Here's hoping the dollar rose doesn't wither.

Source: distinguish

There's been a lot of bad news about the economy recently -- inflation is up, the housing market is a mess, gas prices are high, unemployment is growing, the dollar is weak, and, not surprisingly, consumer confidence numbers are low. There's talk among some economists of a possible recession, and now the word "stagflation" is circulating. Amid all the questions and concerns, people are reconsidering their options and restructuring their game plans. I've heard about all sorts of tactics people are using.... Some parents are taking their children out of private schools and putting them in public ones. Others are selling their homes, cars, or stocks. And a few are even dipping into their 401Ks. In the wake of our current economic state, are you looking at your assets differently, or altering your medium-to-long-range plans? And what are your questions about stagflation?

The euro is literally and figuratively on top of the dollar. (The dollar plunged to a new record low against the euro today.)

Source: JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

You've likely picked up on a theme for the first hour today... Money. The past week's been so full of bad, or lukewarm news about the economy it's hard not to think, at least a little, about your cash flow. And when it comes to reconsidering your assets, the first place you probably look is at your investments. Should you tap into that 401K at work to pay off a credit card? Is now a good time to sell... Or buy? Is there any way to cash in on the falling dollar? I have questions, and you likely have questions too, so we've called on David Gardner over at the Motley Fool to help us out. And of course, it's been just over a year now since Neal launched his fantasy portfolio, and we'll get a year-end review. Got money questions for the Fool? Let us know.

The opening ceremonies of the 1936 Olympics, in Berlin. Um, kind of political.

Source: Getty Images

 

The Olympic truce -- whether it's a myth or not -- is one of Western civilization's most cherished ideals. The ancient truce -- called Ekecheiria -- was reportedly honored by the Greeks and their neighbors during the ancient Olympics. It facilitated safe travels and a cessation of hostilities for athletes, visitors, poets and others during the games at Olympia. The current Olympic truce is probably both more and less stable -- heavy security prevents (but not always, see Black September) actual violence; and Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter explicitly states, "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." That has not prevented politics from seeping into the games. Hitler's 1936 games were meant to prove Aryan superiority -- and famously didn't. Black Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished first and third, respectively, in the 200 meter-run, bowed their heads and gave the Black Power salute during the national anthem as a protest against racism in the U.S. (you can see a photo of that moment on our main website).A reciprocal boycott kept the Cold War chilly at the games in Moscow and L.A. in the eighties. And now, the Beijing summer Olympics threaten to be the most political games yet -- Hollywood heavyweights are weighing in for the Olympic sport of protest, and athletes are preparing to confront China's record on the environment, human rights and Sudan. Today we're looking forward by looking back (Tommie Smith!) -- do you think the Olympics should be a moment of truce, of noble competition unsullied by politics? Or are they the perfect venue for such displays?

So normally I would say something at the top of the blog like "So here's what's coming up on this last day of the month..." But today, that won't work. So instead I'll say, "Let's take a leap into what's happening on the show today: (I know. Forgive me. I'm feeling a bit punchy today...).

At a press conference this morning, President Bush addressed concerns about our sluggish economy. Higher oil and gas, foreclosures, a weakened dollar and a possible recession have been making news headlines. And the word "stagflation" has been floating around. What does it all mean for us? Economists will answer your questions about how you should alter your short, middle and long range financial plans and the different ways to view your assets. Then we'll take a look at our Talk of the Nation fantasy portfolio and the stock market in this shaky economy with our Motley Fool, David Gardner.

The Olympics have served not only as an arena where the best athletes in the world compete, but also as a place where politics and ideologies collide. For the entire second hour, we will look at how politics have risen to the forefront in the Olympics, past and present. In the 1968 Olympic Games, gold medalist Tommie Smith raised a fist for Black power at the medal ceremony. Anita DeFrantz filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Olympic Committee protesting the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in the Soviet Union. And Joey Cheek donated his earnings to refugees in the Darfur region after winning a gold medal at the 2006 Olympics. Smith, DeFrantz and Cheek will each talk about the symbolism behind their decisions. And at the end of the hour, we'll talk with Margaret Lambert, a Jewish athlete who was told her performance did not qualify her to compete at the 1936 Olympic Games.

Editor's note: David Gura live blogged the president's press conference this morning. You can read his post, in its entirety, after the jump.

President Bush, at the press conference this morning.

Source: AFP/Getty Images

10:51 a.m. EST
The reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room are desperate for some presidential prognostication.

One last question, shouted from what must've been the back of the room: "Do you still think that Senator Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic presidential nominee?!"

No answer from President Bush.

Continue reading "White House Press Conference" >

Where it will all go down.

Source: Getty Images

Earlier this morning, we got word that the president plans to hold a press conference. He'll step up to the podium in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at 10:05 a.m.

Neal will anchor NPR's special coverage, which will be available on many NPR member stations, and at npr.org. And I'll blog about the conference here, in real time.

Ooh, snap!

Source: Getty Images

 

Last night's Democratic debate in Ohio between Senators Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was saucy! I was rapidly firing IMs to friends: Lots of Did she just say what I think she said?'s and Ooh, snap!'s. They sparred for 16 minutes on health care alone! Trade policy, campaign tactics and Iraq were also on the debate table. I still can't decide who turned out the victor. A tossup, perhaps? Today we talk to our political junkie Ken Rudin about last night's debate and much more: Senator John McCain's (R-Ariz.) apology on behalf of a supporter's disparaging comments about Obama; a new poll that says McCain would beat both Democratic hopefuls in the general election; and next week's crucial Democratic primaries in Texas and Ohio. If you have questions for our political junkie, leave them here.

William F. Buckley Jr., circa 1976.

Source: Getty Images

We got word today that William F. Buckley Jr., the father of modern conservatism, passed away this morning, at his home in Connecticut. In my estimation, The New York Times obituary puts it best:

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

Douglas Martin continues...

Mr. Buckley's winningly capricious personality, replete with ten-dollar words and a darting tongue writers loved to compare with an anteater's, hosted one of television's longest-running programs, Firing Line, and founded and shepherded the influential conservative magazine, National Review.

After our regular conversation with the Political Junkie, we'll talk to William Kristol, of The Weekly Standard and The New York Times, about Buckley's legacy. Did his writing or philosophy influence or change your politics?

Today's gripping tale is filled with a heartrending cast of characters: a schizophrenic birth mom, an abusive foster mother, and the little boy caught in the middle. Andrew Bridge joins us to talk about his new memoir Hope's Boy. His is a journey marked by isolation and rejection. But the outcome is triumphant: Bridge developed survival tools to help him endure his harsh upbringing, and he eventually became a Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Harvard Law School. And, very fittingly, Bridge went on to devote his career to children's rights. If you grew up in foster care, tell us your story.

Criminal profiling -- getting inside the minds of killers -- has always been fascinating to me. That's why my Tivo is programmed to record every episode of Law and Order: SVU. Enter Robert Charles Browne -- possibly one of the worst serial killers in American history. He claims to have buried the bodies of dozens of victims in 17 states across the country. Former CIA and FBI agent Charlie Hess had unique access to Browne: over the course of several months, he exchanged letters with Brown, and eventually met him, in an attempt to find the truth. Hess, co-author of Hello Charlie: Letters from a Serial Killer, joins us today to tell us what he discovered.

I saw reports on this new seed bank in Norway (the one being called the "Noah's Ark of seeds," and the "doomsday seed vault") and thought, "That's a neat idea." Not because of the seeds, so much, but because it's a new spin on the old: What would you want with you if you were stuck on a deserted island? Only in this case, let's make it a cultural/ideas vault. If there was one thing you could lock away for future generations in the event of the unthinkable, what would it be? Your film collection? Great works of literature? A recipe for pizza?

Ford, back in the good ol' days....

Source: upnorthmemories

The Ford Motor Company, which has lost $15 billion in the last two years, is offering its employees huge incentives to leave their jobs: one-time cash payments of $140,000, rolling contributions to retirement accounts, and reimbursement packages for classes and coursework. By March 17, the automaker hopes at least 8,000 of its 64,000 employees will take the company up on its offer.

Because the economy is doing so poorly, companies around the country, in an array of industries (including this one), have been forced to cut costs, and buyouts are one way to do that.

In the first hour, we'll ask Sarah Webster, who covers the automobile industry for the Detroit Free Press; Andrea Coombes, who writes about personal finance; and Stephen Viscusi, author of On the Job: How to Make It in the Real World of Work, about when it is a good idea to take a buyout. And we want to hear from you. Have you taken one? Are you happy that you did? Are you considering one?

What to do after Thriller? Get a pet snake, duh.

Source: Liason/Getty Images

I know, I know. You're good NPR listeners. I bet you read the papers every day last week -- slogged through news on the economy, the election, Iraq. You listened to Morning Edition, TOTN, did your homework. But I bet there's one piece of news that you missed -- the kind of news that not only puts a smile on your face, but a little spin, a little shake, a little something in your hips. This year is the 25th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson's seminal album, Thriller. Significance? Let me list the five best dance songs of all time and see if they mean anything to you. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "Thriller," "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Human Nature," "P.Y.T." (Pretty Young Thing). Oh wait. That's six. What does that spell? Thriller, baby. You know what else it spells? P-A-R-T-Y. There is no more joyful, funky, timeless music -- if it finds its way in and out of your speakers, it's as if you had a pretty inexpensive, but delicious double latte -- the effects of which are centered mostly in your hips. It's hip-notic. Today, we're checking in with Harriette Cole -- creative director of Ebony -- who spent some quality time with Michael Jackson, and reflects on the birth of the classic. You know what we want you to do here? We want you to forget about the weirdness, the allegations, the pet snake (see above) the made for TV movies (although I want to point out that the Jackson movie with Angela Bassett is pretty amazing), and we want you to appreciate the art Jackson made. Tell us your Thriller moment.

Life after prison for many former inmates is anything but a cake walk. Sure, they have their freedom back; but they also face a host of challenges as they assimilate back into society. The most widely known obstacles to re-entry are employment and housing discrimination; but, according to the Legal Action Center, former prisoners can also face roadblocks in the areas of public assistance and food stamps, voting, adoptive and foster parenting, and drivers' licenses. On top of which, there's often a feeling of frustration associated with small, everyday tasks, like using a computer or riding public transportation -- things that weren't an issue while in jail. Prisoner advocacy groups, such as The Women's Prison Association and Fortune Society in New York, help make the transition easier. Today we will talk with three ex-prisoners about their experiences with life after prison. If you were formerly incarcerated, or if you work with former prisoners, what is the most difficult part about life after prison? And what do you think is needed to make re-entry smoother?

