The Keystone XL Pipeline Debate January 31
Hour 1 The Obama administration recently rejected the hotly contested proposal to build a 1,700-mile pipeline from Western Canada to Texas. The Keystone XL pipeline would carry 800,000 barrels of oil from the tar sands in Alberta across [...]

Suzzy Roche's debut novel, 'Wayward Saints' January 31
Hour 2 SUZZY ROCHE and her sisters, Maggie and Terre, have been touring together and recording for over 30 years. Suzzy, the youngest, has written her first novel, "Wayward Saints," about the music industry, family and small-town ghosts [...]

The GOP's presidential candidates & the state of the Republican Party January 30
Hour 1 They've been called everything from clowns to liars to hypocrites. We're talking about the contenders for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, a cast of characters that seems to pit the party establishment against the Tea Party [...]

The Scottsboro Boys: From Broadway to Broad Street January 30
Hour 2 How do you tell the story of the infamous trial of the Scottsboro Boys in fierce, minstrel form? The last collaboration of  John Kander and Fred Ebb, the legendary musical theater team behind Chicago and Cabaret, [...]

Joe Paterno's complicated legacy January 27
Hour 1 Following two days of public viewings attended by students, alumni, sports icons, government officials, dignitaries and fans, former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was buried on Wednesday. His death on January 22 came just two [...]

Cursing & public discourse: Have we gone too far? January 27
Hour 2 Mayor Nutter recently turned a few heads after he used some choice words when responding to the senseless murder of three Philadelphia teenagers.  The award-winning ABC sitcom Modern Family also found itself in a little bit [...]

What Mitt Romney’s tax return tells us about the U.S. tax system January 26
Hour 1 While Mitt Romney’s federal income tax return may have been shocking in terms of the sheer volume of his wealth, everything about it was perfectly legal. He reported income in 2010 of over $21.6 million, nearly [...]

Zoe Strauss: Capturing Philadelphia on film; then, Tuskegee Airman Maj. John L. Harrison January 26
Hour 2 Philadelphia artist ZOE STRAUSS pays attention to the joy and the pain that comes with the city’s neighborhoods – the poverty, substance addiction, segregation and cultural diversity – and captures scenes many of us would never [...]

The State of the Union: What the President Said and the Challenges Ahead January 25
Hour 1 All eyes and ears were on Capitol Hill last night as President Barack Obama delivered his third State of the Union address.  Before a packed house of Congress, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, and special guests,  [...]

Issues around bans on hiring smokers January 25
Hour 2 Pennsylvania's Geisinger Health System recently announced that starting in February it would no longer hire smokers and will screen for nicotine use among new employees. Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that allow bans on hiring [...]

Cullen Murphy on The Inquisition & its modern legacy January 24
Hour 1 Vanity Fair editor-at-large CULLEN MURPHY believes there is nothing new under the sun about interrogation. He says ingredients for a modern day inquisition are here today as bureaucracies, information technology, and surveillance keep expanding; and there [...]

Changing Lives: El Sistema's Transformative Power of Music January 24
Hour 2 A music education program has changed the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of underprivileged children in Venezuela and has recently come to Philadelphia. Curtis graduate STANFORD THOMPSON, the Executive Director of Play On, Philly!, uses [...]

Same-sex Marriage: The Political and Legal Landscape January 23
Hour 1 At a meeting of the U.S. Conference on Mayors on Friday, over 70 mayors from cities across the country announced their support for same sex marriage.  Proposed legislation and upcoming ballot initiatives in several states also [...]

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch January 23
Hour 2 Last year’s Japanese tsunami provoked fears of widespread radiation leaks and set off a nuclear crisis as clean up crews furiously raced to contain the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Meanwhile another environmental concern [...]

Previewing the South Carolina & Florida primaries January 20
Hour 1 Since its inception in 1980, the winner of the South Carolina Republican presidential primary has gone on to win the party's nomination and, as the first primary in the South, it is often seen as an [...]

