Terry Gross

Journalist David Weigel recently attended the Tea Party convention and the Conservative Political Action Conference. Weigel, who covers the Republican Party for The Washington Independent, explains how the conservative message is shifting — and how party officials are dealing with the changes.

Using White House visitor logs, writer Paul Blumenthal dug into negotiations that took place among pharmaceutical lobbying firms, the White House and Congress while the health care bill was being drafted. Blumenthal describes how he used public records to determine who was meeting with whom — and how various interest groups have influenced the debate.

In California, lawyers are two weeks into a landmark federal court case challenging California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in that state. Margaret Talbot has been blogging about the trial for The New Yorker's Web site, and she has written about it in this week's issue of the magazine. A veteran journalist and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, Talbot writes about family life, women's work, children's culture, and politics and moral debates as they intersect with science and law.

After working together on the films Ocean's 11, 12 and 13, actor Matt Damon and director Steven Soderbergh teamed up again on the film The Informant!, a dark comedy about a rising corporate executive at Archer Daniels Midland who blows the whistle on price fixing. This interview was originally broadcast on September 16, 2009.

Novelist and playwright Dan Fante writes about alcoholism, drug addiction and failed attempts at literary success — all of which he has experienced himself. He discusses his novel, 86'd, battling his own emotional demons, and the process of reliving his past on paper.

The story was first broadcast September 29, 2009.

Adam Shankman has one of the coolest, most stressful jobs around: He's producing the Oscars. The Hairspray director, who is also a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, joins Fresh Air to dish about seating arrangements and speeches.

Last week, Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in a joint raid by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence forces. Journalist Ahmed Rashid explains how Baradar's recent capture will affect the Taliban's strategy in the coming months and what the capture means for the new US military offensive in Afghanistan.

Ten years after President Clinton's impeachment, law professor Ken Gormley reviews the entire scandal in his new 800-page book The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr. Gormley joins Fresh Air to discuss the independent counsel investigation — and why it continues to resonate today.

Journalist David E. Hoffman reflects on the high-stakes maneuverings of the Cold War arms race and tells Fresh Air about the urgent search for the nuclear and biological hazards left behind after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also details the inner workings of the Soviet nuclear program in his book The Dead Hand.

This story was first broadcast October 8, 2009.