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2: Writer REBECCA BROWN, author of a new book "Gifts of the Body" (HarperCollins Publishers). The book is a collection of connected short stories about caring for people with AIDS. Though the work is fiction, many of the characters are based on people she herself worked with. BROWN is the author of other books including "The Terrible Girls," "Annie Oakley's Girls," and "The Children's Crusade."

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2: Behind the scenes during the golden age of the Broadway musical: SUSAN LOESSER (pronounced "lesser"), daughter of Frank Loesser, composer of the classic songs "Heart and Soul" and "Baby It's Cold Outside". He also wrote the score for "Guys and Dolls" which is now being revived on Broadway. LOESSER's new memoir of her father is "A Most Happy Fella" (Donald I Fine).

Commentator Gayle Pemberton remembers the "Birmingham Bombing", which killed four young girls and galvanized support for the Civil Rights Movement.

2: Contributing Editor and essayist for Newsweek magazine ELLIS COSE. His new book, "The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why are Middle-Class Blacks Angry? Why Should America Care?" (HarperCollins) is about what many middle-class blacks feel, but few white americans understand: that middle-class blacks still struggle against racial stereotyping, discrimination, and alienation, despite their financial success and their best efforts to "play by the rules." COSE argues that many white americans make assumptions about Blacks which are at odds with reality. For instance, that employment discrimination against blacks is no longer a problem.

Rock historian Ed Ward plays some of the worst in Christmas music.

SIMON/BERNAYS: THE "FATHER OF PUBLIC RELATIONS" AND NEPHEW OF SIGMUND FREUD, EDWARD BERNAYS, DIED THIS WEEK AT THE AGE OF 103. SCOTT SIMON SPEAKS WITH SUZANNE ROSHWALB, PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON, D.C., WHO IS CURRENTLY WRITING A BIOGRAPHY OF EDWARD BERNAYS.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS DESCRIBE THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT AS AN ECOLOGICAL GODSEND, BUT MANY IN CONGRESS THINK OF IT AS AN ECONOMIC MONSTER. THIS WEEK MARKED THE START OF A FIGHT OVER REAUTHORIZATION OF THE LAW THAT PROTECTS THE HABITATS OF RARE ANIMALS AND PLANTS. NPR'S JOHN NIELSEN REPORTS ON HOW THE ACT IS LIKELY TO BE CHANGED, AND WHY THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS AREN'T LIKELY TO LIKE IT.

The film "I am Cuba" is a Soviet propaganda film made in 1964 that is being shown for the first time in the United States. Daniel talks to film director Martin Scorcese who is presenting the film and Russian poet Yevgeny Yevteshenko who wrote the script about the film's artistic and cultural value.

Abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion groups agree on something? Conservatives and environmentalists pursuing a common cause? NPR's Jon Greenberg reports that surprising coalitions are popping up in the new political landscape.

Joe is joined by three editorial page writers from around the country -- Mindy Cameron of the Seattle Times, Bob Kittle of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Nick Monsurat of the Burlington Free Press -- to discuss how the Republican Contract with America is playing out beyond the Beltway.

Film critic STEPHEN SCHIFF reviews "Exotica."