Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, talks with TV critic David Bianculli about the series. TV's longest-running animated series broadcasts its 300th episode Feb. 16, 2003. The Simpsons were first featured during episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show, then earned their own prime-time series in 1990. This interview first aired April 22, 1998.
Nicholas Kristof, editorial columnist for The New York Times, discusses the North Korea crisis. He has covered North and South Korea off and on since 1986. He's served as the Times bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He was co-recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his coverage of the Chinese crackdown on protesters at Tiananmen Square. In a column which appeared in the Times on February 4, 2003, he wrote, "The North Korean nuclear crisis is far more perilous than many people realize.
He has just returned from several weeks in Afghanistan. His book, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, is now out in paperback. He's also the author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Rashid is a correspondent for The Far Eastern Economic Review and The Daily Telegraph, reporting on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
The author of 25th Hour. His book, about a former drug dealer in New York City out on the town on the eve of being sent to a penitentiary. It's the basis of the new Spike Lee film of the same name.
He is the author of several books including How Proust Can Change Your Life, and The Consolations of Philosophy. His latest book, The Art of Travel, is a reflection on travel, the anticipation versus the reality, how one often travels to escape the familiar and mundane — but can't escape oneself, and an examination of the art and literature of travel.
He is the executive director of Senior Action Network, a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of seniors in the San Francisco area. He led the opposition to the Segway in San Francisco, which has become the first city to ban the Segway from sidewalks.
He invented the Segway Human Transporter, a high-tech scooter. The scooter relies on sensors, sold-state gyroscopes and software to produce a balanced ride even over rough terrain. Kamen's other inventions include a portable drug-infusion pump, a compact dialysis machine and a wheelchair that can climb stairs. Kamen heads DEKA Research and Development Corporation in New Hampshire.
Stand-up comic David Cross co-created the 1995 HBO cult hit Mr. Show (an amalgam of live sketch video pieces and occasional animation). He also wrote for the short-lived Ben Stiller Show. One reviewer writes of his act, "foul mouthed and razor sharp, doesn't shy away from vicious social criticism and outright political dissent."
He is also known as "Questlove" of the hip-hop group The Roots. The Grammy award-winning sextet has six albums to its credit. Their latest CD is Phrenology. Their first single from the album is "Break You Off." One reviewer writes, "To fully savor the sound, you've got to commit to spending time with The Roots, to wallow in both the music and the message.
He is professor of psychiatry and psychology at the Graduate School University Center and director of The Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York. He has written books on many topics, including a Japanese cult that released poison gas in the Tokyo subways, Nazi doctors, Hiroshima survivors and Vietnam vets. He will discuss the emotional impact of the Columbia shuttle disaster, as well as the impact of an impending war in Iraq, and the looming nuclear crisis in North Korea.
He is a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, and is now professor of national-security studies at the National War College in Washington, D.C. Since the late 1980s he has been tracking Iraqi war crimes. He has also worked closely with the Kurds — who control a small territory in northern Iraq. Galbraith will talk about what a post-Saddam Iraq might look like.
Retired U.S. Navy flight surgeon and NASA astronaut Captain Jerry Linenger talks about the awe and peril of space travel. He spent five months on the Russian Space station Mir and wrote about the account in his book, Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir." He described the Mir as "six school buses all hooked together." During his time there, he says, he and fellow crew members had numerous brushes with death, lacked adequate supplies and battled constant system failures.
She is the foreign affairs/U.N. correspondent for The Boston Globe. She recently returned from Iraq, where she is reporting on the preparations for war. She has also reported on the war on terrorism from Afghanistan. Her recent book, The Key to My Neighbor's House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda, is about the war crimes tribunals and the efforts of victims to find justice. Neuffer was on Fresh Air in December 2002, speaking about journalists attending boot camp in preparation for war coverage.
He reviews Crazy: The Demo Sessions (Sugar Hill records), a collection of songs Willie Nelson wrote and recorded between 1960 and 1966, hoping to sell them to the big stars of the country era.
Art Caplan is the director of the Center for Bioethics, and chief of the Division of Bioethics, at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Sherry Glied is the chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
