Parenting & Families

Writer Richard Ford. He's just published his fourth novel, "Wildlife." It's published by Atlantic Monthly Press.

Jazz drummer Tony Williams.

Musicians Tom and Ian Spanic. Together, the pair form the rock and roll band, The Spanic Boys. The band plays a country-twang influenced type of rock and they just released their first album, also called "The Spanic Boys." It's on Rounder Records.

Spiritual teacher RAM DASS. Ram Dass' book, "Be Here Now," was a widely used spiritual guide during the early 70s. Ram Dass followed that book up with several others, among them "The Only Dance There Is" and "How Can I Help?" Ram Dass started out as Harvard professor Richard Alpert. While at Harvard in the early 60s, Alpert joined with Timothy Leary and others in the early psychedelic experiments. That led him to investigations of meditation and spiritual practices.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new book by British writer Fay Weldon, "The Cloning of Joanna May." Weldon has also written, "The Life and Love of a She-Devil."

Journalist Itabari Njeri (it-tah-BAR-ay en-jerry). Her new book, "Every Good-bye Ain't Gone," is a touching and at times humorous memoir of growing up black in Harlem and Brooklyn during the 50s.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Daddy, We Hardly Knew You." It's writer Germaine Greer's memoir of her father. He spent the first 5 years of her life away in the Australian Air force during World War 2. Upon his return, and until his death in 1983, he was quiet, distant, and would never talk about the war. This book is both Greer's memories of her father's life, and her investigation into what he did during those missing five years.

Writer Le Anne Schreiber. A successful journalist at the New York Times, and their first woman sports editor, Schreiber left her career at the Times to go live in rural upstate New York. Then she found out her mother had cancer and was given only a few months to live. Schreiber kept a journal during the period of her mother's illness until she died. This journal served as the basis for Schreiber's memoir about her mother's death, "Midstream: The Story of a Mother's Death and a Daughter's Renewal."

Author Linda P. Brown is co-author of "Birthbond: Reunions between Birthparents and Adoptees--What happens After." In the 1960's BROWN gave up her own daughter for adoption. The book is based on interviews with 30 birthmothers -- from a variety of backgrounds -- who were reunited with their adult children. And it looks at the challenges these mothers face after the reunion. "Birthbond" is published by New Horizon Press, Far Hills, N.J. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Novelist Anne Lamott. Her latest novel, "All New People", is an account of growing up in a Northern California railroad town in the midst of the cultural dislocations of the 1960's. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Near the Magician: A Memoir of My Father, Edmund Wilson." It's a memoir of the great 20th century critic written by his daughter, Rosalind Baker Wilson.

Poet Michael Ryan. Ryan's poems have earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a nomination for the National Book Award. He's just released his third collection of poems, called "God Hunger."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Isara" (ih-sare-ah) Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka's (wolly Soy-enk-ka) memoir about his father.

Dmitri Nabokov. Son of writer Vladimir Nabokov and a writer himself, as well as a translator of his father's works. He has just edited a volume of his father's letters dating from 1940-1977. The letters trace Nabokov's struggles beginning with his arrival in America from Russia, to his legal battles over censorship of his most famous novel, "Lolita."

British novelist Margaret Drabble. She made a name for herself in the early 60's as one of the first woman writers to make domestic life the focus of her novels. But after the publication of "The Middle Ground" in 1980, Drabble took a seven-year break from fiction to concentrate on revising "The Oxford Companion to English Literature." Since then she has published two more novels, "The Radiant Way" and "A Natural Curiosity," which reflect a shift in focus to more external, societal concerns.

Biographer Michael Holroyd. His 1988 book "The Search for Love," on the early life of George Bernard Shaw, was called one of the "three great literary biographies of the century." Holroyd continues Shaw's biography in the second volume titled "The Pursuit of Power." In it, Holroyd writes about Shaw's hard-won battle for success in the London theatre. And he details Shaw's political battles for Fabian socialism and Irish Home Rule. Holroyd established his reputation as a biographer with a two volume book on the life of Lytton Strachey.

Poet Li-Young Lee. He was born into a family of political refugees from China. They traveled throughout Asia for years to escape persecution. In the mid-60's his family moved to Pennsylvania. Lee's poems reflect his struggle with his Chinese heritage - a heritage to which he is bound but in which he never lived. His poems also reflect Lee's attempt to come to terms with the powerful and mythic figure of his father, who was alternately imprisoned and revered for his beliefs.

Screenwriter and producer Lowell Ganz. He co-wrote the script to "Parenthood," the new comedy starring Steve Martin. He also co-wrote the script for "Splash," which introduced Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Both films were directed by friend and collaborator Ron Howard. Ganz also was the supervising producer of the popular TV series "Happy Days," starring Henry Winkler as The Fonz.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Parenthood," a comedy starring Steve Martin and Rick Moranis, and directed by Ron Howard. Howard's previous films include two hits and a flop: "Splash," "Cocoon" and ""Willow."

The feminist scholar looks at how women in dual-career partnerships are often responsible for most of the unpaid domestic work. Hochschild joins Fresh Air to discuss why men don't share this labor equally with their partners, and the toll this inequity takes on working women.