Novelist Nicholson Baker on the Banality of Idle Thought.

Writer Michael Dorris. He and his wife, Louise Erdrich, have written several novels together, including "Love Medicine" and "Yellow Raft in Blue Water." Both are part Native American, and Dorris spent several years of his childhood on an Indian reservation. He has adopted many children, one of which he later discovered was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Dorris's book, "The Broken Cord," is about this syndrome, and also his personal story of dealing with it in his family. (originally broadcast 7/20/89).

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the music of two tenor saxophonists, who are father and son. Von Freeman from the Chicago blues style, plays with his son, Chico Freeman, on the album "Freeman & Freeman," (on the India Navigation label). Whitehead also reviews Von Freeman's album "Walkin Tuff!" (on Chicago's "Southport" label).

Critic Maureen Corrigan reflects on the television show, "thirtysomething," and how the illness of one of the characters has affected the show.