.

How close are TV interrogations to the real thing? Not very, says Douglas Starr. In a New Yorker article, he explores the "gold standard" of interrogation methods, developed in the 1940s. But there's concern that this technique is based on outdated science, and may produce false confessions.

The smart songwriter behind the much-beloved "Hey Sandy" returns after eight years. Dear Mark J. Mulch, I Love You is full of smart wordplay and Mulcahy's unmistakable voice, but it's also driven by loss

South Africa's Mponeng gold m in is a 2.5-mile-deep network of chutes and tunnels that employs about 4,000 miners. Of course, that number doesn't include the miners who wander its tunnels clandestinely, stealing and refining ore. In a new book, journalist Matthew Hart investigates why gold and crime sometimes go hand in hand.

Payne tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he first read Nebraska -- a film about an old man who is beginning to show signs of dementia -- as a comedy "with moments of gravity." Payne also directed Election, About Schmidt, Sideways and The Descendants.