Accessibility links
Analysis Analysis by NPR commentators, including Ted Koppel. Subscribe to our free podcast.

Analysis

Friday

Science

Looking Back At The Year In Science

Ira Flatow and a panel of science writers and editors discuss the top science stories of 2009, from the discovery of water on the moon to the unveiling of human ancestor Ardipithecus ramidus to public health controversies like the new mammography guidelines and the swine flu vaccine.

Looking Back At The Year In Science

Listen · 44:35
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/121908704/121908629" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Sunday

Amanda Knox Trial A Tangle Of Cultural Tensions

The murder conviction in Italy of the American student outraged many in the U.S. Some denounced it as a miscarriage of justice. However, much of the coverage on both sides of the Atlantic was distorted by cross-cultural misunderstandings.

Amanda Knox Trial A Tangle Of Cultural Tensions

Listen · 2:59
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/121388806/121388782" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Opinion

Barbershop

Shop Talk: 'Keep Your Tiger Woods In Your Pants'

Freelance writer Jimi Izrael, editor and founder of the MuslimGuy.com Arsalan Iftikhar, syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The Washington Post, Eugene Robinson. They discuss whether President Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Prize will restore any of his political clout in Washington and the latest with defamed golfer Tiger Woods and his ongoing sex scandal.

Shop Talk: 'Keep Your Tiger Woods In Your Pants'

Listen · 17:50
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/121335970/121336050" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

News

Unemployment Could Overshadow Economic Stimulus

The U.S. unemployment rate dipped to 10-percent in November after a two-year climb to heights unseen in almost three decades. Still, the decline is only a small improvement as some still wait to reap the benefits of President Obama's economic stimulus package. Stephen Henderson, of The Detroit Free Press, explains why he thinks the U.S. job market could take years to recover from the economic downturn and why the stimulus package may not offer a big enough boost.

Unemployment Could Overshadow Economic Stimulus

Listen · 6:51
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/121198251/121198091" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Tina Brown's Must-Reads: Celebrities Behaving Badly

One day before breaking his silence over scandals in his personal life, golfer Tiger Woods practiced outside his home in Windermere, Fla. Sam Greenwood/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Tina Brown's Must-Reads

Tina Brown's Must-Reads: Celebrities Behaving Badly

The editor of The Daily Beast gives her picks for the best reading on celebrity antics, from Tiger Woods to Roman Polanski.

Tina Brown's Must-Reads: Celebrities Behaving Badly

Listen · 5:51
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/121159455/121191212" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Politics

Obama: Thousands More Troops Headed To Afghanistan

President Obama announced Tuesday his decision to aggressively increase the presence of U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan to 30,000. He also outlined an equally tight timeline for their withdrawal by July 2011. Some say the plan is the most consequential decision of his presidency to-date. Ashraf Haidari, a political counselor from the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C., and Afghan journalist Najib Sharifi are joined by former U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Tupper to discuss the heavy implications of the recent announcement and whether they agree with President Obama's assessment of the situation.

Obama: Thousands More Troops Headed To Afghanistan

Listen · 20:50
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/121017719/121017689" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Analysis: Presidents, Congress And War

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Tonkin resolution, which gave him power to escalate the Vietnam war. It was easily passed by both houses of Congress, although it was later repealed. MPI/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
MPI/Getty Images

Politics

Analysis: Presidents, Congress And War

Congress may have the sole constitutional authority to declare wars and the finance them, but in America it is the president that carries them out. Among the challenges facing President Obama is convincing his own party that the cause in Afghanistan is right.

Thursday

What's Behind Lou Dobbs' Leaving CNN?

Lou Dobbs, shown in 2007, announced Wednesday that he is leaving CNN. Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

What's Behind Lou Dobbs' Leaving CNN?

The CNN anchor quit Wednesday after months of tensions with executives, saying he would seek new ways to advocate his opinions. Dobbs evolved as a hard-liner on illegal immigration after the Sept. 11 attacks. His often inflammatory views conflicted with corporate strategy.

What's Behind Lou Dobbs' Leaving CNN?

Listen · 3:53
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/120351492/120361581" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

National

Gruesome Discovery In Cleveland Suggests Societal Flaws

The decomposing remains of at least 11 women have been discovered in a Cleveland home of convicted sex offender Anthony Sowell. But many wonder how so many women in the same city could go missing with no apparent investigation into a possible trend or common link. Some say the profiles of the victims made their disappearances less troubling — all were African-American, many of whom struggled with substance abuse. Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed, who represents Sowell's neighborhood, says the case is example of what's wrong in the criminal justice system. Reed is joined by Cleveland journalist Bill Rice, of NPR member station WCPN-FM, who offers an update on the investigations.

Gruesome Discovery In Cleveland Suggests Societal Flaws

Listen · 9:38
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/120238960/120238948" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Opinion

Can I Just Tell You?

Ethnicity Matters, Especially If You're The Gunman

In her weekly commentary, host Michel Martin reflects on recent tragedies across the nation, including the mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas. Martin explains why the ethnicity of alleged shooters and other suspected criminals is an often delicate but important matter within communities of color.

Ethnicity Matters, Especially If You're The Gunman

Listen · 4:38
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/120238969/120238950" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Monday

The Impact of War

War: God's Conflict?

With a NATO war in Afghanistan, the U.S. war in Iraq, in addition to battles between Pakistan and the Taliban, and skirmishes in many Arab countries, questions have surfaced about the role of religion in international conflict. Karen Armstrong, author of several books on religion, takes on the topic of God and war in a recent article of Foreign Policy Magazine.

War: God's Conflict?

Listen
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/114164141/114164123" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

National

Megan Williams Recants Claims Of Sexual Abuse

Back in 2007, Megan William alleged that she was a victim of a racially-motivated hate crime. Her claims of being raped and tortured horrified the nation and helped put several people in prison. Williams now says the abuse never happened. But the prosecutor in charge of her case does not buy her retraction, citing physical evidence proving the hate crime had, indeed, happened. Join host Michel Martin as she discusses the puzzling turn of events with Gary Harki, a reporter covering the story for the Charleston Gazette in Charleston, West Virginia.

Megan Williams Recants Claims Of Sexual Abuse

Listen · 6:39
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/114036119/114036109" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Author Interviews

One Battle Ensured U.S. Return To Iraq, Author Says

On a single day in Feb. 1991, an American Army squadron defeated an elite Iraqi brigade almost twice as large in what is now regarded as the largest U.S. Army tank battle since World War II. To history buffs, the "Battle of 73 Easting" is legendary. To the man who led the squadron, the battle was a omen of things to come.

One Battle Ensured U.S. Return To Iraq, Author Says

Listen · 7:32
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/113903772/113904868" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript