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Writer KEN LEVINE (pronounced "Le-Vine"). He's an Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and has been head writer for two of television's greatest shows: MASH and Cheers. He trained himself to be a baseball announcer out of a childhood love for the game, and has written a new book about his season as a broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles: "It's Gone!...No, Wait a Minute" (Villard Books) He's now an announcer for the Seattle Mariners

2: Miami Herald columnist and novelist CARL HIAASEN. "Strip Tease," Hiassen's fifth novel and latest gonzo thriller, is a yarn, pitting a seemy Florida politician against the star stripper at Miami's Eager Beaver club. Mr. Hiaasen has spun tales of environmentalists feeding tourists and senior citizens to alligators ("Tourist Season), of a villainous South Florida plastic surgeon who kills a woman during a nose job ("Skin Tight"), and about the amusement park, "The Amazing KIngdom of Thrills,' where one of the novel's heavies is loved to death by an amorous dolphin ("Native Tongue").

In a series of short books, writer John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, has celebrated American culture through food. He tells Debbie Elliott about the latest, Hamburgers and Fries.

Comedian and author Paula Poundstone talks about her new book, There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say, the best part of her arrest, and why she never wins on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Professional New York house cleaner and NPR commentator, DAVID SEDARIS (seh-DAR-iss). Sedaris occasionally reads from his diaries on NPR; he started this year around Christmas time, when he recounted tales of being a Macy's elf named Crumpet during the holiday season. Other pieces have covered life with window hangers, the world of soap operas, and smoking on a bench in Central Park with a non-smoker. He's recently signed with Little, Brown for a book of short stories and a novel.

The film "Silverlake Life: The View From Here" was started by filmmaker and film teacher Tom Joslin to document his and his lover's battles with AIDS. Joslin asked his former film student PETER FRIEDMAN to complete the film after Joslin's death. We'll talk with Friedman about working on "Silverlake Life," which opens the sixth season of PBS' P.O.V. series on Tuesday, Ju

Nkosi Johnson inspired millions in Africa and around the world to action in the fight against AIDS. The South African boy died of AIDS at age 12 is the subject of a new book by ABC newsman Jim Wooten, who says the boy's courage in the face of death was deeply moving.

In her latest book, best-selling humor writer Jill Conner Browne — better known as the Sweet Potato Queen — shares her insights on men, classifying them into handy spud categories (Mr. Right is a Spud Stud.) NPR's Debbie Elliott caught up with the Queen and her sparkling, tiara-wearing fans.

In a series of essays, commentator Steve Coll reflects on how terrorism binds voters in America, Afghanistan and Pakistan. His new book Ghost Wars chronicles the CIA's covert history in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden's rise.

Actor JOHN MAHONEY. He started out in Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater.His film roles include "Tin Men," "Eight Men Out," the randy professor in"Moonstruck," and the father in "Say Anything."... Mahoney now playsFrasier's (Kelsey Grammer) father in the "Cheers" spin-off "Frasier".Television producer STEPHEN BOCHCO. With shows like "Hill Street Blues," "L.A.Law," and this season's "NYPD Blue," Bochco can claim credit for awhole TV genre: intensely realistic dramas that use an ensemble cast andmultiple, interweaving plots that quickly cut back and forth. TV critics allude to the "Bochco-ization of network TV," as more and more programsuse the Bochco trademarks of large casts, gallows humor and allusions tounconventional sex. Bocho remains an innovative, albeit controversial,force in television. His latest series "NYPD Blue" has been rejected by asizeable number of ABC affiliates for vulgarity and nudity. The ratingsand critics,though, assert that this is television at its finest.Actor DENNIS FRANZ. He played the tough, gum chewing LieutenantNorman Bunz on the acclaimed TV series, "Hill Street Blues." Bunz brieflystarred in the short-lived "Hill Street Blues" spin-off, "Beverly Hills Bunz.He returns to television in ABC's "NYPD Blue." As Detective Sipowicz, heplays a legendary cop that is now battling burn-out and the bottle.