Asset Test for Food Stamps in Pa. January 20
Hour 2 The Corbett administration plans to begin asset-testing for food stamp recipients in Pennsylvania this May. Individuals and families with more than $2000 in savings or assets and seniors with assets worth $3250 would no longer be [...]

Role of Technology in Education January 19
Hour 1 Laptops, tablets, electronic white boards and PowerPoint are increasingly at home in K through 12 classrooms. Some education reformers see technology as the central to improving learning, personalizing education, and saving money for cash-strapped schools. But [...]

States look for jackpot in online gambling January 19
Hour 2 With the squeeze on state budgets, many are betting on gambling to put cash in their coffers. States around the country are pushing to legalize in-state Internet gambling. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has said [...]

Ezekiel Emanuel on the Health Care Law and Health Care Costs January 18
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] This March the Supreme Court will review the constitutional challenge to the 2010 health care bill over the provision that requires most Americans to buy health care coverage. EZEKIEL EMANUEL worked on the Patient Protection [...]

The Power of Gossip January 18
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Through the years philosophers and writers have all weighed in on the subject of gossip. Playwright Oscar Wilde famously said: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is [...]

NPR's Steve Inskeep: 'Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi' January 17
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] NPR’s Morning Edition co-host, STEVE INSKEEP, says we are living in the age if the “instant city” when metropolitan areas’ growth are unprecedented. Karachi, Pakistan the most heightened example if this as its population has [...]

Shall we dance? Inside the world of competitive ballroom dancing January 17
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Interest in ballroom dancing is surging.  And if folks aren't learning it and doing it, they're watching it on television. Last fall, season 13 of ABC's Dancing with the Stars drew 19.5 million total viewers. [...]

Race, politics and the President with Harvard Professor Randall Kennedy January 16
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] According to Harvard Law Professor RANDALL KENNEDY, when it comes to race, Barack Obama is in a predicament.  "He is a politician seeking to lead and govern a massive, complex, dysfunctional democracy that has long [...]

Susan Morse's "The Habit" January 16
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Philadelphia writer SUSAN MORSE has been taking care of her mother, on many levels, since she was a child. This role has changed over the years as “Ma,” a former portrait artist who has just [...]

Data mining & online tracking: Joseph Turow on 'The Daily You' January 13
Hour 1 Have you ever Googled a specific topic only to find that advertisements associated with that topic suddenly appear in your email or on your internet browser? The process by which all that happens is called "data [...]

David Eagleman: The Secret Lives of the Brain January 13
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] We like to think we’re in charge of ourselves but neuroscientist DAVID EAGLEMAN says that have a lot less self-control than we think. In his fascinating book "INCOGNITO: The Secret Lives of the Brain," Eagleman [...]

The future of Philadelphia's Catholic schools January 12
Hour 1 Enrollment in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s elementary schools and high schools has been declining for decades, while the costs of running those schools have increased dramatically. Tuition fees, a decrease in the birthrate among Catholic families, [...]

Lori Andrews on social networks & privacy January 12
Hour 2 Social networking sites have the ability to put us in touch with old friends, help us meet our soul-mates and even topple governments, but they are also blurring the lines between our public and private selves [...]

The Struggle for Egypt with Steven A. Cook January 11
Hour 1 As the first anniversary of the uprising in Egypt draws near, military leaders, the Islamists who won the third and final voting in recent parliamentary elections, and the activists who sparked the revolution continue to be [...]

Making sense of New Hampshire primary results January 11
Hour 2 Politicos and the media types covering them converged on New Hampshire in recent days as voters headed to the polls to cast their ballots in the Republican presidential primary. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the [...]

Iraq update, including the fate of refugees January 10
Hour 1 Last week bomb attacks targeting Shiites in Iraq killed more than 72 people. Since the American troop withdrawal last month, there’s been growing concern about the increase in sectarian violence and political turmoil in Iraq. This [...]