#42, #40, #69, and #60 on Christian Lander's list.

Source: iStockPhoto; Scott Barbour, Scott Gries/Getty Images; Toyota/Getty

 

In the last two months, nearly 4 million people have visited Christian Lander's blog, Stuff White People Like. If you haven't visited the site, do it. You may enjoy "#44 Public Radio." (We did).

White people love staions [sic] like NPR (which is equivalent to listening to cardboard), and they love shows like This American Life and Democracy Now. This confuses immigrants from the third world. The see the need for radio as a source for sports, top 40 radio and traffic reports but they don't quite understand why people who can afford TVs and have access to Youtube, would spend hours listening to the opinions of overeducated arts majors.

According to Lander, his blog "is a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like. They are pretty predictable." Here are a few more:

"#75 Threatening to Move to Canada"

"#62 Knowing what's best for poor people"

"#60 Toyota Prius"

Gregory Rodriguez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, doesn't just laugh at the site, he deconstructs it: "Lander is gently making fun of the many progressive, educated, upper-middle-class whites who think they are beyond ethnicity or collectively shared tastes, styles or outlook. He's essentially reminding them that they too are part of a group."

What do you think of it? Are you a regular reader? Do you disagree with what he's written? Do you have recommendations for other stuff he could add?

In our first hour today, we'll talk about the price of buy-outs. Ford Motor Company is currently pushing their employees to take buyouts that include $140,000 or college tuition plans. Sounds good, right? Buy-outs are one of the standard ways a company reduces its work force, but some people warn that if you take it, you might live to regret it. Have you ever been offered a buy-out? What did you do? Tell us your experience. After that, put on your red leather zipper jacket and let's go back 25 years to the moment you put a needle to Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Personally, I find it hard to believe that it's been a quarter century since my best friend Stephanie and I re-wound our VHS recording of the 'Thriller' mini-movie countless times and learned the ghoulish dance routine, step for step. (I also can't believe 25 years later, I still remember most of it.) A Thriller CD-DVD has been released this week that features remixes of the album's songs. But today, we're sticking to the original. Do you remember the first time you heard this classic record? Which song was your favorite? And how big of a fan were you? Did you pattern your Jheri curl to look like Michael's? Or were you just brave enough to wear one shiny glove?

Next Monday, new guidelines are set to go into effect that will retroactively reduce the sentences for crack cocaine offenders, which means around 1,500 crack offenders could apply for immediate release. In today's second hour, we will talk with ex-prisoners about the challenges of re-assimilating into society after serving long term sentences. After that, blogger Christian Lander talks about how and why he created a list called "Stuff White People Like." And we'll read read from your blog and email comments on shows that aired last week.

Enjoy!

As a guy who grew up playing the violin, I have followed the New York Philharmonic's trip to North Korea with especial interest. Needless to say, the humble youth orchestra of which I was a part never played East Pyongyang Grand Theater; most of our performances took place at local nursing homes. That said, our audiences were (almost) always eager to hear Debussy, Dvorak, and Beethoven. They'd put up with Stravinsky.

The optimist in me hopes that the Philharmonic's two-day tour of North Korea will usher in social and political change. The cynic in me wonders how the telecast of the performance played, or where it played, in the small socialist republic.

When the orchestra gets back from its tour, we hope to talk to Zarin Mehta, the president and executive director of the Philharmonic, again. (He promised us that he'd carve out some time for us when we spoke to him a few months ago). 'Til then, check out these photos from the performance. And this excellent blog from the tour, kept by Daniel J. Wakin, a reporter for The New York Times.

Last week, at the University of Texas, Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spent a lot of time talking about health care. As Obama said, the two candidates have a "substantive difference" over how Americans should be covered.

Finally! A "substantive difference."

On today's program, in the first hour, we're on the lookout for more of them. When it comes to the issues -- Iraq, the environment, education, and trade, to name just a few --, what sets the two Democratic candidates apart?

Kirk Victor, of the National Journal, will field questions about domestic policy positions. (You can read his article, "A Dime's Worth of Difference," here). And Michael Hirsh, a senior editor at Newsweek, will tackle foreign policy distinctions. Julie Rovner, NPR's health policy correspondent, will join us too. Tell us what issue is the most important to you, and we'll tell you where the candidates stand.

Britney fighting her legal battles, back in January.

Source: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

Britney Spears isn't even in the realm of schadenfreude anymore. Reading and watching the "press" on Britney is like watching an accident in the slowest motion you can imagine. In fact, I'm beginning to feel guilty just looking at pictures of the flailing pop star. I can't imagine what it feels like to cover her -- whether you work at Us Weekly or TMZ, there must be some sense of complicity between your work, and her spectacular breakdown(s). (Especially if you're Adnan Ghalib, the paparazzo who The Soup's Joel McHale called "a guy who looks like he knows where to buy Roofies," and is apparently dating her. Yes, I've repeated gossip on an NPR blog.) Asra Nomani, former Wall Street Journal reporter and People stringer, wrote an Op-Ed in the LA Times explaining why the Britney Spears debacle (the Spearsacle), shamed her into quitting People*. It's not a particularly high and mighty position, actually -- she explains the role her brother's mental illness played in her decision -- and it raises some interesting questions about the role of the press in times of catastrophe. After all, Nomani was one of the last people to see Daniel Pearl alive** -- she knows when the press can be useful, too. What do you want to read -- and what feels sort of icky?

*And here's your obligatory Jezebel link.
**Seriously, check out the tags on this post. Who would of thunk it?

Ralph Nader, the consumer activist, announced yesterday that his hat is officially in the ring as a independent candidate for president in November (it's a hat that spends a lot of time in the ring.) Neither major party, he said, is representing the American people, and he argues that he can fill that void. Tom Regan, our news blogger, has been trying to gauge reaction to the announcement today. And we're going to talk with candidate Nader, and give you a chance to talk with him. We've spoken with several of the major party presidential hopefuls in recent months, and have invitations in to the remaining candidates. Today, it's your chance to ask one third-party candidate what he stands for, and what he hopes to bring to the race.

Students at Northern Illinois University head back to class today for the first time since Steven Kazmierczak opened fire in Cole Hall, killing 5 students and himself. That lecture hall is closed for the rest of the semester. Robert Schneider was teaching theater class in the building next door when word of the shooting came through. In a piece he wrote for the Chicago Tribune he explained the experience of being so close, yet having so little information... of trying to protect his students, yet feeling almost powerless... and of trying to return to life as it was before the killings. Schneider joins us today to talk more about the experience, the memorial services over the weekend, and the first day back at class.

Every detail...

Source: Getty Images

I promise I will blog about something real and befitting of this great institution (BOTN... wait, actually NPR I guess), but first I must mourn something shallow. Remember when movie stars all had porcelain skin? As a kid, I was obsessed with the photographs of Vivien Leigh -- her pinkish-purplish cheeks -- I so badly wanted eyebrows that would look perfectly drawn on to a beautiful canvas. Last night, I realized those days were gone forever -- on my brand-new, 32", high definition screen, I saw so much more of my favorite stars then I wanted to. You could see little makeup molecules settling into crows-feet, the bumpy coverage of less-than-perfect chins, the necklace of bones protruding from shoulders starved by Master Cleanse. It was terrifying. I gorged myself on pizza and beer last night -- there's no Gaultier in my future -- and felt rather good about myself. Except for one thing: isn't it sort of lovely to aspire? I did love that Ingrid Bergman and Katherine Hepburn and Gene Tierney existed in a sort of protected space. They would never grow old, never need Proactiv, and always have perfectly shaped arches. And though I could never look like them, I rather enjoyed watching them -- the same way I like to look through the Cartier catalog. Sigh. Watching the Oscars in hi-def is more like looking through a Neiman Marcus catalog -- everything is certainly expensive, but in the end, you're just as glad to be wearing your own stuff.

Sen. McCain today at Charlie's Restaurant in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Source: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images

Last night, The New York Times posted a story on its website about the relationship between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and a lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, who, in 1999, "had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client's corporate jet." (The article, "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk," was published in the newspaper's print edition today). The four reporters who wrote the piece spent many months on it, and according to The New Republic, The New York Times's Washington newsroom was divided over the story's newsworthiness and importance.

According to the article, staffers feared that Iseman and Sen. McCain spent too much time together;and that, even if they weren't having an affair, his relationship with a major lobbyist for several telecommunications companies could ruin his political career, especially in the wake of the Keating Five Scandal, in which Sen. McCain was implicated back in 1991.

The piece is carefully worded, murky at times. And it prompted this response from the McCain campaign:

It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.

NPR's Washington editor, Ron Elving, will join us, to weigh in on the story's substance and significance. If you have questions for him, please leave them here.

Stanley Fish, whose blog Think Again, is hosted by The New York Times, wrote about "identity politics" last week. Here's how he defined the term:

You're practicing identity politics when you vote for or against someone because of his or her skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other marker that leads you to say yes or no independently of a candidate's ideas or policies.

We'll ask Dr. Fish and two other guests, columnists Clarence Page and Jill Nelson, if they think it is positive to align your political beliefs with your identity. What do you think? If you're black, should you automatically support Barack Obama (D-Ill.)? If you're a woman, should you vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY.) without hesitation? If you're a veteran, is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) your obvious, perhaps only, choice?

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Source: cyberinsekt

Those who know me probably think I'm reasonably easy-going. Sure, I'm obsessed with list-making, and running errands in the best possible order, and can get tense under deadline pressure, but I'm not terribly finicky or hard-to-please. That said, something that I try my darndest to keep under wraps is that I'm incredibly peevish. It's not a dirty secret -- in fact, I think most folks have a list of pet peeves a mile long, and I'm also not special in that I try to keep mine hidden. I do, however, feel guilty that I have so many pet peeves... and incredibly judgmental whenever I'm confronted with an offender. But today's the day for us all to come clean... what are your top 3 pet peeves? Here are mine:

1. Nail clipping and/or painting in public. The noise, the smell, the biological material flying about. Disgusting.
2. Meanderers. I know I should slow down, smell the roses, all that... But when someone with no obvious impairment wanders about in my path, irritation bubbles up inside me.
3. Cheaters. Specifically, when I drive home from work I take the 9th Street tunnel, which goes under the National Mall and spits you out on the interstate to Virginia. There are three lanes through the tunnel, but only one goes to the interstate. That lane backs up the length of the (LONG!) tunnel, so some CHEATERS zoom up the middle lane then cut into the line at the last minute. It makes me spit with fury and indignation.

