British journalist Michael Smith writes about defense issues for the Sunday Times of London. He's the journalist to whom the so-called Downing Street memo was leaked. The memo -- the minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting of Britain's War Cabinet -- reveals that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair began the war on the Iraq before Bush received congressional approval and before a U.N. vote.
Actress Lauren Ambrose plays daughter Claire Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Her other roles include a teen introvert turned popular surfer chick with multiple personality disorder in the film Psycho Beach Party and a star student of Kevin Kline's in the film In and Out. Also a classically trained opera singer, Ambrose appeared on stage last year in the Sam Shepard play Buried Child at London's National Theatre.
Journalist and historian Martin Meredith has written extensively on Africa and its recent history. His new book is The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair.
Michela Wrong's new book is I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation. She presents a case study of the nation of Eritrea, but the problems she writes about, including colonialism and border wars, are prevalent on the entire continent. Wrong is also the author of the PEN award-winning book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo. She has been a correspondent for Reuters news agency, the BBC and the Financial Times of London.
A novel about vampires prowling around dark forests and damp crypts in Central Europe may not seem like ideal summertime reading, but The Historian, a debut novel about Dracula by Elizabeth Kostova, is shaping up to be one of this season's big beach books. Book critic Maureen Corrigan has a review.
Actor Kevin Bacon was first recognized in the 1982 film Diner. Since then, he's starred in more than 50 films. His most recent is The Woodsman, which is now out on DVD. He's also inspired the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which players try to link another actor with Bacon in as few steps as possible. We rebroadcast an interview from Jan. 18, 2005.
Rock historian Ed Ward takes us back to the early days of Motown. The first volume of The Complete Motown Singles has just been released on Hip-O Select, with 11 volumes to come.
Paul Feig is the creator of the cult classic TV series Freaks and Geeks. His new book Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin, is the follow-up to his 2002 book Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence. Feig was an actor before moving on to writing for TV and film.
The '80s cult band from Australia has a new CD called Oceans Apart. After recording throughout the 80s, Grant McLennan and Robert Forster broke up to pursue solo careers. This is their third CD since they reunited in 2000. They're on an international tour.
Rock historian Ed Ward offers a retrospective on the Australian group The Go-Betweens. The band has a new album, Oceans Apart, and is currently on tour.
Film critic David Edelstein reviews War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. Edelstein calls the movie "a masterpiece," combining momentous special effects with a subtle depiction of the human struggle.
Civil War historian and novelist Shelby Foote died Monday night at age 88. He is best known for his three-volume, 3,000-page history entitled The Civil War: A Narrative, and for narrating Ken Burns' 11-hour PBS series The Civil War. We rebroadcast an interview with Foote from July 27, 1994.
A retired Episcopal priest, Danforth represented Missouri in the Senate for 18 years. He is also the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Recently, Danforth has been outspoken about the Christian conservative bent of the GOP, writing that "Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians."
John M. Coski is author of The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem. The book looks at the flag's history and the various meanings attached to it. Some people view it as a symbol of white supremacy and racial injustice; others think it represents a rich Southern heritage. Coski is historian and library director at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va.
In 2002, a federal judge ruled that the "under God" portion of the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of church and state. An uproar ensued. But as Richard J. Ellis, author of To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance, points out in his book, those words were not included in the pledge when it was written in 1892 — they were added in 1950. Ellis is the Mark O. Hatfield Professor of Politics at Willamette University in Salem, Ore.
The new documentary Murderball looks at the rough-and-tumble world of quadriplegic rugby -- otherwise known as "murderball." Fresh Air talks to top-rated player Mark Zupan and Dana Adam Shapiro, the film's co-producer and co-director.
