National politics: Fiscal cliff & changing electorate November 30
In this week’s national political roundup, Marty talks about the fiscal cliff and the politics surrounding the negotiations, which has brought President Obama to a Montgomery County toymaker today, and the changing face of the American electorate. President [...]

Travel writer Andrew McCarthy's long way home November 30
ANDREW MCCARTHY is a world-class travel writer – he’s an editor-at-large for National Geographic Traveler, and has received numerous travel journalist awards including four 2011 North American Travel Journalist Awards. Andrew McCarthy is also an actor and can’t [...]

Former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair: from regulator to watchdog November 29
Former Chairman of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), SHEILA BAIR, will explain how she was one of the first people to identify and assess the subprime crisis of 2008. Currently a Senior Advisor to the PEW Charitable [...]

A conversation with Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Scottoline Serritella November 29
LISA SCOTTOLINE's daughter FRANCESACA SERRITELLA has gone into the family business. The duo has just published their second book together, "Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim." Its a collection of columns from their Philadelphia Inquirer "Chick Lit" columns [...]

John Baer's years on the front lines of Pennsylvania politics November 28
Harrisburg native and Philadelphia Daily News veteran reporter and columnist JOHN BAER comes in to discuss his irreverent observations on Pennsylvania politics from Governor  Shapp to Governor Corbett. In between these administrations, we’ll hear about how close Baer [...]

The attack in Benghazi, Susan Rice, and the GOP November 28
Yesterday, UN Ambassador Susan Rice met with Republican senators in an effort to explain remarks she made immediately following the September 11 attack on the US consulate and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya that killed US [...]

Updates on Egypt & Syria November 27
Egypt’s elected president, Mohamed Morsi, sparked a new political crisis less than two years after a popular uprising ousted Hosni Mubarak with a decree this week that his decisions would be exempt from judicial review. New mass demonstrations [...]

Everything you need to know about holiday shopping 2012 November 27
With Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving evening (now known as Gray Thursday) and Cyber Monday extending to Cyber Week, retailers are doing everything they can to get holiday shoppers shopping in a still sluggish economy. Bricks-and-mortar stores and [...]

States react to the Affordable Care Act November 26
With President Obama’s reelection, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. During the presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney promised to dismantle parts of “Obamacare” if elected, but now with Obama in office for four more years, [...]

William Ecenbarger on the 'Kids for Cash' scandal November 26
Between 2003 and 2008, Luzerne County juvenile court judge Mark Ciavarelli sentenced thousands of children who committed minor offenses to months of incarceration in two private, for-profit juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania.  The youngsters and their families were [...]

The role religion does play and should play in American government November 23
[REBROADCAST] 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 recent book, writer  Jacques Berlinerblau attempts to answer [...]

Why college still matters November 23
[REBROADCAST] 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 [...]

Adam Gopnik explains why The Table Comes First November 22
[REBROADCAST] Journalist and cultural critic ADAM GOPNIK believes “what goes on around the table matters as much to our lives as what appears on it.” The Philadelphia-born staff writer for The New Yorker has spent many years traveling [...]

Matthew Quick on Silver Linings Playbook November 22
[REBROADCAST] The dramatic comedy “Silver Linings Playbook," out in theaters now, is directed by David O. Russell (“The Fighter” and “Three Kings”) and stars Philadelphia native Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro.  The film has been [...]

The Jersey Shore, after Sandy: To rebuild or not to rebuild November 21
When Superstorm Sandy slammed into and through the southern Jersey Shore near Ocean City in the evening of Oct. 29, the full-moon high tide and storm surge laid waste to structures, streets and stretches of shoreline up and [...]

Our sense of hearing and how it shaped the mind November 21
Sound is everywhere in this world – you can’t escape it.  Our ears process millions of noises all day long –laughter, car horns, music, bird calls, computer keyboard clicks, the wind.  Sound and the way we hear it [...]

The Israel/Gaza conflict November 20
As the air war over Israel and Gaza continues and Israeli's amass ground troops and tanks along the shared border, Egyptian-led efforts to negotiate a cease-fire are underway.  Israel has demanded that Hamas stop the ongoing rocket fire [...]

Ross King on Leonardo da Vinci and The Last Supper November 20
One of the most famous paintings in the world is Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” painted on the wall of a Dominican convent in Milan in the 1490s.  Surprisingly, da Vinci didn’t start his masterpiece until he [...]

Economist Mark Zandi looks at the ending of the Great Recession November 19
We check in with MARK ZANDI, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, on the economic recovery of the last four years. While the effectiveness of the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act continues to be challenged, Zandi reports [...]

Sam Sifton on How to Cook for Thanksgiving November 19
Our guest SAM SIFTON, The New York Times’ national editor and food columnist, may be one of the most qualified people in the United States to answer such burning questions as “To brine or not to brine?” or [...]

A look at today's changing drug laws November 16
Last week Colorado and Washington voters passed ballot initiatives in support of the use of legal recreational marijuana. This is in addition to 18 states, including Washington, D.C., that have legalized medical marijuana on their books. The United [...]

Considering the Impeachment of President Abraham Lincoln November 16
[REBROADCAST] What if President Lincoln hadn't been killed at Ford's Theatre? What if John Wilkes Booth failed in his assassination attempt and Lincoln recovered, only to face an impeachment trial?  That's the premise at the center of  “The [...]

