Society & Culture

Book critic John Leonard reviews Studs Terkel's new book, "Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession." (The New Press)

Terry talks with two Iranian exiles who are working to lift the fatwa off of Salman Rushdie: Journalist Huma Sarshar, who lives in L.A., helped to organize a statement of Iranian exiles artists and intellectuals in support of Rushdie; and film maker and playwright Parviz Sayyad who signed the statement.

British writer Richard Rayner. His new semi-autobiographical novel is "The Elephant," about a son's relationship with his father. The father steals a lot of money, fakes his own death, and disappears for ten years. Once reunited, the two engage in scandalous exploits. One reviewer wrote that the novel progresses from the picaresque to the poignant "densely woven with brilliantly macabre, hilarious details..." (published by Random)

Isaac Asimov [a.k.a. Paul French], the prolific science fiction writer, has passed away at the age of 72. Asimov wrote nearly 500 books, and was honored, among other times, in 1966 with a special Hugo Award for the best science fiction series ever for his "Foundation" trilogy. We present highlights from an earlier interview. (Rebroadcast. Originally aired 9/25/87.)

Writer and radio talk show host Studs Terkel. His new book, "Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession," (The New Press) is the latest in his series of collected oral histories. He won a Pulitzer prize for his collection "The Good War," about World War 2. His other books include "Working," "Hard Times," and "Division Street: America."

Producer Gil Cates. He produced the Academy Awards last night. Terry will talk with him about what it takes to put together such an endeavor.

Jeff Yarbrough is a senior editor of the Los Angeles based bi-weekly national gay magazine "The Advocate." He'll tell us what went wrong with the gay rights protest that was supposed to take place during the academy awards ceremony.

Political Science Professor Andrew Hacker. His new book is "Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal" (published by Charles Scribner's Sons) about race relations in the United States.

Sheila Kuehl is now a women's rights lawyer. But most people will remember her as Zelda Gilroy on the old TV show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Her TV career ended when rumors began to circulate that she was a lesbian -- and those rumors were true. Now Kuehl is one of the most vocal lesbian activists in Los Angeles

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers an alternative to the question, "Can computers think?"

Grace Paley was New Yorks's first official woman state writer. Known for writing about neighborhoods including the Bronx and Greenwich Village, Paley now lives in Vermont. Paley is known for her collections of short stories, but is also a poet. Her new book is "New and Collected Poems."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Girls in the Balcony," by Nan Robertson about how women at "The New York Times," struggled for equality.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Talking To High Monks In The Snow," Lydia Minatoya's memoir of growing up a Japanese American (It's published by Harper Collins).

Homeless expert Joel Blau (rhymes with "plow"). Blau spent years as a policy analyst for the city of New York, trying to solve their homeless problem. He eventually became disillusioned with government's approach to dealing with the homeless. He explains the fallacy of some of our basic assumptions about the homeless in his new book, "The Visible Poor: Homelessness in The United States." (It's published by Oxford University Press).

Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes. Despite his huge influence in the art world, Hughes prides himself on being a perennial outsider in that world. He'll talk about the current state of the arts.

Social Worker Sattareh Farman-Farmaian (sa-TAH-ray FAR-mahn far-m'YAN). She's the daughter of an Iranian prince of a fallen dynasty. She spent her childhood in a harem in Persia in the 20s and 30s. She's 70 years old and has spent a life time challenging Iran's conventions. She became the first Persian to study at the University of Southern California where she earned an advanced degree in social work. Returning to Iran she founded the Tehran School of Social Work.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "The Mambo Kings."

First-time novelist Cristina Garcia. Her book, "Dreaming in Cuban," as about three generations of women who are each haunted by a different dream of Cuba. A New York Times review says the book, "announces the debut of a writer, blessed with a poet's ear for language, a historian's fascination with the past and a musician's intuitive understanding of the ebb and flow of emotion." (published by Knopf).

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg looks at the contributions made by two men of language: former Senator S.I. Hayakawa, an English professor and former president of San Francisco State University; and Professor Dwight Bolinger, who he calls "one of the most distinguished semanticists of the age." Both men died last week.

Feminist writer Deirdre English. She wrote a recent New York Times review of Gloria Steinem's new book "Revolution From Within: A Book of Self-Esteem." English is critical of Steinem's "quiet revolution of self-