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Leo Litwak is a retired San Francisco State University professor of English. He's the author of the new memoir, The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II (Penguin Books). Litwak was a 19-year-old medic. One reviewer writes, "[A] book that should be given to every schoolboy in the country at the age of 13... the Medic teaches us so much, makes clear that sometimes the monsters in war are not only the enemy."

The HBO hit series Sex and the City, begins a new season July 21. We'll hear from two people involved with the show: Actress Sarah Jessica Parker was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She's been acting for most of her life, including playing Annie on Broadway, the young bimbo in L.A. Story, and a fed-up fiancee in Honeymoon in Vegas. This is her fifth season starring in Sex and the City, as Carrie, a columnist who writes about the sexual mores of New Yorkers. Terry recorded this interview with Parker live before an audience at Martha's Vineyard in July 2001.

Former fire commissioner of New York City, Thomas Von Essen. He led the department through the Sept. 11 attacks and during rescue and early recovery efforts. During the attacks, the department lost 343 men, many of them Von Essen's friends and colleagues. Von Essen stepped down as fire commissioner on December 31, 2001. He's written a new memoir with Matt Murray, Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York.

A group of scientists reported finding a six or seven million-year-old skull in Chad, Central Africa. The specimen, the oldest hominid skull ever found, will shed new light on a mysterious period in human history. The new species has been nicknamed Toumao, a name for children born before the dry season in the African desert.

The phrases "toga! toga!" and "food fight!" were shouted in countless dorm rooms the summer of 1978, all thanks to National Lampoon's Animal House, the movie starring John Belushi. On Morning Edition, as part of NPR's Present at the Creation series, Molly Peterson tells the story of the film that defined college humor for a generation.

In a bare-bones cabin on Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau wrote a bible for people who want to live in harmony with nature. On Morning Edition, Jill Kaufman explores the origins of Thoreau's Walden as part of NPR's Present at the Creation series on American icons.

Just in time for the Fourth of July, Morning Edition's Alex Chadwick ships off for barbecue boot camp and learns how to grill "beer-can" chicken. After successfully preparing his bird for cooking, Chadwick encounters a near disaster -- but survives to taste and tell.

Forty years after Andy Warhol's first exhibition, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is hosting a retrospective of the artist's work. The exhibition boasts 200 works spanning Warhol's career, including examples of his most famous series like Campbell's Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. Eric Roy of member station KCRW reports for Morning Edition.

From almost the beginning of the broadcast era, audiences have had a taste for seeing -- and before that, hearing -- themselves on the air. On Present at the Creation, Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, explores the origins of the quiz show.

Asian longhorned beetles are eating their way through hardwood trees in New York and Chicago, and experts worry the pests are spreading. A new tool, using acoustic clues, may make it easier for inspectors to detect the beetles. NPR's Melissa Block reports for Morning Edition.