Terry Gross

James Weinstein, M.D., chairs Dartmouth College's orthopedic-surgery department; he's considered one of the nation's leading experts on low-back pain.

Weinstein says a multi-year study examining different treatments for lumbar disk herniation shows that surgery isn't necessarily a better choice than non-operative treatments. He says that there is little difference in outcomes, and he's an advocate of conservative, non-invasive treatment.

She works in a country where reporters have been harassed, deported, jailed, even tortured. She's subject to all these risks herself — but Peta Thornycroft surrendered her British citizenship and became a Zimbabwean so she could remain in the country and continue to report on the challenges it faces. She's one of the few independent journalists still working in Zimbabwe.

Journalist James Fallows, a 25-year veteran of The Atlantic Monthly, is living in China and writing about it. He joins Dave Davies to discuss his recent article "China Makes, The World Takes" — and the booming Chinese factories that are its subject.

Gone Baby Gone, a new film based on the Dennis Lehane novel, stars actor Casey Affleck as a blue-collar private investigator drawn into a child-abduction case. The film is directed by Affleck's movie-star brother, Ben Affleck.

Casey Affleck has also appeared in the American Pie films, Ocean's 11 and its sequels, and Good Will Hunting.

Always politically minded, chess master Garry Kasparov is now running for president of Russia. He's the leader of an opposition coalition known as The Other Russia. He's also published a new book, called How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom.

Artist Chuck Close has been called "the most methodical artist that has ever lived in America" and the "reigning portraitist of the Information Age." He creates jumbo-size faces on canvas, copying them from photographs. They are painted in a dotted faux pointillist style.

In 1989 Close suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed from the neck down, gaining partial use of his hand with a brace, he learned to paint all over again.

In actor Richard Gere's latest film, The Hoax, he plays a scam artist who gets a major book publisher to pay him a seven-figure publishing deal. It's based on the true story of Clifford Irving, who claimed to be a Howard Hughes biographer. It's now out on DVD.

Gere has almost 40 films to his credit, including Days of Heaven, American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, The Cotton Club, Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Chicago.

This interview was originally broadcast on April 4, 2007.

In The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea, veteran journalist Steve LeVine writes about the high-stakes political gamesmanship over control of the rich oil resources in that region.

The latest CD from New Orleans trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is A Tale of God's Will, whose subtitle is "A Requiem for Katrina."

Parts of the recording were heard in Spike Lee's HBO documentary When the Levees Broke. Blanchard, who's scored many films, including Eve's Bayou and Malcolm X, got his start with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

He is artistic director for the Thelonious Monk Institute at the University of Southern California.