Terry Gross

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.

Less than one year after a baby sheep was cloned from an adult sheep, a scientist in Chicago named Richard Seed has announced that he plans on opening a clinic in the next 90 days to clone human babies. Seed is a physicist who was involved with fertility research in the '80s. NPR science correspondent Joe Palca broke the story about the planned human cloning clinic.

Drummer Elvin Jones recently celebrated his 70th birthday. His most influential work was with John Coltrane from 1960 to '66. Their Village Vanguard sessions were recently re-released in a CD box set.

A new book called "Clone" looks at the scientific breakthroughs that made Dolly the cloned sheep possible. The book also examines the ethical debate around cloning. The author is Gina Kolata, who's a science reporter for the New York Times.

Nick Nolte is best known for such films as "48 Hours," "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," "Cape Fear," "The Prince of Tides," and "Lorenzo's Oil." Now, he's starring in the new movie "Afterglow" written and directed by Alan Rudolph.

When the main character in Laura Zigman's new comic novel is dumped, she looks for explanations in the mating habits of animals. Hence the unusual title of this novel, "Animal Husbandry." It's Zigman's first novel, but it's not her first experience in the publishing world. She worked as a book publicist for a decade.

If your New Year's resolutions include getting a better grasp on your personal finances and putting money away for your retirement, you'll want to hear what my guest Mary Rowland has to say. She's written a new book called "A Commonsense Guide to Your 401(K)."

Director Curtis Hanson and actor Russell Crowe from the film "L.A. Confidential." It's about corruption and retribution in L.A. in the 1950s and 60s and is adapted from the 1990 novel by James Ellroy. (James Ellroy is a previous Fresh Air guest whose memoir "My Dark Places" was about his mother's murder in L.A. in 1958) The film won best picture, best director and best screenplay awards from the New York Film critics circle and the LA film critics. It's also been nominated for 5 Golden Globe awards. (REBROADCAST from 9/18/97)

Novelist Elmore Leoanrd. The new film "Jackie Brown" is based on his crime novel, "Rum Punch." It's directed by Quentin Tarantino. He's 72 years old and has been called "the greatest living writer of crime fiction" (New York Times). Though he'd been writing for decades, critics didn't take notice of him until the 1980s. Now his work is known for it tight prose, "ear-perfect" dialogue and depiction of lower class life.

Actress Pam Grier. She's starring in the new film Quentin Tarantino film, "Jackie Brown." She got her start playing tough, scantily-clad women in black exploitation films, such as "Black Mama, White Mama," "Foxy Brown," and "Sheba Baby." She played a hooker in "Fort Apache: The Bronx," and (REBROADCAST from 5/10/90)