Terry Gross

Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell writes for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., and specializes in unearthing new evidence from Civil Rights era criminal cases. His coverage has led to the convictions of four Ku Klux Klan members, starting with Byron De La Beckwith for the assassination of Medgar Evers. Recently, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of orchestrating the murders of Civil Rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. Next week Mitchell will be honored with the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Director Harold Ramis brings his brand of dark -- and often silly -- humor to holiday audiences with The Ice Harvest. The irreverent film stars John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Randy Quaid.

Jazz trombonist and composer Roswell Rudd celebrated his 70th birthday on Nov. 17, 2005. Rudd's new CD, Blue Mongol, features his work with The Mongolian Buryat Band, a group of throat singers. Rudd is known for his work with groundbreaking groups and musicians like Herbie Nichols, the New York Art Quartet, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, and Carla Bley. He is equally comfortable with traditional and avant-garde work. This interview originally aired on Feb. 12, 2002.

Joan Didion's memoir The Year of Magical Thinking is about grieving for her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne. He died suddenly at the end of 2003, while their daughter was hospitalized with pneumonia.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris is starring in the new CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother -- but most people know him as a teenage doctor in the early 1990s TV series Doogie Howser, MD, which is now available on DVD. Harris also played a parody of himself in the film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

After 25 years as the host of ABC's Nightline, news anchor Ted Koppel is retiring. Nightline started out in March 1980 as extended news coverage of the hostage crisis in Iran. Koppel has won 37 Emmys and 6 Peabody Awards, as well as many other honors.

Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson collect stories about America's hidden kitchens in a new book, Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's Kitchen Sisters.

In a cover article for the December issue of Atlantic Monthly, reporter James Fallows argues there is no easy way out of Iraq for American forces. Pressure is mounting to withdraw U.S. troops, but the move would almost certainly leave Iraq in chaos. It will take years to train an Iraqi security force.

In November, Columbia Records released the Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition boxed set. The three-CD set includes a remastering of Springsteen's Born to Run album, released in 1975. The box set also includes a concert DVD of a never-before seen 1975 concert from London and a documentary about the making of Born to Run. This interview originally aired on Nov. 15, 2005.