The Future of Public Employee Unions February 28
Hour 1 For more than a week, public employee union members have been protesting in Wisconsin over Republican Governor Scott Walker’s budget bill that would increase their benefit contribution and cut their collective bargaining power.  The labor protests [...]

Is college for everyone? February 28
Hour 2 A new report from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Pathways to Prosperity, has ignited a contentious debate about if we should be preparing all high school students to go to college or providing alternative routes [...]

Should everybody go to college? February 28
Hour 2 A new report from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Pathways to Prosperity, has ignited a contentious debate about whether all students should go to college or if we should be providing alternative routes to careers [...]

Clergy sexual abuse of minors in the Philadelphia Archdiocese February 25
Earlier this month, the Philadelphia District Attorney's office released it's second grand jury report in a decade regarding abuse by priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.  The new report resulted in charges against three priests, a parochial school teacher [...]

Wrestling and tough love with actor/director/writer TOM McCARTHY February 25
Hour 2 [Enjoy this archive. There's a Live Radio moment towards the beginning.] You’ve seen New Jersey-born actor TOM McCARTHY as an actor in roles in films such as Palmer Williams in “Good Night and Good Luck” and on [...]

Growing unrest in the Middle East February 24
Hour 1 Anti-government protests continue to spread across the Middle East. After uprisings toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, protests, some violent, are growing in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and even Iran.  What all these countries [...]

The 83rd Academy Awards February 24
Hour 2 The Academy Awards are coming up this Sunday night.  The King’s Speech, The Social Network, 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter and The Kid’s Are All Right are all vying for best picture.  Best actor nominees [...]

Peace Corps 50th anniversary, pt. 1: Stan Meisler's 'When the World Calls' February 23
Hour 1 In the first part of our 2-part look at the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, we’ll interview STANLEY MEISLER, author of the new book, When The World Calls: The Inside Story Of The Peace Corps [...]

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary, pt. 2: 3 alumni remember February 23
Hour 2 In this second part of our 2-part look at the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, we’ll interview three Peace Corps alumni who served in three different parts of the world and three different decades about [...]

Defense spending, national security and the deficit February 22
Hour 1 As part of the Administration’s proposed 2012 budget the Department of Defense loses $78 billion in spending over the next five years.  Fiscal conservatives say the cuts are not deep enough given the pressure to reduce [...]

Chris Hedges on the Death of the Liberal Class February 22
Hour 2 Are the press, labor movement, universities, and liberal religious organizations letting down the disenfranchised? Pulitzer Prize winner CHRIS HEDGES, former foreign correspondent for The New York Times, has been following the free-market trend, and thinks it’s [...]

Historian Joseph Ellis looks at the First Family: John and Abigail Adams February 21
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] John and Abigail Adams’ marriage was spent apart as much as they were together. Documenting their letters to each other when John was in Philadelphia and Paris and Abigail in Massachusetts is a favorite topic [...]

Sherman Alexie: One Book One Philadelphia February 21
Hour 2 Novelist, poet, film-maker and National Book Award-winning writer, our guest Sherman Alexie grew up on an Indian Reservation fifty miles north of Spokane Washington. "War Dances" is Alexie's latest book, a collection of short stories filled with characters dealing with complex issues as wide reaching as a failed marriage, alcoholic death, hate crime, obituary writing and courtship.

The debate over tuition vouchers for Pennsylvania's low income school children February 18
Hour 1 The long and heated debate over school choice in Pennsylvania has been reignited.  Ten years ago, former Governor Tom Ridge tried and failed to get support for vouchers, but this past year, Governor Tom Corbett made [...]

International politics and… zombies! with Daniel Drezner February 18
Hour 2 When an international conflict such as Kosovo, Iraq or Afghanistan arises, political pundits and theorists wrestle with how various political theories and worldviews differ in their responses. But how would geopolitical stances such as neoconservatism, realism [...]

Nonviolence in the Arab streets, with Gene Sharp, Sherif Mansour & Mubarak Awad February 17
Hour 1 The protests that continue to shake the Arab world, and which successfully ousted dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, came as a shock to many. Much of the news coverage has focused on the role that technology [...]

John Wesley Harding the Singer and Songwriter and Wesley Stace the Novelist February 17
                         Hour 2 John Wesley Harding is a singer-songwriter who has recorded fifteen albums since the early 90s, including his success with “I’m Wrong About Everything” that [...]

The Science of Pleasure February 16
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] Why do people get pleasure from a panoramic view, a great symphony, our pets, or pornography?  Yale psychologist PAUL BLOOM studies why we enjoy and desire certain things.  In his recent book, How Pleasure Works: The [...]

Listening to Music with New Yorker Music Critic ALEX ROSS February 16
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] When the New Yorker music critic ALEX ROSS, was a teenager he first heard the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein’s analysis of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. The C sharp 'jabbing' through the key of E flat [...]

The President's Budget Proposal — spend, cut and save February 15
Hour 1 Yesterday, the President sent Congress a $3.73 trillion spending proposal for 2012 that pledges to cut  $1.1 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years through spending cuts and tax increases.  That's just which 25 [...]

Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health February 15
Hour 2 Can going to the doctor make you sick? Twenty-five years of practice and research from doctors at the Dartmouth School of Medicine show preventative treatments for cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes and sometimes cancer can lead to a [...]

A Good Divorce February 14
Hour 1 Former Governor Ed Rendell and his wife, federal judge Margorie Rendell, announced last week that they were separating, but amicably.  In fact, in an email to friends the Rendells said “Please do not hesitate to include [...]

The ENIAC Anniversary February 14
Hour 2 When most people think about February 14th, they think about love, but some people think about a computer – the ENIAC – the computer that helped spark the digital revolution.  ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator [...]

Egypt update, then Republican Party politics February 11
Hour 1 ERIC TRAGER is just back from Cairo. He is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, where his dissertation research focuses on Egyptian opposition parties.  He has interviewed over 100 Egyptian opposition [...]

Love and romance on film: Classics and our favorites February 11
Hour 2 In time for Valentine’s Day weekend, we review Hollywood history for the evolution of love in U.S. cinema, great love stories on film, and our favorite moments of love from the movies. From “Casablanca” to “The [...]

Paul T. Anastas, the 'father of green chemistry' February 10
Hour 1 Have we achieved “better living through chemistry”? Or has chemistry left us a toxic legacy that outweighs its benefits? PAUL T. ANASTAS recognizes the problematic legacy of chemistry, but he’s also among the world’s leading researchers [...]

Michael Scheuer, on Osama Bin Laden & Egypt February 9
Hour 2 MICHAEL SCHEUER led the CIA’s Osama Bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, long before most Americans learned his name in the rubble and outrage after 9/11. He is uniquely qualified as the author of a [...]

Philadelphia ethics & corruption, with Shane Creamer, Amy Kurland & Dave Davies February 9
Hour 1 The city of Philadelphia is infamously “corrupt and contented.” But not everyone’s content with Philadelphia’s legendary corruption, including our three guests on today’s Radio Times. J. SHANE CREAMER, JR. is the executive director of the Philadelphia [...]

Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater on their documentary Mrs. Goundo's Daughter February 9
Filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater join us to talk about their film Mrs. Goundo's Daughter. The documentary follows the efforts of a local woman from Mali in her quest to secure asylum to save her two year [...]

Human rights violations in Egypt February 8
Hour 1 As peaceful protests in Egypt turned violent, there have been increasing reports of attacks on and detentions of civilians, non-governmental foreign workers and journalists by pro-Mubarak supporters.  Over the weekend details of some of these abuses [...]

Andrew Johnson, Accidental President February 8
Hour 2 Andrew Johnson wasn’t supposed to be president of the United States. Less than two months after he was sworn in as vice-president, he was President Lincoln’s successor after his running mate’s assassination. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and [...]

James Zogby on attitudes and opinions of the Arab world February 7
The tumultuous events unfolding in Middle East may have come as a surprise to many us and therefore illustrate the need for  all of us to fully understand the diversity of opinions in the Arab world.  In his [...]

Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro February 7
Hour 2 If the word “ukulele” conjures visions of slow, sleepy Hawaiian music, that’s just where virtuoso JAKE SHIMABUKURO wants you at the start of a show: He thrives upending the low expectations people have of his instrument. [...]

Challenges to the Health Care Law February 4
Hour 1 Democrats in the Senate defeated the Republican-led effort to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act on Wednesday.  But earlier this week, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the law was unconstitutional because of the individual [...]

Controlling health care costs among Camden's 'super-users' February 4
Hour 2 An interesting experiment in the delivery of health care is taking place in Camden, where a team of health care providers is working with chronically-ill patients who are frequent users of hospitals and their emergency rooms.  [...]

Egypt and Unrest in the Middle East February 3
Hour 1 Protests in Cairo turned violent Wednesday when supporters of President Mubarak took to the streets. This hour, we’ll talk about what’s happening in Egypt and what it means for the country’s future.  We’ll also look at [...]

Torture, art & yoga: 'Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib' February 3
Hour 2 When human rights attorney SUSAN BURKE returned from listening to survivors of torture at U.S. prisons in Iraq, she spontaneously reached out for help from her yoga teacher, JENNIFER SCHELTER. Schelter accompanied Burke to Turkey, where [...]

Optimism in the Auto Industry, then Egypt February 2
Hour 1 The Philadelphia Auto Show started this weekend and all the newest cars are on display.  It’s a lot flashier than last years show as things seem to be looking up for automakers.  This hour, we thought [...]

How to be a good person when it snows February 2
Hour 1 All this snow, ice, and below-freezing temperatures can bring out the worst in some of us. It's hard to do the right thing when your hands feel frostbitten and your back is breaking from shoveling 12 [...]

How to Run the World, according to Parag Khanna February 1
Hour 1 Geo-strategist PARAG KHANNA looks around the world and sees echoes of the Middle Ages, with both West and East powerful, Middle East sheikhdoms, powerful city-states, wealthy multinational corporations, religious zealots and more. But in his new [...]

'High on the Hog,' with Jessica B. Harris February 1
Hour 2 Black-eyed peas, watermelon and okra came to American tables from the slave ships of Africa. The 19th century black cooks on the Pullman railroad dining cars and cowboy chuck wagons helped define what Americans eat today. [...]