Michael Frayn reads from his book "At Bay in Gear Street" and how he approaches writing. Oliver Howes, a livery driver, talks about music, his middle class background, and his work;part 1.

Ms. Anthony, the grand-niece of Susan B. Anthony, comments on the women's liberation movement, her personal political life and her view of Christian life.

Discussing the book "Blue highways: a journey into America" with William Least Heat Moon.

Joan Didion describes the main characters Charlotte and Charlotte's ex-husbands, Warren and Leonard of her novel, "A Book of Common Prayer". Didion said she based her novel from the song, "If I Ever Cease to Love You". A fan of Didion, who after reading her novel, made the comparison and asked Didion, "So you knew my ex-husband, too?"

Adapted by Peditto, the play, "Never Come Morning", is based on the Nelson Algren novel of the same title, a story about a man working his way out of a low-income neighborhood in Chicago. The cast discusses their familiarity with Algren’s work and how they found their way into this production. Studs and the cast of this production read through several of the scenes from the play. This program includes clips of interviews and performances of Nelson Algren that capture his storytelling abilities.

Discussing the book "Race hoss: big Emma's boy" with the author Albert Race Sample. Includes Sample reading a section of the book.

Author Madeleine L'Engle discusses her novel "A Severed Wasp," about a retired concert pianist (Katherine Forrester, who appeared in L'Engle's first novel, "The Small Rain") who puts on a benefit concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at the request of her old friend, Felix Bodeway. Like Katherine, L'Engle is a pianist and the interview is interspersed with Bach fugues throughout. In addition to discussing the plot, Terkel and L'Engle discuss several of the book's characters and their histories and motivations.

Using the backdrop of James Baldwin's "Nobody Knows My Name" and Baldwin's feelings that Blacks were ashamed of where they came from, Terkel interviews Professor and Chairman of the Political Science Department of Roosevelt University on his book coauthored with Stokely Carmichael entitled" Black Power: Politics of Liberation in America". Hamilton states that Blacks were taught to hate themselves and leave school believing that. Institutional racism and the deliberate oppression it creates, holds blacks back. Blacks are left out of crucial decision making processes that concern them.

Joan Chase discusses and reads from her book "During the Reign of the Queen of Persia: a Novel." This book is told from the perspective of four granddaughters of an Ohio farm wife during the 1950s and is broken into three parts that follow these women throughout their life recounting family stories and the struggles of rural life in modern America. Studs plays "Down in the Valley" - Pete Seeger, Bess Lomax, and Tom Glazer (1951), "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" - Kai Winding & J.J. Johnson (1959), and "Frankie and Johnny" - Burl Ives (1955).