Terry Gross

In a single monologue, the protagonist of Mohsin Hamid's sophomore novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, tells his life story to an American stranger over dinner in a Pakistani cafe. Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

New cancer-fighting techniques, including drugs designed to target cancer cells, mean thousands of patients are surviving cancer. Researcher and author David G. Nathan explains The Cancer Treatment Revolution.

Maz Jobrani, Ahmed Ahmed and Aron Kader make up the Axis of Evil Comedy group. (They're of Iranian, Egyptian and Palestinian descent, respectively). Their special premiered on Comedy Central last month. It's out on DVD this week.

English comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen's popular film Borat is now out on DVD. Cohen is best known for his characters Ali G (a journalist from England), Bruno (a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter) and Borat (a reporter from Kazakhstan). (REBROADCAST from 1/4/07)

Geneticist Francis Collins is director of the National Human Genome Research Project. He is also an evangelical Christian, and author of the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren is an expert on bankruptcy and is an outspoken critic of consumer lenders.

Recently she appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to discuss the abusive lending practices by credit card companies. She considers the interest charges and late fees imposed by credit card companies to a "hidden tax" on cardholders.

Warren is also the author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.

With his band the MGs, Booker T. Jones created the classic instrumental "Green Onions." But they were also the studio band for Stax Records, making music with soul artists such as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. A new two-CD box set features Stax highlights and Booker T. is now back on tour.

Comedian and actor Will Ferrell stars in the new film Blades of Glory. He plays a former Olympic ice skater who, banned from competition with a rival (played by Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite fame), discovers a loophole allowing the men to skate as a pair.

Ferrell became famous as a member of Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2002. Among his other films: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Stranger Than Fiction, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Old School and Bewitched.

This interview originally aired on Nov. 9, 2006.

Middle East policy expert Daniel Byman talks about the effect of the war in Iraq on state-sponsored terrorism.

Byman is the director at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he is also a professor.