Terry Gross

The star of Noah Baumbach's new film, Greenberg, initially wanted to be a serious actor -- and he's still got a thing for Vietnam War movies. Stiller talks to Terry Gross about how he got from that initial ambition to films like Meet the Parents and Zoolander.

Best known as the dad on Fox TV's Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston talks with David Bianculli about his latest role -- a meth-cooking high-school chemistry teacher in AMC's Breaking Bad.

Until his arrest in 2004, nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan -- the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb -- ran a vast smuggling network that sent nuclear material to Iran and Lybia. In his book Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies, weapons expert David Albright explains how Khan's network continues to threaten global security.

The book by the conservative strategist is called Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Rove tells Fresh Air the decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 was not based on wrong information from the Bush administration, but was based on wrong information from the intelligence community.

Michael Lewis' new book The Big Short chronicles the 2008 financial collapse through the investors who realized what was happening to the U.S. economy while it was happening -- and then made a fortune by betting against the markets.

Speculation is growing that Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's longest-serving member, will step down in June. New Yorker legal correspondent Jeffrey Toobin discusses who is likely to replace Stevens -- and offers his take on how the court will rule on the future of gun control laws.

The New Testament contains multiple versions of the life and teachings of Jesus. Bart Ehrman, the author of Jesus, Interrupted, says they are at odds with each other on important points regarding the life, death and divinity of Jesus.

The Oscar-nominated actress stars in the new Paul Greengrass thriller Green Zone as a journalist investigating the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. She has also played a port authority police officer in the HBO series The Wire and Michael Scott's girlfriend on The Office.

Since the U.S. invasion, 4 million Iraqis have had to leave their homes. An additional 2 million have left the country entirely, and many are still outside its borders. NPR's Deborah Amos tells the story of these displaced Iraqi citizen in her new book, Eclipse of the Sunnis.

David M. Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States. His book, Comeback America, details the current financial crisis and offers his ideas on controlling spending and restoring fiscal responsibility in the United States.