Ok, I laid my ugly peevishness out for all to see, now it's your turn, and tune in to hear Amy's!

The US Army emblem hangs on a wall at West Point.

Source: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

On Tuesday, Foreign Policy magazine came out with its "US Military Index," one part of which focuses on the challenges of filling the ranks, particularly among young Army officers:

Last year, the Army had a shortage of 3,000 captains and majors, a deficit that is expected to double by 2010. Fifty-eight percent of the West Point class of 2002 left active duty when their obligation to serve expired in 2007. Reversing these and other troubling signs will be critical to improving the health of the U.S. Military.

It's a problem that appears to be accelerating because of long deployments, strains on families, and frustration over how the war in Iraq is being waged. In an article in December's Washington Monthly magazine, Andrew Tilghman explained:

In 2003, around 8 percent of junior officers with between four and nine years of experience left for other careers. Last year, the attrition rate leapt to 13 percent. "A five percent change could potentially be a serious problem," said James Hosek, an expert in military retention at the RAND Corporation. Over the long term, this rate of attrition would halve the number of officers who reach their tenth year in uniform and intend to take senior leadership roles.

But the concern isn't simply over meeting recruiting goals. "The Army also appears to be losing its most gifted young officers," Tilghman wrote. "In 2005, internal Army memos started to warn of the 'disproportionate loss of high-potential, high-performance junior leaders.'"

We'll have Andrew Tilghman on the show today, and talk with him about what he heard from the former officers he talked with, and why they left the military. We'll also talk with Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, about the challenges the military faces. If you're a current or former military officer, what's your story? Are you thinking of leaving? Did you leave? Why or why not?

When we started Blog of the Nation, we spent a little time talking about our blogroll (which, it occurs to me, should probably be updated, as it doesn't include more of my faves -- Jezebel, etc.). First on my list -- David Carr's Carpetbagger blog for the New York Times. It was the first -- and is still the best -- of the NYT blogs. The Bagger, as the delightful Carr calls himself, gives the Gray Lady much needed highlights (yes, oh yes, I did make that dumb analogy). There may be no one writing on the web with better informal style -- and lots of formal substance -- which is hard to do for a seasonal blog. This awards season has been sort of a bummer -- no Golden Globes ceremony, a sort of sad sack SAG awards dressed up real fancy, and general Hollywood glumitude -- but the Bagger has made it worthwhile. As a special "Sorry-about-the-sucky-award-season" treat, we're giving you the Bagger -- all spicy and grumpy and funny and fun. Talk amongst yourselves, and watch a favorite Bagger video of ours, above.

Here's a quick look at what's coming up on the show today:

In our first hour, we'll ask NPR's Senior Washington Editor to explain the ins and outs of today's front page story in the New York Times about Sen. John McCain, and why it's caused such a stir. Then, we will talk with Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, author Jill Nelson, and New York Times online columnist Stanley Fish about identity politics, and whether it should play a role in how you cast your vote. In this election season, one candidate is identified as African-American; another as a woman. Does this change the way you view politics? Let us know if and how identity politics effects you in this election. Following that, "Ask Amy" Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson will talk to us about pet peeves and how we should handle them.

In 2003, eight percent of junior officers with four to nine years of experience left the army. Last year that percentage went up to thirteen. In our second hour, reporter Andrew Tilghman will talk about an article he wrote for Washington Monthly magazine that outlines what the reduction of the young 'best and brightest' could mean for the war in Iraq, and the future of the military. After that, we pull out the red carpet and talk to New York Times arts and culture reporter David Carr about the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. "And the Oscar SHOULD go to....."

Georgia's Lake Lanier, a year ago versus now.

Source: Brian Hursey

For some reason, I'm pretty into the Southeast drought story. Briefly, if you're unaware, the Southeast is in its worst drought in more than a century. It's especially bad in Georgia, and the state legislature's got an idea to ease the pain... move the border. Apparently, Georgia and Tennessee have long agreed that the border they've shared for 200 years isn't quite in the right place, that Georgia should extend a bit more than a mile into what's now Tennessee. But no one has ever really cared, until now. Turns out, if Georgia moved the border to reclaim that land, they'd get to tap into an incredibly precious resource: the Tennessee River. It's a huge, important river that could alleviate some of the drought in Georgia... but what of all the Tennesseeans who'd suddenly have new addresses... legislators... schools... identities? Now, I'm biased -- I love Georgia, and hate to see her suffer. Plus, Tennessee's flip response was to challege the Dawgs to a football game for the border, and that raises my hackles (though I'm completely confident in a Dawg victory, should the Vols really take the field). And, of course I think Tennesseeans would be lucky to be insta-Georgians. But seriously... what if you woke up one morning, suddenly in a different state, having never left your bed?

I've been flipping through the 24-hour TV news channels today and seeing so much campaign coverage you'd think it's November already. Sen. John McCain calling out Sen. Barack Obama, and accusing him of being little more than eloquent words with no real substance. A similar attack came from Sen. Hillary Clinton, who's hoping to end Obama's run of primary wins when voters in Texas and Ohio weigh-in in two weeks. Right now, though, the focus is definitely on the rhetoric, and more specifically on Obama's words. Did he plagiarize? Didn't he? Did Clinton plagiarize? Does anybody care? McCain and Clinton are trying to make this an issue of style vs. substance, do you see it that way? We'll mull it over with our own Political Junkie, Ken Rudin.

Look for this tonight!

Source: fortphoto

It is shaping up to be a busy week in outer space. "David, every week is a busy week in outer space," you may say -- or post below. I know that. This week just seems to be particularly busy. And definitely more exciting than usual.... There are missiles! Broken satellites! Space shuttles! And eclipses!

The Defense Department plans to shoot down a wayward spy satellite, filled with rocket fuel. If they don't, scientists say -- and we're going to trust them on this one -- it could crash into Earth. The space shuttle Atlantis returned to the Kennedy Space Center this morning, after a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. (German Astronaut Hans Schlegel, who got sick on the flight, feels better, by the way). And, if it isn't too cloudy, you'll be able to see a lunar eclipse tonight.

We're throwing a sky party in Studio 3A, where, admittedly, the view of the cosmos isn't that great. That's OK. It's the company that matters. Ace reporters David Kestenbaum and Nell Greenfieldboyce will to take your questions. Leave 'em here. And if you have any good tips on how to see a lunar eclipse (what to use, where to go, etc.), we're interested in those, too.

So far, life seems to be largely on the upswing for this run-of-the-mill radio producer. I had some dark days in '04 when I was unemployed, but since then, the sunny days have far outnumbered the stormy ones (which is not to say I don't love a good storm). People keep insinuating that I should be concerned about 30, which is right around the corner, but I always respond, "Why worry? 27 was good, 28 was even better, and I absolutely love 29 -- aging is great!" Turns out, maybe Pollyanna over here should be listening to her questioners. A new study shows depression in middle age peaks at age 44 (or, should I say, it valleys?). Sure, at 44 I may have many more responsibilities than I do now -- possibly a big mortgage, possibly a marriage, possibly kids -- and those are just the good things that could place demands on my time... What if divorce, death, and debt are around that bend? Either way, a slump at 44 is likely for folks worldwide, and there may even be a biological reason for it. The good news is, it's a U-shaped plot, so you'll pull out of it as you age... But on the flip side, that means folks my age are looking at the downward slope. Have you experienced depression or unhappiness in your 40s? And did you come out of it with age? What made the difference?

Evander Holyfield lands a right against Jeremy Bates during a heavyweight bout in 2006.

Source: Layne Murdoch/Getty Images

Let's get ready to rumble!!! Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield joins us today to share stories from his new autobiography, Becoming Holyfield: A Fighter's Journey. He'll give us an inside look at the culture of boxing; his personal struggles; and, of course, the infamous "bite fight" on June 28, 1997 with Mike Tyson. Tell us your questions for Holyfield. And did you see the fight with Tyson in '97? What were your thoughts and reactions?

In today's mega sized Political Junkie, NPR's Ken Rudin talks about Sen. Barack Obama's increased momentum, Sen. John McCain's winning streak, and the importance of Texas and Ohio for Sen. Hillary Clinton. And just how powerful are words? Barack Obama has shown he can move a crowd just by opening his mouth... and move his opponents to take jabs at him for his ability to do so. We'll talk to Rudin, and to YOU, about the importance of rhetoric. Following that discussion, look up at the sky. Is it a bird? A plane? Nope. It's an out-of-control spy satellite and a lunar eclipse. At the end of the first hour, we'll talk about military preparations to shoot down a US spy satellite as it falls toward the Earth. (Now, that actually does sound like a job for Superman, doesn't it?) And we'll also talk about the significance of a total lunar eclipse. If you miss the one tonight, you'll have to wait until the end of 2010 to see it again. Got any rituals planned?

In our second hour, we'll talk about a new study that shows most people are most unhappy right in the middle of their 40s. Yes, pretty depressing. But the good news is if you hang in there and live past 70, chances are good that you will feel just as happy as you were in your 20s. The authors of the study will be here to answer all your questions. And we want to hear from you as well. Are you past middle age? What's it like on the other side? And if you're approaching middle age, what are you doing to keep yourself happy? At the end of the hour, we'll talk to boxing legend Evander Holyfield about his career, his new book, and that infamous Mike Tyson ear biting incident.

I've volunteered to write a post for the blog, and have found, that while several news-ish items caught my eye, they are either 1) Too dirty for NPR, 2) Too light to extend into a blog post, or 3) a merely visual joke. So, instead of focusing on one thing, I'm just going to list the things that are catching my interest. It's Barrie's round-up! It's the Talk of Barrie's Nation! TOBN!!

1) The literally always-interesting Jezebel (if you're not reading it, you're missing out on a thousand interesting conversations you could be having with your girl (and boy, I suppose) friends) has a really nice post by Moe Tkacik about... yes, it's about Britney. It points to a new Rolling Stone cover story about the songstress (look! I just snapped up an Us Weekly word!), and makes a nice point about our consumption of these stories.

2) This is a great painting of Homer Simpson. I stole this from my most-fair-one.

3) Slate's "TV Club" posts on The Wire are blowing my mind and simultaneously filling me with rage. The Wire -- which kills me softly with every shot of dreadful and beautiful Baltimore (and then kills its characters hard) -- is worth every bit of over-intellectualizing Slate puts it through. Yet still I am slightly embarrassed to have devoured this feature so darn quick.

4) New York Magazine's John Heilemann essay on media coverage of Senators Obama and Clinton is definitely worth a read -- and I am so sick of political coverage that it must be good.

