Places & Travel

Playwright, Actor and Director Sam Shepard talks about how he got started in theater. Shepard won a Pulitzer for his play "Buried Child" and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff." Shepard stars in the new film "The Only Thrill."

Writer Robert Sullivan. His new book "The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures At the Edge of a City" (Scribner) is about his intrepid trek into the swamp land five miles outside of New York City, where decades of garbage, chemicals, and corpses have been dumped. Ian Frazier calls is "funny, interesting, surprising and bizarre." Part of the book was excerpted recently in The New York Times Magazine (Feb 15). Sullivan is contributing editor at Vogue. He also writes for The New Yorker, Conde Naste Travler, The New Republic and Rolling Stone.

Writer Dorothy Allison. Her bestselling novel "Bastard Out of Carolina," was about a poor South Carolina family's violence and incest, and was largely autobiographical. She says that she doesn't like most abuse literature because it tends to eroticize abuse. Allison has also written a book of short stories called "Trash" and a book of poems called "The Women Who Hate Me." Allison's new novel is "Cavedweller" (A Dutton Book) (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

TV Critic David Bianculli reviews a cooking show from Japan called "Iron Chef". It is shown in New York and San Francisco. The show features Japan's top chefs in the heat of competition.

Wall Street Journal reporter Tony Horwitz has written "Confederates In The Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War". It is published by Pantheon. Horwitz explores the subculture of Civil War re-enactment fanatics. Many of these wannabe rebels will run barefoot, sleep in the rain, and starve themselves to recreate the conditions of battle to get a "period rush". Horwitz won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting at the Wall Street Journal and is the author of "Baghdad Without a Map" and "One for the Road".

Dr. Jonathan Tucker is the Director of the Chemical & Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project based in California. In 1995, Tucker was a member of a biological weapons inspection team in Baghdad for the United Nations. He'll talk about obstacles facing the newest round of inspections in Iraq. Tucker has also served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Iranian film maker and film professor Jamsheed Akrami will discuss film making in Iran and Iran's Fajr (FAH-jer) Film Festival which took place in February. This year's festival included a juried competition for international films and was open to Iran's independent and government sponsored producers.

Jerry Strahan is the author of the memoir "Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in the Quarter" (Louisiana State University) about his 20 years managing Lucky Dogs, Inc., a fleet of hot dog carts in New Orleans, French Quarter. Strahan writes that he works among panhandlers, prostitutes, pimps, con artists, drifters, transvestites, and more.

A talk with The New York Times' Youssef Ibrahim who is in Baghdad where he's been reporting on the situation in Iraq. Meanwhile, U.S. Military forces remain in the Middle East, waiting for the United Nation's weapons inspections to begin in Iraq. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Rock historian Ed Ward considers the music of Mardi Gras.

Music critic Milo Miles reviews "Hwy X" (Omnium Records) by the Reptile Palace Orchestra from Wisconsin, and "Karnak" (Tinder Records) by the band named Karnak from Brazil.

Film director/writer/producer Jim Sheridan. His films include "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father" both which starred Daniel Day-Lewis. His latest film is "The Boxer" which also stars Day-Lewis. The story is about former IRA member who returns home after 14 years in prison.

New York City is celebrating its centennial this year. Perhaps the man most responsible for the shape of the city and for its parks, expressways, and bridges is Robert Moses. Moses held 14 state, regional, and city offices ranging from city parks commissioner to construction coordinator. Our guest, Robert Caro, won a 1975 Pulitzer Prize for his book about Moses called "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York." In the January 5th edition of the New Yorker, Caro wrote about Moses' impact on New York City.

Critic Milo Miles reviews reissues of ska albums.

Writer Brendan Gill died Saturday at the age of 83. We'll remember him with a excerpt from a November 1987 interview. He's best known for his work with The New Yorker magazine, for which he was hired in 1936. He wrote 15 books including biographies of Charles Lindberg, Cole Porter, and Tallulah Bankhead, and his best-seller "Here at the New Yorker." He was also an active campaigner for historic preservation in New York City. (REBROADCAST from 11/12/1987)

Iyunolu Osagie (EE-yewn-oh-lu oh-SAW-GEE-ay) an Assistant Professor of English at Penn State University in Pennsylvania. She has researched and written the events of the Amistad slave rebellion and the trial that followed. She is a native of Sierra Leone where the Amistad story begins and ultimately ends.

Charlie Haffner wrote "Amistad Kata-Kata" a play based on the Amistad story. As a native of Sierra Leone, Haffner is critical of the new film “Amistad” now showing in theaters. He says the story neglected many significant events that occurred in Sierra Leone. Haffner currently lives in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Gay Metropolis" (Houghton Mifflin) by Charles Kaiser.

Jetsun Pema, sister of the Dalai Lama. She's written an autobiography about Tibet and her work there,"Tibet: My Story" (Element). In it she recounts life in Tibet before the Chinese occupation, exile from Tibet, and her work as the president of the Tibetan Children's Village, which encompasses over 11,000 Tibetan refugees in India. Pema also plays the role of the mother of the young Dalai Lama in the film "Seven Years in Tibet."

Actress Cybill Shepherd. Her TV sitcom, "Cybill," continues in its fourth season on CBS. She also has a CD : Talk Memphis to Me. Shepherd is known for her roles in the films The Last Picture Show,Taxi Driver, and Married To It, as well as her starring role opposite Bruce Willis in the TV series Moonlighting.