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Writer Jerrold Ladd on Surviving in the Projects

Ladd is a 24-year-old writer who has just published an autobiography, "Out of the Madness." He writes about growing up in the Dallas housing projects with his mother, who was a heroin addict. Ladd describes how he struggled to educate himself and eventually became a writer. His book started out as an article, written when he was 20, and published in "Dallas Life." Ladd currently writes for the "Dallas Morning News," and attends college.

22:25
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Other segments from the episode on July 25, 1994

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 25, 1994: Interview with Jerrold Ladd; Interview with Marin Alsop; Review of Shoe's album "Propeller" and Freedy Johnston's album "This Perfect World."
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15:04

Conductor Marin Alsop on Keeping Alive a Black Composer's Music

Alsop is the music director of the Colorado Symphony. One of the few woman conductors in the world, she has also served as music director of the Lond Island Philharmonic, and has been the guest conductor for many orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Her new CD "Victory Stride," features the work of the African American composer James P. Johnson.

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Sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh

Venkatesh, an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of African American Studies at Columbia University in New York. His newest book –American Project: The Rise and Fall of the Modern Ghetto,— (Harvard 2000) was awarded the 2000 Professional/ Scholarly Publishing Award of the Association of American Publishers. His research interests are based in investigating the social organization of poor urban neighborhoods. He lives in New York City.

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46:38

Two Teenagers' Perspective on Life in the Projects

Radio producer David Isay and reporters LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman. The new book "Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago," (Scribner) is compiled from interviews by Jones and Newman conducted at the Ida B. Wells housing project in Chicago, where they live. These are the same two boys who worked with Isay on the acclaimed documentaries, "Ghetto Life 101" and "Remorse: the 14 stories of Eric Morse."

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Daughter of Warhol star looks back on a bohemian childhood in the Chelsea Hotel

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

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This fake 'Jury Duty' really put James Marsden's improv chops on trial

In the series Jury Duty, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden has agreed to participate in what he believes is a documentary about the experience of being a juror--but what Ronald doesn't know is that the whole thing is fake.

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