Terry Gross

Journalist Tina Cassidy was inspired to write about cultural birth practices after hearing many accounts of birth experiences. Cassidy is a former reporter for the Boston Globe and writes for other publications including The New York Times Magazine.

Record executive Jac Holzman founded Elektra Records in 1950, initially focusing on recording folk and ethnic music. In 1964 he founded Nonesuch Records. In the 1960s he signed on some of the big pop and rock voices of the era like Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Jackson Browne and The Doors. He talks about working with The Doors. Holzman headed Elektra Records for 23 years.

Manzarek talks how he came up with the famous piano riff from "Light My Fire."

Keyboard player and record producer Ray Manzarek was part of the rock band The Doors, which broke up after the death of lead singer Jim Morrison. This month marks the 40th anniversary of the band's formation. There's a new book out next month called, The Doors that gives an inside look at the band. It includes interviews with the three surviving members. Never before seen photos and previously untold stories are revealed.

After the breakup of The Doors, Densmore went on to play reggae music and got involved in theater and writing projects, penning his autobiography and publishing magazine articles. His current project is the group Tribal Jazz. Their self-titled debut album is now out in stores.

British journalist Stephen Grey writes about security issues and Iraq. His work appears in The Sunday Times of London, The New York Times, the Guardian, and The Atlantic Monthly. He says that dozens of terror suspects are still being held in secret prisons and interrogated by the CIA despite President Bush's declaration that the CIA is no longer doing so. Grey's new book is Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (St. Martin's Press).

David Kuo is the former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He left in December 2003. He says he was disillusioned with the administration because they failed to actually fund faith-based charities, and they used compassion and religion for political ends. He is the author of the new memoir Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.

H. James Towey is the former director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He is David Kuo's former boss. He responds to Kuo's criticisms of the Bush administration's follow through on the initiatives. Towey is now president of the Benedictine Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Penn.

Forest Whitaker played jazz musician Charlie Parker in Bird, a British soldier kidnapped by the IRA in The Crying Game, a mafia hit man who models himself after a Samurai warrior in Ghost Dog, and an internal-affairs detective on the FOX TV show The Shield. In his latest film, The Last King of Scotland, he plays Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.