Why & how people change their names January 10
Hour 2 Our names tell people a lot about us—perhaps our gender, our marital status, our race or religion or country of origin and sometimes the name we are given no longer fits or we just don't like [...]

Should Big-Time College Athletes Be Paid? January 9
Hour 1 This fall in an article in the Atlantic, civil rights historian Taylor Branch made a compelling case for paying college athletes, calling the current system "the shame of college sports." The National College Athletic Association responded: [...]

Black Men, Black Women & Marriage: Revisiting the debate January 9
Hour 2 The state of African-American marriages has been the subject of heated debate and more so since Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks published his controversial book "Is Marriage for White People?" In it Banks posited that [...]

The rise of Super PACs; then a pledge to listen to the other side January 6
Hour 1 An unprecedented $12.5 million was spent on campaign advertising in Iowa in advance of Tuesday's caucuses. Voters throughout the state complained of an unusually large number of negative ads, many of which were made possible by [...]

Sacha Z. Scoblic's Lush Sobriety January 6
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] If you’re in recovery, kidnapped by terrorists and faced with a drink menacingly put to your lips, what do you do? That’s one of the relapse fantasies our guest SACHA Z. SCOBLIC has had. After [...]

What to do when you witness child abuse? January 5
Hour 1 You’re playing in a public park with your kids, riding on public transit or shopping in a supermarket and witness a parent cursing at and/or pushing their child. What is the right thing to do? Is [...]

Hazing, bullying and how to stop them January 5
Hour 2 A number of hazing-related deaths have made headlines in recent months. Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion died within an hour of a hazing ritual, according to the state medical examiner, that involved “multiple blunt [...]

Iowa's caucuses & 'The Lost Majority' January 4
Hour 1 The 2011 campaign year watched Mitt Romney contending against a revolving list of “Anyone But Mitt” candidates near the top of the polls among Republican voters, with Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron [...]

Bringing in the new: Philadelphia City Council's 2012 Challenges & Agenda January 4
Hour 2 Seventeen members of Philadelphia's City Council were sworn into office Monday with six of them new to the Chambers.  The departed, who have over 100 years of combined service, include Joan Krajewski, Anna Verna, Frank DiCicco, [...]

Why Americans Don't but Should Save their Money January 3
Consumer spending accounts for seventy percent of country's GDP.  It therefore follows that to improve our collective economic woes, we must spend our money.  The problem is that over the years a vast majority of American households have [...]

Debunking doomsday 2012 junk science January 3
Hour 2 2012 is upon us, and if you thought the end-of-the-world hysteria was insane last year, just you wait for the end of this year. Hollywood helped kick the doomsday hype last year with its disaster movie [...]

Congress, politics and the fiscal cliff January 2
Hour 1 Congress reconvened for a rare New Year's Eve session on Monday in an effort to come up with some sort of "fiscal cliff" deal.  If the January 1 deadline passes without any agreement, tax hikes on [...]

Alexandra Fuller's Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness January 2
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] ALEXANDRA FULLER continues her series of memoirs growing up a colonial in Africa. In 2001’s “Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight” and “Scribbling the Cat” in 2004 Fuller has revisited her childhood in Rhodesia, [...]

Emmanuel Jal, South Sudanese child soldier turned hip-hop star & peace advocate January 2
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Internationally acclaimed hip-hop artist and peace activist EMMANUEL JAL estimates he was born sometime in the early 1980s in the south of Sudan. At the age of seven, his family was forced repeatedly to flee [...]

The Diaries of Emilie Davis and the Emancipation Proclamation January 2
Hour 2 Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation which legally freed more than three million slaves. On that day, January 1st, 1863 in Philadelphia, Emilie Davis, a 21 year old black [...]

The Diary of Emilie Davis and the Emancipation Proclamation January 1
Hour 2 Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation which legally freed three million slaves. On that day, January 1st, 1863 in Philadelphia, Emilie Davis, a 21year old black woman, wrote in [...]