Government & Politics

Dermatologist Bernard Ackerman, Professor of Dermatology and Path Director of the Institute for Dermatophathology at Jefferson College. He participated in the testing done at Holmesburg Prison.

Film critic John Powers reviews "Saving Private Ryan" which stars Tom Hanks and was directed by Steven Spielberg. It rolls out nationally today.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Florence Harding" (Morrow) the new biography of First Lady Florence Harding by Carl Sferrazza Anthony.

Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict for the United Nations, Olara Otunnu. He is a former Ugandan diplomat who is now heading the effort to see that guerrilla armies do not use children as soldiers, and that children are protected in wartorn areas. Experts say that the number of children in combat is on the rise, and that as many as 300,000 children in at least 30 countries are directly involved in conflict as soldiers, porters, or slaves.

Michaels talks about growing up in the sixties and seventies as the daughter of hippies in her new memoir, "Split: A counterculture Childhood." (Houghton Mifflin) Michaels grew up craving the straight life, but as a college student, she came to realize that she shared many of her parent's values. She is a contributing editor at "Threepenny Review" and a poet whose work has appeared in "Salon" and the "New York Times Magazine."

China scholar Orville Schell returns to update us on President Clinton's trip to China. Schell is a board member of the Yale-China Association and Human Rights Watch, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Schell is Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. He has written many books on China. His last was "Mandate of Heaven: A New Generation of Enterpreneurs, Dissidents, Bohemians, and Technocrats Lays Claim to China's Future." (Simon & Schuster, 1994). Schell was last on Fresh Air Wednesday, June 24, 1998.

Journalist Jack Holland. He is a columnist for the Irish Echo, an American weekly for Irish-Americans. Holland was born in Northern Ireland. He was raised Catholic, and has Protestant blood in him as well. He will be talking about the events leading up to the peace settlement in Northern Ireland, and the new National Assembly that was elected last week in Belfast. He'll also talk about growing up in Ireland. The Irish Echo is available on the World Wide Web at www.irishecho.com.

China scholar Orville Schell. He will be talking about President Clinton's imminent visit to China. Schell has appeared on ABC, NBC, and CBS, and produced shows for Frontline and Sixty Minutes. He's a board member of the Yale-China Association and Human Rights Watch, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Schell was just appointed Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. Schell has written many books on China.

New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges. He's been reporting from the Serbian province of Kosovo, where rebels are battling for independence from the Yugoslavian republic.

Jury consultant Jo-Ellan Dimitrius. She's consulted in over 600 trials, including O-J Simpson's and Rodney King's. Dimitrius' company, Forensic Technologies International, uses techniques like random phone surveys to learn about public attitudes. In jury questionnaires and interviews, Dimitrius says he can get potential jurors to reveal their pre-dispostions. In her new book, "Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior," (Random House) she discloses some of the tricks of her trade.

Ellen Schrecker re-examines the McCarthy era in her new book, "Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America." (Little, Brown) She writes that despite the unfairness of the House Un-American Activities Committee, accusations were generally accurate. It's the first complete post-Cold War account of the McCarthy era. Schrecker is a professor of History at Yeshiva University in New York.

Author Harvey Klehr. He's co-authored a new book that examines how the Soviets controlled the American Communist party. The Communist Party as it existed in the United States is the only radical party in America to be governed by a foreign country. "The Soviet World of American Communism" draws information from documents in recently opened Soviet archives (with co-authors John Earl Haynes & Kyrill M. Anderson; Yale University Press). Klehr is a professor of Politics and History at Emory University.

Maxwell Taylor Kennedy is the youngest son of Robert F. Kennedy. He has edited a new collection of his father's private journal entries called "Make Gentle The Life of this World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy." (Harcourt Brace) Max Kennedy, as he is called, has written stories for the Santa Monica News, and for the magazines Doubletake and Conde Nast Traveler. He also served as a prosecutor in Philadelphia. He lives in Boston.

Jack Newfield wrote the highly acclaimed 1969 book "Robert Kennedy: A Memoir by Jack Newfield." (Dutton) This Sunday, The Discovery Channel will air a 3-hour documentary co-produced by Newfield. The series is based on his book.

Actress Jane Alexander talks about her 4 years as Chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts. She served from 1993 through 1997 when the GOP controlled Congress targeted the agency for budget cuts. She was the first artist to head the NEA. Alexander has returned to acting and is writing a book on her experiences at the NEA.

We'll hear from two people who worked on a new Maisin (My-sin) tribal art exhibit "Tapa Style" now showing in Philadelphia. The goal of the exhibit is to promote Maisin culture as an alternative to selling logging rights to their portion of a rainforest in Papau New Guinea. John Wesley Vaso is a Maisin tribal leader. Larry Rinder was the curator for the exhibit and is Director of the Institute for Exhibitions and Public Programs at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Nicholas Papandreou is the son of former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Nicholas as written the novel "A Crowded Heart." (Picador) It is a fictional retelling of his own childhood in Greece. Born in Berkeley, California, he now lives in Athens, Greece.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg comments on a California ballot initiative that would create "English-only" classrooms.

U.S. Peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke. He was the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accord that ended the war in the former Yugoslavia. He has just returned from the region. His new book will be published in June "To End A War." (Random House)

Israel's chief negotiator with the PLO from 1993-1996, Uri Savir. He was the first Israeli official to negotiate secretly with a senior representative of the PLO. He participated in the historic peace process in Oslo. He's written a new memoir, "The Process: 1,100 Days That Changed the Middle East" (Random House).