5) Check this out (below).I'm going to make one of these handy-dandy little clocks! Totally ingenious!

International Clock

That's it. Send in your own reading list, and I'll be grateful. Especially if it has nothing to do with superdelegates.

Acting Cuban President Raul Castro speaking last year, over a bas-relief of his brother, Fidel.

Source: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images

News broke overnight that Fidel Castro will not seek re-election in Cuba, capping off a nearly 50-year reign in the country. He's been sick for quite some time; and his brother, Raul, has been running the country during his illness. President Bush reacted swiftly to the news, asserting that "Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections -- and I mean free and I mean fair, not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as being true democracy." -- not exactly a ringing endorsement of Raul's presumed ascendance. Some analysts say Raul's got some reforms up his sleeve; but with Castro's determination to fight on as a "soldier in the battle of ideas," it's hard to imagine a great deal of change for Cuba. Have you spoken with relatives in Cuba since his announcement? Is this the good news they've been waiting for? What do they hope for... and what do they expect?

If you listen to the show regularly, at some point in the last few years you've probably heard Neal talk with Steven Erlanger. He's been the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The New York Times since 2004. Now, he's getting ready to move on... to Paris, actually, to take up the Bureau Chief position there for the Times. In his years covering Israel, Gaza, and the surrounding region, he's seen political progress, violent setbacks, significant elections, presidential visits, and the list goes on. Before he leaves Jerusalem, we'll talk with him one last time from the Middle East, about what's happened there -- and what hasn't -- in the last four years.

Street racing on public roads: thrill or death wish?

Source: Clearly Ambiguous

I'm not gonna lie -- I always thought The Fast and the Furious was a sexy movie, and not just because of Paul Walker. It portrays street racing as this sick* hobbie, with tricked-out rides and loads of heart-pounding adrenaline. Illegal as it may be, it's an underground circuit of which I secretly wished I could be a part, if only I was cool enough.** That is, until I caught wind of a deadly street racing crash in Maryland this past weekend that killed eight spectators and wounded several others. It made me realize, in a way I never had before, how dangerous racing at high speeds can be -- for both drivers and onlookers. Today we take a deeper look at street racing, and what's being done to regulate it. If you have any experience with this pastime -- either as a racer or a spectator -- tell us your story.

* No, "sick" is a good thing, Mom.
** Tear, sigh.

All ears! Get it?

Source: banlon1964

I am a compulsive eavesdropper. I admit this because I think it's fairly harmless -- I'm not a gossip*, and I prefer listening to strangers than to people I know. It's like looking in windows at Christmas trees in the winter -- I love seeing the snapshot of other people's lives, it makes me feel human. This habit does make me a really annoying dinner partner; I'll often shush my actual dining companion in order to listen to the folks at the next table, ("Shush! I think he's going to propose to her!") But have you ever noticed that the various "overheard" columns often read better than fiction? We're talking to Leah Garchik this hour -- she writes the eavesdrop column for the San Fransisco Chronicle, and we want to hear your best overheard conversations. Here's what I heard over the weekend in Whole Foods, from an aggressive, yoga-attired young woman (she hit me with her yoga bag, seriously.) It's not the best overheard line, but the most recent:

"Oh my GOD, Brian, are you kidding? Gluten, sugar, butter -- it's like a fat bomb."

Honestly, she could have used a fat bomb. She kind of looked like a piece of celery, only more sour.

*Wait, I might be a gossip actually. At least I like gossip.

Fidel Castro this morning announced in a statement to the Communist Party daily Granma that he is stepping down as President of Cuba. His power will be handed over to his brother, Raul. Guests in our first hour talk about how Cubans have reacted to the announcement and what's next for Cuba after Castro. Following that, we'll find out what's next for Steven Erlanger. Erlanger is leaving his post as Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The New York Times in a few weeks.

Over the weekend, street racing made headlines when eight spectators were killed on a stretch of highway in Maryland. Sheila Howard is a paramedic and was one of the first on the scene of the crash. She will join us in our second hour. We will also discuss the history of street racing and talk with a former racer who is now part of an organization that is working to evolve street racing into motorsports racing. Later in that hour, we'll read from your emails and blog comments. Then we will be joined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik about the stories her readers share of eavesdropping: overheard quotes about love, sex and relationships.

A poster of Fidel Castro in Havana.

Source: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images

Crazy day around here with the news that Cuban President Fidel Castro announced his resignation (and the ongoing construction work/drilling on the outside of the building, but that's another story). The first hour is a bit up in the air for now as we try to find people who can talk about Castro's resignation, and what it might mean going forward, if anything. For as long as I can remember, Fidel Castro has run Cuba and been a thorn in the side of American administrations. Now, there's a new Castro in charge in Havana: Raul. Keep an eye on this page for Gwen's update on how things come together. One way or another, we'll get at this story, and your thoughts on what happens now... In Cuba and the US.

When Chavez speaks, we listen.

Source: Pedro Rey/AFP/Getty Images

Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela... and a major quote-machine. He's controversial and fascinating, and I always cherish the opportunity to pull tape on him. Last week, we were working on the promo for this show, and wanted to pull the famous quote from his speech at the UN in 2006 where he referenced President Bush, who had been there the day before -- "The devil came here yesterday,and it smells of sulfur still today." Zing! Unfortunately, we didn't have his actual voice, just the female translator's, so it didn't work for us. I thought maybe we'd use it at the top of the show today, thinking surely that's the best tape... I should've had more faith. Just last week, he lobbed this gem at Exxon-Mobil, which is threatening to freeze his country's assets as part of a lawsuit, "If you end up freezing and it harms us, we are going to harm you. Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger." Mr. Danger?! Now that's good tape. So who's the man behind the fiery rhetoric? That's what we hope to reveal today. Leave your questions about the man below.

Mount Rushmore: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln

Source: Getty Images

There's been a lot written this weekend about President's Day, most of it the usual collection of what it means, how to best mark the holiday (other than red tag sales), etc. But this op-ed by Werner Lange in yesterday's Chicago Tribune caught my eye... He argues that we should do away with President's Day altogether:

What or whom are we really celebrating on this day? The office or the occupant? An individual or an institution? All the presidents, past, present and future? Even the impeached and impeachable ones? The corrupt as well as the incorruptible? Peacemakers along with warmongers? The good, the bad and the ugly? .... Not all presidents were worthy ones. Some were completely worthless.

And Lange goes on to point out that we've had drunks, racists, and short-timers in the White House, and of course one recent President who was forced to resign (Nixon), and one who was never elected (Ford).

So, who should we celebrate on President's Day? Washington and Lincoln, he argues; Anything further only dilutes the meaning of the holiday.

Agree? Disagree? Should we do away with President's Day and instead only celebrate the actual birthdays of Pres. Abraham Lincoln and George Washington?

Sharia Council of Britain presiding over marital cases.

Source: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

We've heard debate over Sharia, or, Islamic law before, but the head of the Church of England, Archbishop Rowan Williams roused a bit of controversy with one word: "inevitable." As in some combination of Sharia and British law is likely unavoidable. He's gone on to clarify his remarks several times, and back off that assertion. But, more people are now talking about what Sharia Islamic law means, and how it works. In some countries, Sharia law is incredibly strict, and is sometimes used to justify brutal physical punishments. Can you have a religious-based legal system like Sharia law within the broader legal system? Surprisingly, the US already does in many cases. Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and other faith-based tribunals operate legally in several states. We'll find out how they operate, and their limits, and the controversy around them.

Haditha has been a confusing and painful stain on the Marines.

Source: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

What actually happened on November 19th, 2005, is a matter of legal, military, and symbolic dispute. A land mine planted by insurgents exploded beneath a Humvee, killing a 20-year-old Marine, part of Kilo Company. What happened next is still unclear -- but afterwards, 24 Iraqi men, women, and children lay dead. Last year we talked to the excellent William Langewiesche about his article Rules of Engagement, and he argued that the event wasn't an aberration -- that it was, in fact, symbolic of how the Iraq war has been fought from the beginning. Now, a new Frontline documentary of the same name asks some more hard questions. Was it murder by the Marines? Or simply another day of war? Just what do "rules of war" mean?*

*Yes, I'm only linking to my boyfriends today. Except, I guess, for Frontline.

While it is a holiday for some, for the folks at Talk of the Nation, we are (almost) all present and accounted for and working hard on today's show. Here's what's coming up:

In our first hour we will talk to the author of a biography on controversial Venzuelan President Hugo Chavez entitled, Hugo! We'll also talk to Fernando Coronil, author of The Magical State about Chavez and the history of Venezuela, and James Early who has met multiple times with Chavez. Our opinion page is at the end of the hour, and this week we'll talk to Werner Lange about his op-ed that ran in yesterday's Chicago Tribune. The article is called "Taking Aim at President's Day" and in it, Werner explains why we should be more selective about which presidents should be honored for the President's Day holiday.

Earlier this month, the head of the Church of England generated wide criticism for suggesting that some version of shariah Islamic law was "inevitable" in Britain. Our guests in the second hour will talk about the comments Archbishop Rowan Williams made, how sharia law works, and what other kinds of special courts and laws operate within the wider legal system. Following that, we'll be joined by filmmaker Arun Rath who will talk about his new PBS Frontline documentary entitled Rules of Engagement that examines the death of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

Enjoy the show and your holiday!

Where is the love?

Source: David Gura

Sam Roberts, a metro reporter for The New York Times, wrote a nice piece about Neil Neches, "an erudite writer in the transit agency's marketing and service information department" who created many of the public-service advertisements that run along rail cars; above all else, a man who knows how to use a semicolon properly.

One of his placards, rendered famous by today's article, reads, "Please put [your newspaper] in a trash can; that's good news for everyone."

The punctuation mark, Roberts points out, has fallen out of favor; to many people, it is cumbersome and archaic: "Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism."

Because I'm a sucker for sterling syntax, the superfluous comma, and the semicolon (used appropriately), I liked the piece. For Gawker, it was low-hanging fruit: "Fittingly, this impeccable semicolon is in the MTA's house ad about how you should throw away your newspapers when you leave the train instead of leaving them for others to discover the joy of reading."

Henry Louis Gates, Jr..

Source: Getty Images

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Henry Louis Gates give a preview of one of his new projects, African American Lives 2. It's the next in his genealogy series, where he traces the roots of well-known African Americans and gives them the big news on camera... Chris Rock, Oprah, Tom Joyner, even his own family history. It's powerful stuff, to say the least. And Skip Gates has a way of making what is essentially basic history into fascinating television, radio, or books. And that's what we want to talk with him about today. He has an 8-volume set of books just out called, the African American National Biography. Several years ago, Gates went to find more information on James McCune Smith, the first African American to earn a medical degree, and practice medicine, in the US. He couldn't find the bio, and took it upon himself to fix that omission. "African American National Biography is a rescue and recovery project, retrieving the life stories of African Americans that have, until now, been glossed over by the academy," he explains. "famous, infamous, and little-known lives will be included in what promised to be the most important reference work in African American studies in the past quarter century." And if Skip Gates promises something, he tends to deliver. He and co-editor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham join us today, to talk about what will become a growing, evolving compilation.

Brace yourselves... we've got a special post courtesy of Susannah George, who's been working with all our tape for the past couple weeks. She's got a few words on mix tapes -- which was her story pitch. Take it away, Susannah!

I am obsessed with making playlists (or mix tapes as the retro cool like to call them) and I will openly admit that over the years mix tapes have made and broken many of my relationships. I still have (and listened to just last night) the mix tape that first introduced me to Mr Bungle (the lyrics to Vanity Fair swing from the sappily romantic to the downright odd, but have you swooning the whole way), while the "32-song-long-here-is-my-entire-itunes-library" (i.e. I didn't make one thoughtful decision) mix tape has been conveniently misplaced.

So when I sat down to make a Valentine's mix tape for TOTN I kept a few tried and true rules in mind, and set a few new ones: keep it short (our guest Jessica Tylkowski recommends keeping it to seven songs, yes, I agree its drastic, but I'm gonna try it), the first three songs should act as a crescendo, and no more than one song with love in the title. That said I'm a sucker for ambivalent love songs and heartbreak songs, I think they are terribly romantic, and I never get to put them on Valentine's mix tapes because some people seem to think they send an odd message.

Here's my mix:

Looking for Gold by the Tough Alliance
Romeo had Juliette by Lou Reed
Maple Leaves by Jens Lekman
New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down by LCD Soundsystem
I'll Be Seeing You by Francoise Hardy and Iggy Pop
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright by Bob Dylan
Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol

--Susannah George

Is a little sadness good for you?

Source: Anders Ljungberg

Are you sad? Do you cry? Do you ever feel upset over the loss of a loved one, or a fight with a close friend? Well, wipe away those tears, and turn off the melancholy odes -- it's time to get happy!

In this age of self-help mania, there seems to be no shortage of get-happy-now remedies -- quick fixes for the blues. There's a near-trend in our midst: an intense push to run from feelings of sadness and embrace the happy side of life. But a recent article in Newsweek describes a different camp of voices that says sadness isn't all bad, and it can actually serve a healthy purpose in our lives. And it's even been the motivating force behind some of the world's greatest literary, musical and artistic masterpieces. We're not talking about clinical depression, or chronic sadness. We're talking about the occasional glumness we feel in response to life's traumatic events.

Have you ever felt pressure to "get happy" when you were feeling sad? How did you deal with it? And what value do you see in the occasional experience of sadness?

Born Yesterday, 1950.

Source: Getty Images

Listen, I love Reality Bites as much as the next girl -- I went to high school in the nineties, I screamed the Lisa Loeb song at the top of my lungs. But my true love isn't the rom-coms of the nineties, it's the Lubitsch, Wilder, Cukor, and Preminger films that pre-date them. There's nothing sexier then the Pre-Code movies of the 1930's, but the screwball and romantic comedies made in the days of the Hollywood Production Code are also pretty marvelous. My favorite of these is Born Yesterday, made in 1950, starring William Holden, the delightfully daffy Judy Holliday, and Broderick Crawford. Based on a Garson Kanin play, Harry Brock (Crawford), a junk dealer, hires journalist Paul Verrall (Holden) to tutor his sweet but dim-witted mistress, a former chorus girl named Billie Dawn (Holliday). Of course, you know what happens -- Billie Dawn discovers her latent love of democracy, newspapers, and of course, the nerdy, bespectacled, and principled Verrall (it's shot in Washington D.C., and is quite a love letter to my current hometown). Although the play was clearly written for a mature audience, writer Kanin and director George Cukor were forced to amend the screenplay to appease censors. Still, they were able to get my some of my favorite lines past the censors... such as this one, delivered by a besotted Billie to Paul, "Are you one of these talkers, or would you be innarested in a little action...?" It's sexy, delightful, and beautifully idealistic (it features a congressman that feels bad for taking a bribe -- and he doesn't even get caught!).

All that is to say what A.O. Scott says in his wonderful ode to the old rom-coms (and pan of the new ones) -- things were sexier before, well, sex. You can read the piece here, and leave your favorite romantic comedies here -- old or new (I think The 40-Year-Old Virgin is brilliant, for instance).

First me, then Sarah, then me again...You're probably starting to wonder if we're not in fact the same person with a slight issue with name memorization. Well, this is Gwen, and it is my honor to tell you what is coming up on the show on this red and pink laced day of love!

In our first hour, we'll talk with Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. about his recently published collection of biographies of African-Americans in history entitled, the African American National Biography. He, along with co-editor Evelyn Higginbotham, will explain how and why they picked the names that make up the 4,100 historical memoirs that are included in the eight volume collection. At the end of the hour, we'll wax nostalgic with the mighty, the ever powerful MIX TAPE! My personal mix tapes have thankfully become more sophisticated over the years. I still have old cassette tapes of me holding my portable tape recorder up to the radio speaker, recording the endless album rotations on OK 100 with my mother's voice screaming in the background that it's time for dinner. Later, on much cleaner, dinner-free recordings, I compiled every slow song I could find to play on days such as today. (next time I'll work harder at finding an actual Valentine to play the tape for. ~sigh~) We do love our mix tapes. We'll talk about what makes a good mix tape, run down the top 10 picks our faithful listeners sent in, and yours truly will give my pick of which song tops my list this year.

And if any of you are single or otherwise alone and "bah-humbugging" Valentine's Day, the next hour may be just the retort you need if anyone asks you while you're feeling down today. A recent article in Newsweek suggests that sadness isn't all bad. In fact, it's downright healthy. The article speaks mainly to the occasional bouts of sadness in response to a traumatic experience. Experiences perhaps more intense than not having a Valentine, but sadness is sadness, right? So tell us, Valentine's Day aside, how do you deal with the occasional pull of melancholy? And do you feel pressure from others to just snap out of it and get happy? Send us your comments. After that, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott talks about the demise of the romantic comedy. At the end of the hour, Chris Claremont, from Marvel comics talks about the life and career of Steve Gerber, writer and creator of Marvel hero, Howard the Duck. Gerber passed away last Sunday from complications of pulmonary fibrosis.

Whether you have a special someone, or you just ARE a special someone, enjoy today!

Last Sunday, I caught the tail end of 60 Minutes. It was strange, to say the least, to see Andy Rooney, whose job I've always coveted, out in the field reporting, far away from his iconic wooden desk. His producers sent him to Arizona, to "cover" the Superbowl, and the piece they assembled is a bizarre meditation on the Giants, the game, and what it's like for Andy Rooney to travel. (You get the feeling he doesn't leave New York often). Enjoy it. And when you're finished, compare it to this ad for Mike Gravel. A similar aesthetic, no?

Whether you call it the "Potomac Primary," the "Chesapeake Primary," or the "Crab Cake Primary" (see above), last night belonged to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Both candidates won their respective primaries in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. It's eight in a row for Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and most political analysts say it's mathematically impossible for Gov. Mike Huckabee to catch McCain at this point. Still, Huckabee promises to make a full sprint to the finish line. And, Clinton is looking to Ohio and Texas to re-energize her campaign after losing two top campaign staffers. The Democratic race for the nomination is still so close that many in the party worry that the whole thing will come down to the superdelegates, rather than the voters. That kind of ending would likely infuriate many Democrats, and there's concern among party big-wigs that it could alienate voters just before a presidential election. We'll talk with Ken Rudin, our Political Junkie, and with a superdelegate about his role in this election, and how he views superdelegates in general.

Should you let your dreams of passion die?

Source: Photoartist3

Brace yourselves, thirty-something women. Take a deep breath. Put down that BUST Magazine, pause the Sex and the City rerun, remove any sharp objects from the vicinity, and check out what TOTN is about to lay on you. The following is an excerpt from a much discussed piece in the March issue of The Atlantic, answering the age-old question, asked by single women 30 and up:

Is it better to be alone, or to settle?

My advice is this: Settle! That's right. Don't worry about passion or intense connection. Don't nix a guy based on his annoying habit of yelling "Bravo!" in movie theaters. Overlook his halitosis or abysmal sense of aesthetics. Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go. Based on my observations, in fact, settling will probably make you happier in the long run, since many of those who marry with great expectations become more disillusioned with each passing year. (It's hard to maintain that level of zing when the conversation morphs into discussions about who's changing the diapers or balancing the checkbook.) What I didn't realize when I decided, in my 30s, to break up with boyfriends I might otherwise have ended up marrying, is that while settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you're looking at it from the vantage point of a single person, once you take the plunge and do it, you'll probably be relatively content.

Now, as you might imagine, the sentiment that nixes any dream of Mr. Right and sends you into wedlock with Mr. Good Enough (with really bad breath apparently), has sent the blogs into a frenzy. A frappe. An unprintably furious froth. In fact, the writing about this article is so good, so witty, so uncompromising, and so filled with energy and rigor, that it certainly doesn't seem that these women would either want, or need to settle, in the least bit.

Regardless, you can set our blog aflame here, but I do suggest that you read the whole article, as her argument isn't simplistic. And of course, post your questions for Lori Gotlieb. (Just questions please, no name calling.)

Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Source: Denise Applewhite

As I read Kwame Anthony Appiah's new book, Experiments in Ethics, I realized that we've started a series without knowing it: "[Insert name of eminent scholar here], On Morality."

Last month, Steven Pinker, who teaches psychology at Harvard, joined us to talk about an article he wrote for The New York Times Magazine about a new trend: scientists who are interested in philosophical questions. The show -- and the conversation on the blog -- were lively.

"Morality is clearly a judgment that comes out of our emotions and our reason," Pinker told us. "It's a psychological phenomenon which may have objective counterparts but it certainly has psychological counterparts."

Now that we've heard from a scientist interested in philosophy, we'll hear from a philosopher who is interested in how science may define, or redefine, his discipline. Appiah argues that "experimental philosophy" began with Plato and Aristotle, and that it is something to which we should return. He says biology, neuroscience, psychology, and other sciences can help us understand how we make moral judgments.

We want to know what guides your moral decisions? Character? Situation? Intuition? Example? Be specific.

