Terry Gross

On Friday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth is being honored at Columbia University in commemoration of his 75th birthday. The National Book Foundation is celebrating the event with an online exhibit of Roth's work. Roth, a frequent guest on Fresh Air, talks with Terry Gross about his celebrated career.

While on assignment in Sudan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Paul Salopek was captured by pro-government militias, then charged with spying and imprisoned for 34 days. He writes about his experience in April's edition of National Geographic.

The band R.E.M. has released its first album in four years, Accelerate. Critics have been describing the disc as a "comeback," saying it's the band's best album in ages. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills join Terry Gross for a conversation.

As chief of high-value targeting for the Pentagon, Marc Garlasco helped plan the targets of laser-guided bombs during the invasion of Iraq. Now a senior analyst with Human Rights Watch, Garlasco visits war zones where he assesses the damage being done to civilians by bombs and lobbies for greater deliberation in the use of air power.

Julie Andrews has spent her life in the public eye, but she's never had much to say about her life before stardom — until now. The Sound of Music star joins Terry Gross to discuss her new memoir.

Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston died Saturday at the age of 84. Heston, who starred in epic films such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments, later made a name for himself as a conservative activist.

Taylor Branch spent nearly 24 years researching and writing a three-volume biography of Martin Luther King Jr. He joins Fresh Air to disccuss the struggles and triumphs of the last three years of King's life.

Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis in 1968 rallying for fair treatment and pay of African-American sanitation workers when he was assassinated. American history professor Michael Honey joins Fresh Air to discuss his book on the labor campaign King was leading at the time of his death.

Perplexed by the U.S. economy? You're not alone. Law professor Michael Greenberger joins Fresh Air to explain the sub-prime mortgage crisis, credit defaults, the shaky future of other types of loans and what we can expect from the U.S. financial markets.

Jules Dassin, an American filmmaker who worked in Europe for nearly 30 years, died this week in Athens, Greece. He left the U.S. in the early 1950s, blacklisted for his youthful membership in the Communist Party.