Political roundup: Campaigns in DE, PA & NJ September 28
Hour 1 We round up the campaigns in the three states of the Delaware Valley with a trio of journalists covering the races. WHYY Delaware reporter MARK EICHMANN will update us on the results of the Wilmington mayoral [...]

WHYY-FM Premiere: The Pulse September 28
Hour 2 of Radio Times is pre-empted for the premiere of The Pulse. Join WHYY's award-winning health and science reporters on the beat; making rounds at local hospitals, in the field with scientists and exploring new possibilities with the region's tech entrepreneurs.

Elephant poaching: the dramatic rise in ivory trafficking September 27
Hour 1 Over 25,000 elephants were slaughtered last year in the growing illicit ivory trade — sometimes entire herds gunned down from helicopters.  Elephant poaching in Africa reached its highest levels in 2011 since the global ivory ban [...]

Joan Walsh asks "What's the Matter with White People?" September 27
Hour Two Salon columnist JOAN WALSH has written a book looking at the parallel narratives of how the standard of living has changed drastically since the 1970s. She sees two arguments of the bankruptcy of America: one side [...]

Pennsylvania's Voter ID law back in court September 26
Hour 1 Yesterday, for the second time in two months, Pennsylvania’s controversial voter ID law was debated before Commonwealth Court judge Robert Simpson. Judge Simpson previously heard arguments about the law in August and failed to issue a [...]

Wearable computers September 26
Hour 2 Smart phones may be migrating from our hands to our heads. Google has a product coming out next year that puts all the capabilities of a smartphone into a pair of high-tech, wraparound glasses.  Project Glass [...]

Behind the polls September 25
Hour 1 As we get closer to Election Day almost every new day brings with it a new poll.  Some polls have President Obama in the lead, some give the edge to Mitt Romney, and others proclaim the [...]

Arts and Culture in Philadelphia: Their contributions and their challenges September 25
Hour 2 A new study released yesterday by The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance reports that arts and cultural organizations in the region generate nearly $170 million in state and local taxes each year and provide roughly 44,000 jobs [...]

The complex relationship between the U.S., Iran and Israel September 24
Hour 1 As the U.N. General Assembly meets this week, the debate and rhetoric over Iran's nuclear weapons capability and how to deal with it has intensified.  Despite stern warnings and banking and oil sanctions, Iran has refused [...]

Surviving the Khmer Rouge September 24
Hour Two Cambodian-born novelist, VADDEY RATNER, and her mother fled their home country in 1981, after living under the oppressive Khmer Rouge. They lost several family members, who were part of about 2 million people who died under [...]

The Latino Vote September 21
Hour 1 This week, President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got the opportunity to address Latino voters, trying to earn their support at a “Meet the Candidates” forum in Florida and on the Spanish language TV [...]

Journalist Steve Coll looks at ExxonMobil's private empire and American power September 21
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] According to our guest, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist STEVE COLL, ExxonMobil makes over $450 billion a year, the size of Norway’s GDP and about 3 percent of the U.S. GDP, positioning it as the largest [...]

A look at drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region September 20
Hour 1 The new technology that can extract the deep, gas resources of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale has created a complex divide among residents, government and industry about the promise of a low-emission, fossil-fuel bridge to American energy independence, [...]

Jeffrey Toobin on the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court and Citizen United September 20
Hour 2 Using his insider reporting and analyses of the legal issues New Yorker staff writer and senior legal analyst at CNN, JEFFREY TOOBIN, looks at the relationship between President Obama’s White House and Chief Justice John Roberts’ [...]

Mitt Romney and the 47 percent September 19
Hour 1 In a video secretly recorded last May at a private fundraiser, Mitt Romney told donors that nearly half of all Americans support the President because they rely on government entitlements.   He went on to say that [...]

Political comedy & satire in campaign season September 19
Hour 2 Thick in the thrall of election ads and political coverage, we ask: What’s so funny? We’re in a golden age of political satire, with millions of viewers tuning in to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show [...]

Update on the unrest in Muslim-majority countries September 18
Hour 1 Violent protests against the United States government have broken out in more than 20 countries since last Tuesday, when the American ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans were killed. These events are relatively small [...]

Non-traditional paths to higher education September 18
Hour 2 If you attended college, did you enroll directly out of high school? Or are you like one of the 45 percent of students our guest, writer and educator, MIKE ROSE, says took longer to find their [...]

The role religion does play and should play in American government September 17
Hour 1 In this era of "faith and value politics,” we find ourselves frequently debating the role religion plays in modern American government.  And the role it should play?  In his new book, writer  Jacques Berlinerblau attempts to [...]

How make believe is important to our survival September 17
Hour 2 Once upon a time, we told stories through oral tradition, moved on to words and pictures and fast-forwarded to video games. Drawing on research in evolutionary biology, psychology and neuroscience, Washington and Jefferson College English professor, [...]

