Europe

Journalist Rukmini Callimachi on what she's learned about ISIS tactics from her conversations with a German man who joined ISIS and became disillusioned, and from monitoring the organization's own encrypted social media channels.

Last year, journalist Rukmini Callimachi found thousands of al-Qaida documents in Timbuktu in Mali. She tells Fresh Air about al-Quaida's strategy of kidnapping Europeans and demanding ransoms.

The Grand Budapest Hotel takes place in the fictional European country of Zubrowka on the eve of war. Anderson shot much of the film in Germany, drawing inspiration from the surrounding landscape.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum describes the tactics the Soviets used after World War II to take over and transform much of Eastern Europe. Her book Iron Curtain was recently nominated for the National Book Award.

The Library of America has published World War II Writings, a new collection of stories by A.J. Liebling. The volume, edited by Pete Hamill, includes three books, two dozen New Yorker pieces, maps and a chronology.

A new Hamas-led government; protests against cartoons of Muhammad; a re-started nuclear program in Iran: It's a busy time for journalists specializing in the Middle East. Christopher Dickey is the regional editor for Newsweek.

His films include Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People and Wonderland. His new film, In This World, follows the arduous 4,000-mile journey of two Afghan refugees from Pakistan to Britain. The film was shot in Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. The two actors were "discovered" in Peshawar, Pakistan. Fifteen-year-old actor Jamal Udin Torabi has since applied for asylum in Britain. The interview continues into the second half of the show.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the borrowing of English words in Europe.

Roden is the winner of Italy's most prestigious food prizes and the winner of five Glenfiddich prizes. Her new book is "The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey From Samarkand to New York with More than 800 Ashkenazi and Sephardi Recipes."

British Journalist Timothy Garton Ash. George Kennan has compared Garton Ash's powers of political observation to those of de Toqueville's. ASH's beat is Eastern Europe, and he has been on hand to chronicle the popular disavowal of Communism there (Garton Ash's classic account of the Prague Uprising in 1986 is "The Magic Lantern"). His most recent book concerns the German Re-Unification, and what Germany's role will be in the new Europe: "In Europe's Name: Germany & the Divided Continent" (Random House).

New York Times European diplomatic correspondent, Craig Whitney. Whitney is the author of a new book about espionage and spy swaps during the cold war in the two Germanys: "Spy Trader" (Times Books). Now living in Bonn, Whitney reports on the issues surrounding European unity: the rise of ethnic conflicts, and the crisis in Bosnia. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Critic Maureen Corrigan says the best she can say about Barnes's "Porcupine," about deposed communist leaders on trial in Eastern Europe, is that she "didn't not like it."

Book critic John Leonard reviews, "How We Survived Communism," by Yugoslavian critic and feminist Slavenka Drakulic. (Slah-VENKA Drah-COOL-ITCH).

French economist Jacques Attali (ah-tahl-lee). He'll discuss what lies ahead for the Soviet economy. Attali is a special advisor to French President Francois Mitterrand and the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He's also the author of the book, "Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order" (published by Random House).

Writers Lindsy Van Gelder and Pamala Robin Brandt. They're the co-authors of "Are You Two...Together?" It's a gay and lesbian travel guide to Europe.

Commentator Leslie Savan says that American corporations have a vested interest in breaking into Soviet Bloc markets -- and they're spreading their capitalist message through TV ads.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Magic Lantern," journalist Timothy Garton Ash's account of the democracy movement in Eastern Europe.

Writer Timothy Ryback. He's just written a book chronicling the history of rock music in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In the book, "Rock around the Bloc," RYBACK shows how rock music has been a presence there from the mid-1950's beginning with the Elvis Craze, and continuing with Beatlemania, and punk and heavy metal music. The rock movement spawned officially sanctioned bands as well as underground groups. Ryback says the recent events in Eastern Europe were foreshadowed in 1988 when government policy on rock bands were loosened there.

Jane Kramer regularly writes about the culture and politics on the continent. She says immigration -- and the xenophobic response to immigrants -- has played a big part in shaping Europe's changing identity.

Oliver Lake, whose latest recordings include "Heavy Spirits" and "NTU," joins the show to his discuss his career.