Terry Gross

The sport of snowboarding was admitted into the Olympics for the first time this year. Jake Burton is one of founders of the sport. He began making snowboards 20 years ago in his Vermont garage, experimenting with design and materials until he got the kind of board he envisioned. His company is Burton Snowboards (in Burlington, Vermont).

Artist, writer, folklorist, photographer Roger Manley was the guest curator of two exhibits at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore: "The Tree of Life" (w/a companion catalogue) and "The End is Near!" The museum opened in 1995. Using the Native American tradition of a personal vision quest as it's model for the kind of work it wants to present, the museum is dedicated to showing and promoting the work of self-taught, intuitive artists. (The phone number for AVAM is 410-244-1900). Manley will discuss visionary art.

Jeff Getty is an animal-human transplant recipient who advocates continued research in this field. Getty, who has AIDS, recieved bone marrow from a baboon in an effort to jump-start his immune system. Getty vehemently opposes proposed moratorium on animal-human transplant research.

Dr. Fritz H. Bach is a professor of surgery at Harvard University. He is a specialist in Animal-human transplant operations. Last month, he and six other public health experts and bioethicists called upon the U.S. government to issue a moratorium on Animal-Human transplants. Bach says there is a risk that an animal virus could genetically mutate in a human recipient and spread among the general population.

Historian Joseph Ellis. He's written a new biography about Thomas Jefferson which aims to debunk many of the myths about the third president: "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" (Knopf). It won a National Book Award for nonfiction this November. Ellis has also contributed to filmmaker Ken Burns's documentary about Jefferson. Ellis is a professor of American History at Mount Holyoke College, and has written five other books including Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams. (REBROADCAST from 12/9/97)

Writer Garry Wills. He's analyzed the Gettysburg Address in the book "Lincoln At Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America." He says that speaking for only three minutes that day, Lincoln changed the history of American political thought. Wills is a presidential historian and and political scientist. He's written other books on Nixon, Reagan and Kennedy, and John Wayne. (REBROADCAST from 7/7/92)

Historian Stanley Kutler. He's edited a collection of the most recently released Nixon tapes." The book is titled "Abuse of Power" (The Free Press). Kutler sued the National Archives and the Nixon Estate for the release of 3000 hours of tapes in 1996, 200 hours of which are now available. Kutler is also the author of "The Wars of Watergate," and historical advisor for the television documentary, "Watergate." (REBROADCAST from 11/19/97)

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss. He transcribed tapes, edited and provided commentary for the new book "Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964" (Simon & Schuster). When Johnson took office, he began recording his daily private conversations. This book is the first volume of transcripts and covers the aftermath of the Kennedy Assassination, the creation of the Warren Commission, the Civil Rights bill, and the Tonkin Gulf attack, and his thoughts about the Vietnam war. Beschloss has written three other books. (REBROADCAST from 10/8/97)

Author and physician Abraham Verghese talks with Terry about his recent article in the Feb 16th issue of The New Yorker, about sexual addiction: "The Pathology of Sex: Why can't some people stop having it." Verghese is also the author of the 1994 memoir "My Own Country," (Simon & Schuster) about his experiences treating AIDS in rural America.