Sasha, the main character in Alix Kates Shulman's book, "Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen" is obsessed and worried about her good looks. Sasha is all of 24 now, and she was told that by the time she's 30, her good looks will fade. Once a new queen is named, Sasha's mother tells her, you become a has been. The prom queen theme of the book, says Shulman, is to compete for the man and to be #1. Similar to the Miss America contest, women are parading before the men, parading before the judges for their attention.

When Leon Edel set out to write a biography of Henry James, he thought it would take him three years. It ended up taking him twenty years.  Jean Strouse chose to focus on the life of the diarist Alice James, Henry's lesser-known younger sister.  Both books are considered to be definitive biographies.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Jane Stern discusses her book, Trucker: A Portrait of the Last American Cowboy, and the life, culture, and myths of truck drivers. The program includes an excerpt from an interview with a truck driver named Paul Deitch.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Ntozake Shange discusses her play, "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf." She goes on to discuss her advocacy for more Black authors and poets, especially in experimental artistic endeavors.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Margaret Atwood discusses her book "The Handmaid's Tale" and the real life and biblical events that inspired it. The show also includes two interludes with Erich Fromme discussing "Escape from Freedom".

In Susan Brownmiller's book, "Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape," Brownmiller shows her audience how and why rape is a crime of one's mind and not one of passion. According to Brownmiller, rape is man's dominance over a woman.