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Director Sam Mendes. He made his feature film debut in 1999 with American Beauty which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Mendes also won an Oscar for directing. Prior to that Mendes made his mark directing theatre productions in London (revival of Cabaret and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice)and on Broadway (The Blue Room). He directed the new film Road to Perdition starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law.

Aerospace consultant Nick Cook, author of the new book, The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology. (Broadway Books/ Random House) In the book, Cook tracks down the secret history of anti-gravity research. It*s technology that defies the laws of physics. Cook discovered that during WWII, the Nazis claimed to have been close to antigravity technology. The U.S. government allegedly conducted antigravity research in the 1950s and 60s. Cook is former Aviation Editor for the military affairs journal, Jane's Defense Weekly.

Clifford's new book is The Lost Fleet: The Discovery of a Sunken Armada from the Golden Age of Piracy. The lost fleet was a group of French ships that sank in 1678 on the reef of Las Aves island, 100 miles off the Venezuelan coast.

For Kentucky students wanting to participate in sports, their sex would be determined by the sex printed on their birth certificate and an affidavit from a doctor ascertaining that information.

West Nile virus has hit Louisiana hard this summer. Nearly 90 people there have contracted the mosquito-borne fever, and seven are dead. It's the largest outbreak in the United States yet, and with three more months of warm weather ahead, local health officials fear it will only get worse. NPR's John Nielsen reports for All Things Considered.

Novelist Chaim Potok died Tuesday at the age of 73. Potok was raised in the Orthodox Jewish tradition, was ordained as a rabbi, and later became a best-selling author of the novels The Chosen, The Promise and My Name is Asher Lev. Much of his writing explored the conflict between spiritual and secular worlds, a subject that earned him readers from all faiths. This interview first aired in 1986.

Until about 70 years ago, musical instruments remained pretty much the same as they were for centuries. Then a new invention changed modern music and popular culture as well -- the electric guitar. For the continuing series Present at the Creation, NPR's Christopher Joyce traces the origins of an instrument that changed popular music forever.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History opened a new exhibit Monday featuring the Cambridge, Mass. kitchen where Julia Child filmed many of her television shows -- and where many Americans learned to be less afraid of French cooking. See photos and a video of the exhibit -- and learn about Child's life as a World War II spy. See http://americanhistory.si.edu/kitchen/index.htm.

Now appearing on All Things Considered: The comedy troupe responsible for such classic spoofs as I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus. Today, Firesign Theatre tackles the issue of homeland security, and the government's program to get civilians to "tip" the government to suspicious activity.

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls which was also a national bestseller. His subject matter is working-class unpretentious people, but as one reviewer writes he transforms 'every day people and seemingly ordinary events - into the quintessential'. Hes written five novels in all, including Mohawk, The Risk Pool, and Nobodys Fool (which was made into a film starring Paul Newman). His latest book is a collection of stories, The Whores Child and Other Stories. (Knopf).