Roger Clemens, flanked by lawyers.

Source: Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images

Today, Congress was the center of some of the most riveting testimony I've ever heard. (Yes, you read "Congress" and "riveting" in the same sentence). Testimony on the Mitchell report was pretty exciting. Yankees (ptuh) pitcher Roger Clemens and his former trainer Brian McNamee sat in the same room, and looked at the cameras and several other illustrious folks in the eye. One of them lied. And one of them told the truth. We just don't know which one did which.

I listened to hours of the testimony, and I swear it was like the best reality show ever. Between lengthy discussions of Clemens' buttocks, his wife's swimsuit photo preparation, McNamee's creepy professions of "love for the game," and awesome Congressional explosions ("Gee whiz, are you kidding me!?!" (Rep. Dan Burton)), the radio was pretty spicy. Tune in to hear the juiciest (no pun intended) cuts and commentary.

Well, the Potomac Primary has come and gone, and while I may still be grumbling about it (the ice storm here turned my hour-on-a-bad-day commute into a two and a half hour gauntlet of boredom and bad drivers, and thus disenfranchised me), two folks aren't: John McCain and Barack Obama. Political Junkie Ken Rudin joins us to break down the vote, look ahead to Texas and Ohio, and revisit the importance of super delegates in this year's race. Next, a topic that may be even more controversial than American politics: journalist Lori Gottlieb has a piece in the new Atlantic in which she advocates settling. As in, women should settle, not constantly search for Mr. Right, because what they really want and need is a stable marriage and that's the way to get it. Provocative, no?

Next, Kwame Anthony Appiah joins us to talk about "experimental philosophy," the incorporation of biology, psychiatry, and other scientific disciplines in the study of moral philosophy, or ethics. It sounds dense, but if you really think about it, it's quite appealing to think about philosophy with a foundation in empirical science. Finally, steroids on the Hill: Roger Clemens is feeling the heat after new evidence seems to invalidate his contention that he's never used 'roids or HGH. We'll have highlights and analysis from Alan Schwarz.

Wind up for the TOTN mix tape of love.

Source: e.c.

Few things inspire as much passion as a mix tape. On the one hand, it's an artifact virtually guaranteed to arouse emotion in both creator and receiver. But on the other, the rules are absolutely unclear, though every serious compiler has her own gospel, inviolable and inarguable. True devotees of the mix can argue the minutiae for hours -- the best songs on a theme, the best format, the benefits of surprising the listener vs. keeping the flow, the most esoteric artist included... It's never-ending. I've been going through my old mix tapes recently in an effort to cull my belongings in advance of my planned move, and that combined with a request from a friend for my "Best of 2007" mix, which would be third in a series started in '05 if I'd actually made it, has the mix-itch agitated. Oh yeah -- and Valentine's Day. Love mixes can be both the most inspired and the most tortured in the game, and it's been awhile since I made one. So here's the challenge, BOTNers: help us compile the Talk of the Nation Valentine's Mix. And fear not, this isn't just for the lovers: We want all your best love songs, be they songs of absolute devotion, chance encounters, loves lost, scorned lovers, whatever. We want them all... and in tomorrow's first hour, we'll talk about them all and let you know how you can get the mix for yourself!

Our economy has seen better days. The stock market is temperamental, housing foreclosures have skyrocketed, personal debt and bankruptcies are up, and now there's talk of a possible recession. It's a gloomy picture. But not everyone is falling on hard times. In fact, some businesses have benefited from the economy's sad state, and in curious ways. Today we talk to Dean Foust, Atlanta Bureau Chief for Business Week about the economic winners and losers.

And we want you to be our reporters -- our eyes and ears across the country. Tell us what's going on in your neighborhood, among your co-workers, and in your town: who's winning, and who's losing in the economic slump? And tell us your personal stories as well.

A recreation area in Camp 4.

Source: Louie Palu

Last October, photographer Louie Palu boarded a plane for Cuba, to document the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. His images, of feeding tubes, razor-wire fences, cells, classrooms, and recreation areas, appeared in the January issue of The Atlantic.

When we first spoke, I asked Palu how many photographers have traveled to Guantanamo Bay. (I didn't, and I still don't, feel like we've seen many pictures from there). Several, he said, although most of them work for wire services; thus many of the same images appear in newspapers, magazines, and online.

You can find a slide show of photographs from Palu's portfolio here. What do you think of the pictures? What did you think the detention facility would look like?

About once a month or so, I see rainbows -- and it sucks. It's the aura that announces my migraine -- you can see one aura above this post, and another below -- and it generally means that if I don't take medication, I'm in for a seriously rotten twenty-four hours. At least three people on the staff are afflicted with migraine headaches (or some other kind of debilitating chronic headache). It's the pits. Well, The New York Times has a blog* that's now dedicated to migraines -- written by migraine sufferers. We're talking to some of those bloggers today, and we're taking your questions about the strange (and painful) world of the migraine. (Insert "Over the Rainbow" reference here.)

*By the way, the NYT isn't the only migraine blog out there -- in fact it's just the latest. Check these out.

Michael Yon joins us today from Baghdad.

Source: Michael Yon

He wasn't a reporter, and didn't plan to stay long, but after spending most of the last few years blogging from Iraq Michael Yon joins us from Baghdad today. He'll talk about his dispatches from the war, why he's kept at it, and what he's experienced in the last three years. You can read all of his posts at Michaelyon-online.com, but his latest dispatch is right here, as a guest post:

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

[Baghdad] One of the most important measures of progress in Iraq is the development of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). In order for our troops to draw down without squandering the tremendous recent gains, Iraqis must be able to govern and protect their own country. There are conflicting reports concerning the ISF's capability and reliability. Understanding that this is a complex issue which depends to a great extent on projections, predictions and interpretations rather than hard facts, I will describe the situation as I see it.

I requested a meeting with Lieutenant General James Dubik, the commander assigned by General Petraeus to lead the formation of the Iraqi Security Forces. Lieutenant General Dubik scheduled dinner for us at his office in the Embassy on the evening of 4 February, so I took a helicopter from FOB Falcon to the International Zone. That evening, at his office in the Embassy, I had many questions.

Continue reading "Baghdad Blogger" >

I know, I know... I go away for a week, I don't write or call, and then I bust back in and take over the spot you expect Gwen to be in. It's just rude. But trust me, I do so with her blessing. So we're OK, right? Great. Moving on... Today's first hour. It's all about the economy, people, and specifically the housing market. It's pretty obvious who some of the losers are in the mortgage crisis, and their plight can be incredibly vivid. I know the nice family that lived next to my boyfriend disappeared, literally under dark of night... and a month or so later, all the worldly possessions they left behind littered their (former) front lawn. There's nothing quite so poignant as a playpen half-covered in snow. But there are other, less-obvious people and sectors losing out too, and, naturally, a handful of winners. We'll follow that conversation with one with Louie Palu, who just returned from a trip to the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, which he photographed inside and out. And then it's time for your letters... and a cameo from a former TOTNer, Megan Williams!

Next, it's a topic some of you are going to identify with intensely, while the rest of us will thank our lucky stars we're not afflicted: Migraines. I know a number of folks on our staff suffer with the all-consuming headaches (really, "headache" seems like much too small a word for the enormity of the pain), and I wouldn't wish 'em on my worst enemy. The New York Times has a blog devoted to migraines, and we'll hear from those who suffer, and those who try to ease the pain. Finally, Michael Yon will join us. He's a citizen journalist in Iraq -- he's been covering the Iraq war for three years now, and works for no one but himself. What motivates a journalist to work in such a dangerous place... without a paycheck? We'll find out, and hear how he thinks the conflict is going.

Another sign.

Source: Getty Images

Driving into work today, I was struck yet again by the number of "For Sale" signs outside houses along my route. It feels like they're all over the city, and their numbers are growing. I've been in the home-hunt for a while now, and although my fingers are crossed for a successful closing at the end of the month, it's hard to get my mind out of the chase. I've been actively looking for more than two years, and now my brain's just wired to the market and I can't seem to disengage (and, honestly, I probably shouldn't until I have keys in hand).

The closer I get to my prey, the more a related obsession grows: TLC's Flip that House. I'd never watched it until recently, and I know I'm late to the game, but those house-flipping shows are addictive! It's tempting, of course -- you can make more than you make in a year in a number of months; but at the same time, the risks are huge. For every flipper you see raking in cash, you see a handful mired in a quicksand of untrustworthy contractors, failed inspections, and mounting mortgage payments that cut into their bottom line. I have to say, while I may not be ready to stop eyeballing properties for sale, there's no way I'd get into flipping, and I don't understand how anyone who watches those shows can think a first-timer can flip a home in a month for $15K. It's ludicrous!

Anyway, the continued bad news on the housing front made me wonder: are folks still flipping these days, or are these old shows? Financing is a lot trickier these days (sidebar: tune into our first hour to hear about how FICO may have benefitted from the no-money-down mortgage heyday)... Is that tempering the flipping market? I'm sure there are still good places to get into it... Do you flip houses? What's it like? Is the stress really worth the payoff?

In the first hour today, we'll look at how media organizations, including NPR, have covered the election.

After the Iowa caucuses, heading into the New Hampshire primaries, reporters, anchors, and analysts relied on data from exit polls that proved to be flat-out wrong.... On Super Tuesday, some news organizations called states before results came in from major cities.... When Senator Edward Kennedy and his niece, Caroline, endorsed Senator Barack Obama at a rally in Washington, DC, images and audio from the event appeared almost everywhere. And there have been complaints about what hasn't been covered: Voters have charged that newspapers and networks didn't cover all the candidates equally. And that questions about issues -- including health care, education, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- have been too-often overshadowed by questions about race and gender.

Tom Rosenstiel, who directs the Project for Excellence in Journalism, will join us. Every Tuesday, his organization publishes a report on how the campaign has been covered. David Folkenflik, NPR's media correspondent -- and one-time ringleader of the NPR "Media Circus," will chime in from New York. And Lisa Shepard, our new ombudsman, will answer your questions about NPR's coverage. What haven't you liked about how NPR, newspapers, magazines, networks, and bloggers have covered the campaign? And what would you like to see them do differently in the next nine months?

Neoconservatives -- have an opinion? In an op-ed for the Washington Post yesterday, Jacob Heilbrunn, a senior editor at the National Interest, debunks what he calls the five myths of the "nefarious neocons." They are :

1 The neocons are chastened liberals who turned right.

2 The neocons are Israeli lackeys.

3 The neocons had too much power and took over Bush's brain.

4 The neocons are bloodthirsty ideologues, trying to impose a militant Wilsonianism on the United States that is alien to our foreign policy traditions.

