Comedian Dave Attell . He*s the host of Comedy Central*s Insomniac with Dave Attell. It airs Wednesday nights at 10:30 pm. Attell explores American after-hours culture, traveling to many cities to film his show.
His new book is Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. It*s about a 1995 heat wave in that city which proved to be an insidious natural disaster. Streets buckled, electric power blew, and over 700 people died. Klinenberg is an associate professor of Sociology at New York University.
While working at a blueprint shop in Charleston, South Carolina, a customer brought in some Confederate money to order a blowup. The imagery shocked Jones. The money showed slaves. Jones began to collect the brown and gray money with slaves picking cotton, corn and tobacco and loading barrels cheerfully. He then created large scale full color paintings based on the images. The art is now on display at America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Aerospace consultant Nick Cook, author of the new book, The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology. (Broadway Books/ Random House) In the book, Cook tracks down the secret history of anti-gravity research. It*s technology that defies the laws of physics. Cook discovered that during WWII, the Nazis claimed to have been close to antigravity technology. The U.S. government allegedly conducted antigravity research in the 1950s and 60s. Cook is former Aviation Editor for the military affairs journal, Jane's Defense Weekly.
Evolutionary biologist and journalist Olivia Judson. In her new guide to the evolutionary biology of sex, Judson, explores the sex lives of animals and insects. Posing as Dr Tatiana, sex-advice columnist, she answers 'letters' posted by such creatures as the fairy wren, the stalk-eyed fly, and the African elephant. Her new book is Dr Tatianas Sex Advice to All Creation.. Judson has also written for The Economist,Nature, and Science.
Writer, explorer, and deep-sea diver Barry Clifford's new book is The Lost Fleet: The Discovery of a Sunken Armada from the Golden Age of Piracy (William Morrow). The lost fleet was a group of French ships that sank in 1678 on the reef of Las Aves island, 100 miles off the Venezuelan coast. The fleet, as well as a small pirate army, was shipwrecked. The event launched "the golden age of piracy" that plagued maritimers for 50 years. Clifford researched the disaster and was part of the team that located the armada. Clifford's previous book was Expedition Whydah.
Father James Martin is associate editor of America the national Catholic magazine. Hes written a new memoir,Searching for God at Ground Zero, (Sheed & Ward) about the days following the September 11th attacks when he abandoned his editing duties to go and be with the rescue workers at the site of the ruined World Trade Center. Hes also the author of a memoir about his spiritual journey from the corporate world to the priesthood: In Good Company: The Fast Track from the Corporate World to Poverty, Chastity and Obedience
Former fire commissioner of New York City, Thomas Von Essen. He led the department through the Sept. 11 attacks and during rescue and early recovery efforts. During the attacks, the department lost 343 men, many of them Von Essen's friends and colleagues. Von Essen stepped down as fire commissioner on December 31, 2001. He's written a new memoir with Matt Murray, Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York.
Dennis McNally is the publicist for the Grateful Dead, and the band's official historian. He's also the author of the new book, A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. He is also author of the book, Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation.
Writer Joelle Fraser. She's written a new memoir about growing up in mid-60s San Francisco, the daughter of a flower child and a surfer: The Territory of Men.
Journalist Thomas Ricks covers the military for The Washington Post. Last week the Senate held hearings about Iraq. Ricks will discuss possible scenarios for a U.S. attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and the likelihood of such an action. Ricks has also reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Prior to joining The Post, Ricks wrote about the military for The Wall Street Journal. He's also the author of the novel A Soldier's Duty, about a U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan.
Thomas Reese is a Jesuit scholar and editor-in-chief of America, the national Catholic weekly magazine. He's also the author of the book Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. He'll discuss the pope's recent tour, the pontiff's health, possible successors and the divide between the church and its parishoners.
Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. He's the man behind the family adventure films Spy Kids and Spy Kids 2. His list of credits include: writer, director, producer, director of photography, production designer, editor, visual effects supervisor, sound designer, re-recording mixer and composer. His first feature film was El Mariachi, which he made in 1993 for $7,000. It won the Audience Award for best dramatic film at the Sundance Film Festival and was the first American film released in Spanish. He also wrote a book about making El Mariachi called Rebel Without a Crew.