The Protests in North Africa and the Middle East September 14
Hour 1 The violent protests in the Arab world sparked by an anti-Islam video are spreading. On Tuesday armed militias attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya killing four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Anti-American protesters also tried [...]

A local rower-turned-filmmaker goes "Backwards" September 14
Hour 2 A promising Olympic rowing candidate is chosen, yet again, as an alternate for the U.S. team, and quits, goes home and tries to reconcile her rowing dreams and family life, as she coaches crew at her [...]

Joe Frazier — his life, career, and the City of Brotherly Love September 13
Hour 1 Boxing legend Joe Frazier moved to Philadelphia in 1958 from rural South Carolina as a 14-year old boy and lived here the rest of his life. Despite being considered the greatest fighter in Philadelphia sports history, [...]

Philadelphia Live Arts Festival+Philly Fringe: creatively imagining Poe's last days September 13
Hour 2 Did the 19th century writer, Edgar Allen Poe, want to explore his theories of the universe in his poem, Eureka, all the while being reduced to performing The Raven on modest-paying lecture tours? Philadelphia-based theater director, [...]

Sasha Issenberg on 'The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns' September 12
Hour 1 What convinces a voter this way or that? It’s an age-old question that’s driven one of the surest, fastest-growing sectors of the American economy for the last several decades. But increasingly, that seemingly simple question is [...]

Kevin Powers: A war veteran's debut novel, "The Yellow Birds" September 12
Hour 2 Writer and 10-year U.S. Army veteran KEVIN POWERS will discuss his first novel, “The Yellow Birds,” which is based on his two years serving in the Iraq War. Guest host Maiken Scott will talk to Powers [...]

Did the 2009 $787 billion stimulus stop a second Great Depression? September 11
A few months after taking office, President Obama signed the $ 787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which gave most Americans a tax cut, sent billions of dollars to the states and invested almost half of the [...]

Friendships in adulthood — the challenges and rewards September 11
Hour 2 A recent article in the New York Times got us thinking about adult friendships and why making friends gets harder as you grow older.  If you’ve moved to a new city or neighborhood or gotten a [...]

The International Criminal Court's first decade September 10
Hour 1 Ten years after the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force in 2002, how is the ICC working for the U.S. and international community in bringing war criminals to justice? What are its [...]

Has pop music changed? September 10
What is pop music and how does it change throughout the decades? The top ten songs on Itunes and Billboard may not reflect what you listen to and your grandparents listened to, but millions of people are still [...]

Assessing the Democratic convention's messages, impact September 7
Hour 1 President Barack Obama made his case for re-election last night inside the Charlotte arena that has hosted the Democratic National Convention this week, moved inside from the much larger stadium by the threat of rain. His [...]

Paul Tough on 'How Children Succeed' September 7
Hour 2 In his new book, “How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character,” New York Times Magazine writer PAUL TOUGH challenges our traditional view of why and how children thrive. Instead of tested intelligence, [...]

Who foots the bill for the political conventions; then, checking the fact-checkers September 6
Hour 1 After the speeches are over, the parties have ended, the banners come down, and the delegates head home, the Democratic and Republican parties will have spent well over $100 million on their national conventions.  So who [...]

Moving forward on high speed rail September 6
Hour 2 President Obama had big plans for high-speed rail in the United States when he came into office in 2008 — it included rail projects in 31 states.  But a number of governors rejected the federal funding [...]

Is there hope to be found in Camden? September 5
Hour 1 The latest horrific news from Camden found a 6-year-old boy slain and his sister horribly wounded in an attack in their home on Sunday by a neighbor suspected of being high on "wet," marijuana laced with [...]

Errol Morris on 'The Wilderness of Error' in Jeffrey MacDonald case September 5
Hour 2 Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker ERROL MORRIS gained fame 25 years ago when his third film, “The Thin Blue Line,” helped prove that a man convicted of murder was innocent. With his new book, “A Wilderness of Error: [...]

The Housing Market September 4
Hour 1 The housing market is showing signs of recovery with an increase in home sales in July and a rise in housing prices, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller index.  Builder confidence is also up and foreclosures [...]

Why college still matters September 4
Hour 2 All across the country, college campuses are bustling once again.   Students are moving into dorms, saying bye to mom and dad, consuming a lot of beer and pizza, and the starting classes.  But in recent years, [...]

The U.S. Constitution, as 'improved' by writer Kevin Bleyer September 3
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] The United States Constitution promised a More Perfect Union, but will we ever get a more perfect Constitution? The Daily Show writer KEVIN BLEYER has heeded that call with his new book, "Me the People: [...]

Host of Studio 360's Kurt Andersen on 60s culture September 3
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] A prominent law professor in her 60s looks back on her youth as she’s writing a tell-all memoir about her romping, spy novel-obsessed 1960s youth and left-wing college activism. As she’s about to reveal the [...]