5 The Iraq debacle has discredited the neocons.

Today we'll tackle these myths, and discuss neoconservatives' past and future role in shaping and executing policy. What are your questions about neocons?

Lunch. Good legs, bad lungs.

Source: Sheeshoo

Many moons ago, I went to Juilliard, a performing arts school for dance, drama (was there ever), and music. I was there for music, but I lived with mostly dancers for the two years I spent in the dorms. I've always been a petite person -- not tall, not particularly curvy -- but I've never been so aware of my weight as when I spent time with my sylphlike roomies, not to mention so aware of food, its pleasures and pains. I began to imitate their eating habits -- which was a continuum ranging from "kinda screwy" to "disordered eating." (That, if you're curious, ranges from an awful lot of Tasti D-Lite, to cigarette lunches, to ipecac. Don't ask.) In fact, one more stupid reason for me to keep smoking for an absurd number of years almost certainly had to do with how little food I needed as a smoker. Not an eating disorder, but not exactly healthy behavior. A British documentary chronicled the search for size zero -- and today, we're talking with the journalist that attempted it. How far have YOU gone toward slim? How far is too far?

Now that the Pentagon has announced charges against six of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, few people are sure about what to expect next. Military prosecutors are recommending the death penalty for crimes associated with 9/11 in what will be the first real test of the new military tribunal system. Debate over the tribunals has already gone before the Supreme Court. And, last week's admission by the head of the CIA that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of those charged, was waterboarded during interrogations, raises questions about the evidence Mohammed provided, and what can legitimately be used against him during trial. This is one of those moments where you just need an expert lawyer to help answer all the questions, so we'll talk with BETH HILLMAN, a law professor at Rutgers and a member of the board of directors of the National Institute for Military Justice.

We will start off the week with a look at the news media's coverage of this presidential campaign. Tom Rosenstiel, director for the Project for Excellence in Journalism, David Folkenflik, NPR's media correspondent and Lisa Shepard, NPR's Ombudsman, discuss the campaign issues that have made headlines (and the ones that have not), voter complaints that the candidates have not been given equal media exposure, and erroneous pundit predictions at the Iowa caucuses. Tell us your thoughts. How do you think the media is doing in their campaign coverage? Our first hour ender topic is still coming together, so stay tuned.

In our second hour, we'll talk with writer Kate Spicer about her six week journey into what she calls her "descent into starvation." Spicer wrote about what it took for her to become a size zero and her battle with disordered eating for the Sunday Times in London . We will also talk to Dr. James Lock, head of the Eating Center program at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, about the distinction between disordered eating and an eating disorder. Tell us your story. If you've ever dieted, was there a point where you felt you were taking it too far? What was your limit? At the end of the hour, we will talk about the Pentagon's announcement that military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for six Guantanamo Bay detainees in connection with the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The writers in Hollywood may have been on strike these past three months,* but that doesn't mean the rest of us would-be memoirists and next-great-American-novelist hopefuls have stopped scribbling. We're still chipping away at those chapters, hoping to complete the seemingly never-ending project before our next birthday rolls around. The closest we come to a strike is a stubborn and persistent bout of writer's block. And we've all been there. Some have the resolve to push through, no matter how much time they waste staring at a blank computer screen, the blinking cursor taunting them with its annoying consistency. I admire those writers. For others -- people like me -- we can go weeks without writing a single creative sentence (outside of work demands, of course), and no manner of staring or thumb tapping will deliver the ever-elusive inspiration. Well, this past weekend I discovered the antidote; and it's so simple: get out, immerse yourself in the outside world. Take a walk. Get material from the jogger that clearly never learned how to run, or the woman who "walks" her pugs in a baby stroller.** Sit in a coffee shop or cafe. Observe the characters around you. If nothing else, you can eavesdrop on the conversation next to you -- who knows, you might come away with some choice snippets of dialogue. I've been living in DC for a year now, and I've finally found my favorite spot to write: Busboys and Poets. It's a bookshop, restaurant, lounge, and art house all in one; and it's rife with quirky personalities just begging to be written -- a writer's paradise. So tell us, where is your favorite place to exercise the pen? And how do you overcome writer's block?

* Updates on the strike's current status here, here and here. And here. :-)
** Yes, they were wearing bonnets.

The Sanchez sisters (both Congresspeople) have endorsed different Democratic candidates. I bet their dinner table is fun!

Source: Getty Images

I literally don't remember a time in my life when we didn't talk about politics at the dinner table. My parents are both news junkies, and they had the very great blessing (and curse) of not existing in exactly the same spot on the political spectrum. And they are... er... very passionate people. Ten years ago, my best friend came on vacation with us -- a long drive to Canada from Massachusetts. Eight hours into the trip, she asked them a question. A heated discussion about health care ensued. Tears were shed, hands were wrung, facts were cited, facts were disputed, until I finally gave my friend a dirty look for asking about it in the first place. She quietly wrote me a note that said, "I just wanted to know the name of the river we were passing!"

Even though my parents thrive on that kind of discussion -- there have been plenty of times that they've had to keep quiet among various family members, both right and left, to prevent food fights (and/or poisoned potatoes). And this political season, there are so many candidates that are so close together on the issues, that support might just come to, "I like the cut of his/her jib." Which of course means that dinner -- and lunch and breakfast and the occasional car trip -- just got a little more interesting when the subject is politics among family. Tell us your stories -- ever found yourself talking about the campaigns around the wrong in-law, or sleeping on the couch after a post-debate debate?

It's been a big week for politics already, and now we get news that Gov. Mitt Romney is dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination for president ("suspending" is the term he used, as did Sen. John Edwards last week, but the effect is the same). Now, it's a two-person race on the Republican side, with Gov. Mike Huckabee winning over many evangelicals, and Sen. John McCain doing well with moderates and independents but working hard to win over party conservatives. Where does this leave the remaining candidates? How does this affect Republican voters? Why did he drop out now? And what does it mean for the Democrats? If you're a Republican voter, let us know what you think.

What do Barack Obama, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Cosby, Oprah, Michael Jackson, and Michael Jordan have in common? At some point, they've all been labeled a sellout -- to their race. Another person who knows what it's like to be called a sellout is Randall Kennedy, and he takes up the topic in his latest book, Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal:

A "sellout" is a person who betrays something to which she is said to owe allegiance. When used in a racial context among African Americans, "sellout" is a disparaging term that refers to blacks who knowingly or with gross negligence act against the interest of blacks as a whole.

Perhaps surprisingly, Kennedy defends the existence of the "sellout" label, though with such a narrow definition that few -- if any -- people meet the criteria. Have you ever been accused of being a sellout? Is it something you worry about?

SMITH magazine, an online journal, has published thousands of six word memoirs. They adapted the idea from a possibly mythical challenge to Ernest Hemingway- write a story in just six words.

"For Sale: baby shoes, never worn."

We're going to talk with editors of a collection called Not Quite What I Was Planning, Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Just a couple of examples: "Took scenic route, got in late," from Will Blythe. "I still make coffee for two," from Zak Nelson "Brought it to a boil, often," from Mario Batali.

Of course, I couldn't resist, so here's mine:

WBAI, WRVR, ATC, BBC, MLB, TOTN.

Well, more of a resume, I suppose. And we keep being told to keep those short.

* Check out more 6-word memoirs here.

Today Sen. John McCain finds himself in a two-man race, with Gov. Mike Huckabee. And McCain has a tremendous lead in preliminary delegates after Super Tuesday. But he still faces criticism from some big-name conservatives. So this afternoon, Sen. McCain takes the podium at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, and makes his case directly to conservative voters. Now that Gov. Mitt Romney has left the race, will conservative Republican voters line up behind Sen. McCain?

My turn to vote in the presidential primary is less than a week away. A couple of days ago, a friend of mine invited me to an informal get-together. The headline on the email? "Let's hangout and talk politics..." I got so excited, I told two friends, and they told two friends...and so on and so on. Now maybe this kind of thing happens all the time, but for me, this is the first time that I'm actually looking forward to an impromptu gathering where the main focus is to talk about this presidential campaign. I wonder if a fight will break out. I'm only mildly kidding. I think this campaign is tapping into a passion that is unifying us, but that same line can be a bit spotty when it comes to who to vote for and why. It probably shows up most at the dinner table. We're going to talk about how marriages and families are at odds with each other when it comes to which candidate they are supporting. Is it happening in your household? Then we will talk about the breaking news of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's decision to suspend his campaign run for president.

In our second hour, Harvard Law Professor and author Randall Kennedy talks about the history of the term "sellout," the grounds for which the word can be used, and why the label has been used in the past. Kennedy's new biography is entitled, Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal. Then, we'll sum up our life in six words. Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser are the authors of a new memoir entitled, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Can you sum up your life in six words? Something like "Shy, but don't get me drunk," perhaps? (How in the world did I come up with that, I wonder?) We'll end the second hour with a look inside the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that's taking place here in Washington, D.C. -- and specifically, how Senator John McCain's comments went over with the crowd.

A "Mitt mitt" on Super Tuesday.

Source: Getty Images

I'm newly back from a Super Tuesday trip to Governor Romney's headquarters (his night was decidedly un-super). I've stayed up late before -- I'm no prude -- but for some reason the fluorescent lights 'till 3AM really did me in. I need toothpicks to prop up my eyelids. So if you're looking for any wisdom in this space, you're outta luck. However, I did have one question all -- the campaign prop that the Romney campaign handed out was the inevitable "Mitt mitt." (Also some red inflatable things that looked kind of obscene.) Design a campaign prop for your candidate -- cookies for Hillary, a miniature bus (straight talkin', of course) for McCain? Be creative. Or silly. We don't care which.

Studio 4A, NPR: Special Coverage, Super Tuesday.

Source: Ashley Grashaw

Turnout among voters was high yesterday in presidential primaries across the country. It seems everyone wanted to weigh in. And every candidate, save for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, seemed to come away with big wins. Perhaps the most interesting part of the results from last night, however, is the breakdown of who voted for whom, and why. Exit polls give us insight into the demographic support base of each candidate -- things like age, race, gender, income, and education levels break along sharp lines among voters. Today we talk to NPR political junkie Ken Rudin; Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center; and political commentators Keli Goff and Luis Clemens about who got which voting blocks, and what this means for their campaigns. What trends did you notice? And why do you think these primaries have stimulated the kind of excitement and participation that's been lacking in elections past?

What's over yonder campaign horizon?

