Mohammad Yunus is the founder one of the world's first "micro-lending" banks. These institutions loan money to poor people that other banks consider too risky. Founded in 1983. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has provided over 2.5 Billion dollars in micro-loans. He has written about his efforts in the new book "Banker to the Poor." (Public Affairs) He is the former head of the economics department at Chittagong University, in Bangladesh.
Dan Fesperman is the former Berlin Bureau correspondent for the Baltimore Sun 1993-1996. From there he extensively covered Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. He has drawn for his experience there for the setting of his new crime novel "Lie in the Dark." (Soho) It is about a Sarajevo homicide detective who must do his job while corpses pile up from the on-going civil war.
Linda Greenlaw has worked on commercial fishing boats for nearly 20 years. She has written about her experience leading a sword fishing boat to New Foundland in the new book "The Hungry Ocean." (Hyperion) Curiously, After completing the book, she says of writing "I'd rather be fishing." Boston magazine named Greenlaw as one of the most intriguing women of 1997. She lives on Isle au Haut, Maine.
Chris Fehlinger is the co-founder of the on-line food magazine "Pheast" and is a contributing writer for the print magazine "Wine X. Recently he was the subject of the column "Table Talk" in The New Yorker 4/5/99. In that article, he confesses that he suggest bizarre food dishes, i.e. goat's head, on unsuspecting diners, just for the sport of it. In our interview, he gives us an insider's view of the restaurant business...how maitre d's get better tips, and how to get customers to order what you want them too.
Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg comments on the diminished stature of epigraphy. This refers to the ancient art of putting writing on walls. This includes signs, posters, banners and graffiti.
Film director Paul Mazursky has written the new memoir "Show Me the Magic: My Adventures in Life and Hollywood." (Simon & Schuster) Mazursky films include "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," "An Unmarried Woman," "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," and "Moscow on the Hudson." He wrote the screenplay for "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas."
We remember one of America's great lyricists, Yip Harburg. He wrote over 500 songs including, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Brother Can You Spare a Dime," and "It's Only a Paper Moon." We talk with his son, Ernie Harburg and his wife Deena Rosenberg. They have collaborated on the new show "Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Yip Harburg's America" which is showing this week in Philadelphia. Rosenberg worked closely with Yip Harburg for nearly a decade including working with him on the early concept of this show. Yip Harburg died in 1981.
Former Special Counsel to President Clinton, Lanny Davis. He served from December 1996 thru January 1998. During that time he saw the President thru various financial scandals and developed a style for dealing with bad news head on. Davis left the White House just as the Monica Lewinsky story was breaking. DAVIS has a new memoir, "Truth to Tell: Tell it Early, Tell it All, Tell it Yourself: Notes from My White House Education" (The Free Press).
Former president of South Africa, F.W. Deklerk. He dismantled apartheid, released Nelson Mandela from prison, and later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela. Deklerk has a new autobiography, "F.W. DeKlerk: The Last Trek A New Beginning (St. Martin's Press).
Comedian and actor Damon Wayans talks about his new book "Bootleg." (Harper Collins) It features a collection of his humorous observations and advice on everything from relationships to race relations. After making a name on the stand-up comedy circuit in the 1980's Wayans moved on to become one of the original stars of "In Living Color" the show that launched Jim Carrey's career. Damon's film include Hollywood Shuffle, Mo' Money, The Last Boy Scout, Major Payne and Great White Hype.
Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood who are co-founders of the band "Fountains of Wayne". Their second album "Utopia Parkway" has just been released. (Atlantic) Anchored by the song writing team of Chris and Adam , the New York-based band released its debut album "Radiation Vibe" in late 1996. Now the Fountains are back with "Utopia Parkway," described as a concept album about teenage life in the "Greater Metropolitan Areas" outside of New York City.
Tom Perrotta is the author of "Election: The Novel" which the new film "Election" is based upon. The book is set in a New Jersey high school amidst a hotbed of political activity: students are voting for their school president. earlier books, The Wishbones (1997), and, Bad Haircut (1994), were in similar fashion observing the agonies of growing up in suburban New Jersey.
Staff writer for The Times of London, Eve Ann Prentice. She's been visiting the Balkans regularly since her first assignment there in 1978. She's reported on wars in Bosnia and Croatia. She and other journalists recently made a trip into Kosovo, led by pro-Serbian French philosopher Daniel Schiffer. During the trip, in southwest Kosovo, their party was hit by NATO bombing. Their driver and interpreter was killed in the raid.
Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, Frederick Kempe. As a journalist, he's covered Germany for over twenty years, and is also the son of German immigrants. His new book "Father/land: A Personal Search for the New Germany" (Putnam) is his exploration into his family's past in Germany, and an analysis of Germany today.
Teenage gay rights activist Michael Bisogno (bis-SOYN-yo) talks about being the victim of gay-bashing in New Jersey. Bisogno who served as co-president of his school's Gay-Straight Alliance group was brutally assaulted by 15 of his fellow high school students. Following his recovery, Bisogno later filed charges and is now an advocate fighting against hate-crimes.
