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Google's expansion into instant messaging and a web-based calling opens another field of competition with Microsoft and Yahoo. Robert Siegel talks with Scott Cleland, CEO of Precursor, an independent investment research firm tracking technology and telecom sectors.

Critic-at-large John Powers comments on the history of roles for offbeat women in Hollywood. Powers recently saw the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin and got to thinking about the actress Catherine Keener, who co-stars.

The Media Lab at MIT has turned a PDA into the Jerk-O-Meter. The device analyzes voice patterns and other verbal cues, then offers callers advice on how they're holding up their end of the conversation.

Fomenting and glorifying terrorism are among the "unacceptable behaviors" that could lead to deportation according to new rules unveiled by Britain's Home Office. Robert Siegel talks with John Prideaux of The Economist magazine.

His role as David Fisher, the gay brother who co-runs a funeral home on Six Feet Under, is Michael C. Hall's first television part. On Broadway, his roles have included Billy Flynn, an oily attorney in the revival of Chicago, and the emcee in Cabaret. (This interview originally aired March 26, 2002.)

Israel has completed most of its planned withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza. Four settlements await final evacuation after a break for the Sabbath. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sets elections for late January.

We hear readings from When I Knew, Robert Trachtenberg's colorful collection of vignettes from gay men and women about coming to terms with their sexuality. And Andrew Sullivan discusses the subject of gayness with Linda Wertheimer.

According to a new study by the British Cheese Board, different cheeses can give you different types of dreams. None of the study volunteers reported nightmares from their bedtime snack. NPR's Melissa Block talks about the results of the study with Nigel White, secretary of the British Cheese Board.

Ben Trokan and Steve Mercado are the driving force behind Robbers on High Street, a pop band born in their hometown of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. They tell Liane Hansen about Tree City, their first full-length CD.

Robert Walker, a retired congressman from Pennsylvania who served as chairman of the Science Committee, responds to allegations that the Bush administration has mishandled scientific issues. Walker now serves as chairman of Wexler & Walker, a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C.