Source: apotheker

Now that Super Tuesday is over, we're looking forward. You've read about the returns, heard from the pundits and pollsters, and counted the delegates. Good. Now help us figure out what's next.

In the second hour, we'll check in with advisers, campaign chairmen, and strategists. Is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., unstoppable? How will former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee appeal to voters outside of the Bible Belt? Can former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recover? And will the cordial competition between Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., continue?

What would you like to see your candidate do from here on out? Do you have questions about campaign strategy? What issues would you like to see highlighted or debated? Who doesn't stand a chance?

Today, both hours will be branded as an NPR News Special, with host Neal Conan. It's the day after Super Tuesday and in our first hour we'll look back at who won, which voters supported which candidates and the impact young voters and Latinos had in the polls. Our political junkie Ken Rudin will be joined by Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Keli Goff, author of Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence, and Luis Clemens, editor of candidatousa.com, a newsletter that covers Latino politics. If you voted or worked at the polls yesterday, what was the voting process like in your state?

In hour two of our NPR News Special, we'll continue our post-Super Tuesday coverage with NPR's Ken Rudin and hear from representatives of presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Mike Huckabee and Gov. Mitt Romney. The race to the White House continues, and if the primaries are headed to your state in the coming weeks, tell us what issues you will be considering as you head to the polls. Will the results of Super Tuesday inform your decision on how you will vote?

NPR's Ron Elving, Ken Rudin and Nina Totenberg keep an eye on Super Tuesday's primary election results.

Source: Ashley Grashaw

I don't know about you, but I'm having a blast with these primaries and caucuses. They're super fascinating and fun to monitor. Last night was particularly enjoyable. I oscillated between Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, C-SPAN, and the live blogs. At around 9 p.m. (EST), I popped into NPR to watch our live coverage in action.* And as the night wore on, I started calling my friends in California to get a sense of which way they thought the state would go. My favorite part, tough, was digesting the exit polls at 2 a.m. It was a busy night, and thankfully I had a mini Matchbox pizza to keep my stamina up. Tell us, how did you monitor Super Tuesday? What were the high points for you? And the low points?

* Surprisingly tame. I was impressed by how they were able to remain calm, cool and collected under the pressure. Total pros.

"Yes, it's a perfectly lovely hat."

Source: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

Imagine, if you will, a benign social situation. Let's say your good friend is sporting a new haircut, a haircut that does not flatter her. She is not the sort who should wear bangs. She may have discovered this uncomfortable fact herself after looking in the mirror -- perhaps she has even called you in a flood of tears to come over and see the offending hairstyle in person. Like any good friend, you've picked up your arsenal of aerosols, jumped in the car and hurried over. Tear-stricken, your friend greets you at the front door, looks you in the eye and asks, "Is it as bad as I think?" Sigh. It's worse.

So here's the tricky thing. If you were to tell a lie, and reassure her that she looks just like Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada post-makeover, she's likely to see through your charade. But who on earth wants to tell the truth if it's likely to hurt just as badly? You see the pickle, no doubt. And the rough thing is, a haircut is as benign as I can get -- what if the truth in question is about an affair, a health issue, a hurtful opinion, a betrayal? So today, folks, be honest. When should you tell the truth? When do you want to hear it? And when, in that uniquely human way, is it okay to do the wrong thing -- that is, lie -- for the right reason?

Diablo Cody.

Source: Getty Images

I don't believe that there's only one successful ex-stripper in Hollywood -- but I do believe that out of all of them, Diablo Cody may be the coolest. And the smartest. Here are a few reasons to hate her -- she's 29, and her screenplay for the darling little film Juno is up for an Oscar. Ah, but check out the reasons to love and admire her: she's a former stripper, author, and blogger (hey! I'm one of those! Blogger that is.). I want to say right here that I would love to link to her blog, but I think that its title wouldn't be welcome here on NPR's servers, so I'll just tell you to type "Diablo Cody," and "blog" into Google, and enjoy. Anyway, today we'll be talking to Diablo about her careers (all of them), her writing, and of course, her name. (She was born Brook Busey, which also ain't bad on the hip scale).

Terrence Howard and Anika Noni Rose, who will star in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Source: Getty Images

Starting next week, Terrence Howard, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, and Anika Noni Rose will star in a new production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. For the first time in its history, the play will feature an all-black cast. More and more frequently, film and theater directors are using non-traditional ensembles.

In our second hour, we'll look at non-traditional casting. Have you seen a play or a movie with a non-traditional cast? Do you think it was less/as/more effective? Did you understand the play differently? Did it take on a new meaning?

Since we talked about being honest in the first hour today, I should confess that I watch Grey's Anatomy pretty religiously. I'm also a fan of Chuck, Lost, and a few other odds and ends. And yes, it was frustrating to have the season cut short by the writers' strike. Nobody's quite sure when any of the top TV programs might be back, though we are hearing more talk of a possible resolution to the strike sometime soon. In the meantime, though, the folks over at New York Magazine got together a group of striking writers and asked them to come up with endings for their favorite shows. We'll talk with several of them today, and ask you to come up with creative (or zany, or wacky) endings to the strike-shortened shows you normally watch.

There's a new game show that premiered on FOX last month called Moment of Truth, on which contestants have a chance to win half a million dollars IF they answer 21 questions truthfully. I've watched this show, and I've gotta say there were some questions that would make me walk away from a wad of money to avoid telling the truth. But the premise does beg the question, Should you ALWAYS tell the truth?

Syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson will discuss the art of telling the truth....when it's a good idea and, perhaps more importantly, when it's not. And we'll hear from a radical truth-teller who says that you must tell the truth--ALL the time!! Tell us what you think. Have you ever been in a situation where you knew the truth would hurt, but you were honest anyway? What happened? And how do you feel when the bitter truth is told to you? Be honest! Following that, we'll talk to Diablo Cody, screenwriter of the movie Juno, about her new fame and Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

Beginning next week, Tennessee Williams's popular play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will hit Broadway and feature an all African-American cast. Does race matter when actors are from a different ethnic background than the characters are traditionally portrayed? Guests in our second hour will talk about the trend of casting actors in non-traditional roles. Then we'll talk about the stalled television season. The writer's strike has given new meaning to the word "cliffhanger." This television season could end with our beloved television shows remaining unresolved. But what if YOU could write your own ending? We'll ask three show writers to come up with alternative endings to some of our favorite shows. And here's your chance to become a Hollywood television writer. Think you've got the perfect resolution? Call or blog us at the end of our second hour.

Sid Ganis, at the luncheon yesterday.

Source: Getty Images

An article about the Academy Awards, "Oscar Nominees Urged to Attend Ceremony," printed in The New York Times, caught my attention. Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, says the show will go on -- come hell, high water, or picket lines. Michael Cieply, who wrote the piece for The Times, set the scene:

At the annual nominees' luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel on Monday, the usually congenial Mr. Ganis gave the assembled actors and filmmakers something of a lecture. But it was a sweetly diplomatic one -- about the importance of keeping Oscar night on track, even if striking screenwriters picket the ceremony.

So many unspoken, baffling rules surround this writers' strike. It's acceptable for nominees to swill drinks and eat haute cuisine at an Academy-sponsored luncheon, but many say they won't cross picket lines to go to the ceremony itself.

Ganis urged everyone to come. The Academy Awards don't just recognize the movie business, he said. They acknowledge cinematic achievement. And if that wasn't convincing, he pointed to some fine print on official certificates of nomination: "Must be present to win."

While Sen. John McCain builds a lead over Governor's Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee heading into "Super Tuesday," he still faces some tough critics on the right. Ann Coulter said she'd rather vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton than McCain, and on his radio show Rush Limbaugh has taken issue with some of McCain's stances. The complaints: taxes, same-sex marriage bans, and immigration among others. But in the end, will conservative Republicans come together over the prospect of losing the White House? If you're a Republican, do you feel like there's a candidate that represents you? Do you feel like you're settling in this election?

To listen to the political rhetoric these days, you'd think all of Washington, DC is going to be swept out of town, no matter who wins. Democrats and Republicans alike are promising change, and lots of it. In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times last month, Timothy Noah couldn't help but wonder what that really means:

But why? Since when did "change" become the Holy Grail of American politics -- and what can the word possibly mean if all these disparate candidates are for it?

We'll talk with Tim, who writes for Slate.com, about whether or not "change" is as good a reason as any to elect a President.

Some people spend decades in jail for crimes they didn't commit. Thankfully, advances in DNA technology have aided efforts to prove the innocence of the wrongfully convicted. But upon release, many of these inmates have few financial resources and little or no job prospects. Some states provide automatic compensation to exonerated prisoners, but others provide nothing. It's one thing not to compensate someone who was wrongfully convicted once but who has habitually committed crimes. It's quite another not to compensate those who are completely innocent. Today we'll talk to one man who spent 24 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. You can read his story here. And in the meantime, tell us your thoughts: what do we owe the wrongfully convicted? Should they be financially compensated?

In "A Strike in the Dark," Seymour Hersh, a staff writer for The New Yorker, reports on a secret bombing mission conducted by the Israeli Air Force in Syria. Since the attack, the Israeli government hasn't said much. And Syria hasn't either.

Although initial press reports indicated that Israel had attacked a secret nuclear site with materials from North Korea, many experts in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States say that can't be true. If there was no nuclear site there, the bombing is even more curious. Why would Israel fly into Syrian air space? What did they attack? And why was there no retaliation?

Seymour Hersh joins us in the second hour to talk about his new article, and to take your calls. What questions do you have about the attacks?

Although a new poll from the Pew Center for the People and the Press shows Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) with a strong lead over the other Republican candidates, there are some Republicans who are worried that McCain represents a more "moderate" Republican. A handful of them have gone so far as to endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). In our first hour, guests on the program will shed light on what Republicans think of the Republican candidates. After that, we'll look at the word "change." In almost every speech given by the presidential candidates, "change" is the mantra. At the end of the first hour, Slate writer Timothy Noah will talk about his Los Angeles Times op-ed that outlines why he thinks that "change" is an empty word.

Alan Crotzer, who was sentenced to over 100 years in prison for raping a mother and her 12 year-old daughter, was exonerated after serving 24 years when DNA evidence proved he was innocent. Crotzer is now asking the state of Florida to pay him more than one-million dollars to compensate him for his time behind bars. He and guests will discuss what should be done to compensate people who have been wrongfully convicted in our second hour. Then, at the end of the hour, New Yorker staff writer Seymour Hersh will talk about his article, "A Strike in the Dark," in which he looks at why Israel conducted a raid on an alleged nuclear facility in Syria last September.