Writer Carlo Rotella takes a look inside the world of boxing in his new book, Cut Time: An Education at the Fights. Rotella is also the author of Good With Their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt. Rotella is a professor at Boston College, where he teaches American literature, American studies, urban literatures and cultures, and creative and nonfiction writing. His essays have appeared in Harper's, Washington Post Magazine and Best American Essays 2001.
Journalist Mike Stanton heads the investigative reporting team at The Providence Journal in Rhode Island. In 1994 he shared the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting that exposed widespread corruption at the Rhode Island Supreme Court. His new book is The Prince of Providence: The True Story of America's Most Notorious Mayor, Some Wiseguys, and the Feds. Vincent Cianci was a visionary mayor who presided over the city's renaissance, but he was also ruthless, corrupt and a rogue.
In the 1990s he covered Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda and the Congo for Reuters. Three of his colleagues were killed by a mob in Somolia during a rebellion against the presence of U.S. forces, and he witnessed the atrocities in Rwanda. Hartley grew up in Africa, the son of a British colonial officer. After the death of his father, Hartley found in a chest his father had given him the diaries of his father's best friend who had died mysteriously 50 years earlier. Hartley set out to find out what happened.
Writer Vivian Gornick responds to a commentary we broadcast last week by book critic Maureen Corrigan about Gornick's admission that she had invented some scenes and conversations in her acclaimed memoir. Book critic Maureen Corrigan responds to Vivian Gornick's comments.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews two prime-time cartoon series now on DVD: the complete first season of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends, and the third season of The Simpsons.
Dr. Jonathan Edlow is the author of the new book Bull's Eye: Unraveling the Medical Mystery of Lyme Disease. In the book he chronicles the emergence of the disease, how scattered clues led to the cause — bacterium Borelia burgdorferi, and then to the deer tick that spread it. The search for the cause began in the late 1970s when people around Lyme, Conn., began suffering from unexplained arthritis, swelling, circular rashes, fatigue and other symptoms.
Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the long-awaited reissue of trombonist Rod Levitt's octet's first album: The Dynamic Sound Patterns of The Rod Levitt Orchestra.
Chef Jeremiah Tower. He is considered one of the forces behind modern California cuisine â- which emphasized the use of locally grown ingredients to elevate simple dishes to fine delicacies. That in turn launched a revolution in American regional cookery. Tower began his career as chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He went on to run restaurants in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seattle. Recently he hosted the PBS series America's Best Chefs and has written a new memoir, California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution.
His new feature film, The Magdalene Sisters, is based on the real-life laundries run by the Sisters of the Magdalene Order in Ireland near the end of the 19th century. Girls considered wayward or unruly were sent there as punishment for their sins and forced to do labor under sweat-shop conditions. The last of the laundries was shut down in 1996. Mullan's film follows the lives of four young women and takes place from 1964 to 1969. Before writing and directing, Mullan was best known for his acting and starred in The Big Man, Riff-Raff, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.
Her new film is Whale Rider, a re-telling of Maori legend in which a young girl challenges 1,000 years of tradition to fulfill her destiny — and win her grandfather's respect. The Maoris are the native people of New Zealand. Whale Rider won the Audience awards at the Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam Film Festivals. Caro's previous film was Memory and Desire.
He has won three Kentucky Derbys, two Preakness Stakes and three Belmont Stakes. Now 40 years old, he has been riding professionally since he was 16. Stevens is the author of the autobiography, The Perfect Ride and has a part in the new film Seabiscuit as jockey George Woolf.
Gregory Hines died Saturday at the age of 57. He won a Tony Award as best actor in 1992 for his portrayal of Jelly Roll Morton in Jelly's Last Jam. His film roles include Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club, White Nights in which he danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Tap. This interview first aired February 8, 1989.
Rock critic Ken Tucker concludes his look at the current pop-rock bands, with a look at the Brooklyn-based quartet High Strung. Their debut CD is These Are Good Times.
Most recently Hope Davis played the daughter of Jack Nicholson in the movie About Schmidt. Her other roles include Mumford, Next Stop Wonderland, Flatliners and Daytrippers. Davis is starring in the new film American Splendor, which took the 2003 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize. She is also starring in The Secret Lives of Dentists.
Smith is a national energy reporter and Emshwiller is a senior national correspondent who covers white-collar crime. They uncovered the story that Enron engaged in shadowy partnerships in order to hide financial failings and inflate the company's value. They have written an account of how they unraveled the story in the new book, 24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies that Destroyed Faith in Corporate America.