A second casino for Philadelphia? November 15
Hour 1 Today is the deadline for proposals to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for a second casino license set aside for the city of Philadelphia, and at least six proposals have been made public. Among them are [...]

Same-sex marriage election victories and LGBT rights November 15
Hour 2 Same-sex marriage supporters have a lot to celebrate this election.  In Washington State, Maine and Maryland voters chose to legalize gay marriage through ballot referendums.  In Minnesota, voters rejected a proposed State Constitutional ban on same-sex [...]

The Petraeus affair & its ramifications November 14
Hour 1 A stunning scandal has triggered the resignation of the most important military leader of modern U.S. history, David Petraeus, and has his successor of commander of the U.S. and NATO forces at war in Afghanistan, Gen. [...]

An update on the Library of Congress field recordings/Stephen Wade's banjo concert November 14
Hour Two Our guest, musician and writer, STEPHEN WADE, follows up on musicians and singers from the iconic Library of Congress field recordings from Southern Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta and the Great Plains in his new book, “The [...]

Healing, governing and leading after Election 2012 November 13
What became evident in the wake of the hard-fought, often heated 2012 election is that the United States is a deeply divided union — politically, philosophically, economically and racially.  In recent days, the candidates and members of both [...]

The rise of part-time workers November 13
According to New York Times reporter STEVEN GREENHOUSE, since 2006, the U.S. has cut a million full-time jobs while adding more than 500,000 part-time jobs.  While the increasing use of part-time workers, particularly in the retail and hospitality [...]

What new leadership in China will bring November 12
Hour 1 Just days after our Presidential election, the Chinese began their process of appointing a new leader. In a meeting that happens every ten years, two thousand delegates are gathered in Beijing for 18th Communist Party Congress, [...]

The Search for Earth-like planets November 12
Hour 2 Last week, astronomers announced they had found a planet seven times the size of Earth and with a habitable climate.  This Super-Earth orbits dwarf star HD 40307 and is just 43 million light years away (one [...]

Facts, lies and the 2012 election November 9
Hour 1 In a presidential election where each candidate accused the other of playing lose with the facts, in the end each campaign, to some degree, was guilty of misrepresenting the truth.    As a result, what we saw [...]

Is 60 the new 40? A conversation about middle age November 9
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Is 60 really the new 40?  It all depends on how you define the middle years of life, says author PATRICIA COHEN.  According to Cohen, traditionally, society has viewed the age of 40 as the [...]

Money and ads in the 2012 election November 8
Hour 1 The 2012 election was the most expensive in history and by a wide margin.  At a cost of $6 billion, this year’s federal campaigns spent $700 million more than the second most expensive election in history, [...]

The politics of hunger & poverty, post-election & post-Sandy November 8
Hour 2 The election has passed, and many macroeconomic signs point to a recovering economy. But that still leaves so many Americans — 46.2 million people — in poverty, including about 30 percent of Philadelphians by U.S. Census [...]

The 2012 election– looking back and forward November 7
Hour 1 Who won?  By how big a margin?  Did voters turn out?  Did the swing states swing?  By all accounts, the 2012 presidential election was the most expensive and among the most contentious in history.  The race [...]

Election 2012 — local races, the political polls, and voter supression November 7
Hour 2 We continue our conversation about the 2012 election.  Starting us off is Muhlenberg College professor CHRIS BORICK who has been following some of Pennsylvania's more heated races.  Then we'll turn our attention several interesting issues that [...]

The Divine Lorraine and development on North Broad November 6
Hour 1 The Divine Lorraine Hotel stands at 699 North Broad Street. The 10-story Philadelphia landmark was built in 1892 as a luxury apartment building, one of the city’s first skyscrapers.  Later it became a hotel, the first [...]

Looking back at 50 years of James Bond music November 6
Hour Two Our guest, JON BURLINGAME, ponders whether James Bond’s father, Ian Fleming, would have imagined the billion-dollar industry he created when he first sat down in 1952 to write “Casino Royale.” Part of the Bond legacy, in [...]

The Future of Philadelphia's Catholic schools: A conversation with Casey Carter November 5
In August the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that it was turning over control of 17 of its high schools and four special education schools to an independent foundation created to raise money and stave off closures for the [...]

Election preview and analysis November 5
Hour 2 With the election just a day away, we’re taking one more look at the Presidential race, the campaigns and the voters. We’ll talk about the impact of the super storm on Super Tuesday, the role of [...]

Final election preview: Sandy-stricken campaigns in NJ, PA & DE November 2
Hour 1 As we head into the final few days before Tuesday’s election, Radio Times looks at the presidential campaign and key races throughout the Delaware Valley. Joining us from New Jersey is BOB INGLE, senior political columnist [...]

Dreamland: David Randall on the science of sleep November 2
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] When journalist DAVID RANDALL woke up in his hallway screaming in pain after sleepwalking into a wall, he decided it was time to get some answers to his years of troubled sleep. But what Randall [...]

Sandy & the 2012 presidential election November 1
Hour 1 Perhaps the greatest surprise this October had nothing to do with a political misstep. Instead it was Mother Nature who intervened in the name of Hurricane Sandy. With a week left before the 2012 presidential election, [...]

The option of palliative care November 1
Hour 2 Many patients with serious illness and their families struggle with making end-of life decisions. Is there etiquette for discussing the ethics of breaking bad news to family members? What are the ethical guidelines doctors must consider [...]