Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill on Dirty Wars May 21
GUEST: JEREMY SCAHILL Much of the Obama Administration’s national security policy relies on the work of  the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the CIA’s Special Activities Division. According to our guest JEREMY SCAHILL, National Security Correspondent for [...]

Historian Richard Beeman's behind the scenes look at the Continental Congress May 20
Guest:  Richard Beeman In his new book, Our Lives, Our Fortunes, & Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, historian RICHARD BEEMAN documents the turbulent 22-months during which the First and Second Continental Congresses met in Philadelphia [...]

Peter Edelman on why U.S. is 'So Rich, So Poor' May 17
GUEST: PETER EDELMAN [REBROADCAST] PETER EDELMAN has been working to raise awareness about and fighting to end poverty in the United States for four decades.  Touring the Mississippi Delta in 1967 with his boss, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, [...]

The global garment industry: Bangladesh, workers' safety and us May 15
Guests: Scott Nova and Pietra Rivoli After last month's factory fire in Bangladesh that killed over 1,000 workers, three of the world's largest clothing manufacturers have agreed to a plan that would require retailers to help pay for [...]

Who's getting married, who isn't and why May 15
Guest:  Andrew Cherlin In honor of the start of wedding season, we’re going to spend the hour talking about the state of the American marriage. Despite the odds (the U.S. Census Bureau says roughly 50% of first marriages [...]

Should refusing medical care for children be considered neglect? May 14
Guests:  Paul Offit and Shawn Peters Eight-month old Brandon Schaible died last month after his parents relied on prayer instead of medical care to treat their sick baby. The Schaibles, who live in Philadelphia and are members of [...]

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution May 13
GUEST: NATHANIEL PHILBRICK Was the order, “Don’t fire ‘till you see the whites of their eyes” really shouted at rebels near Boston’s Breed’s Hill? How was Boston the ‘cradle of liberty’ as one in five families were slave [...]

The Brothers Emanuel May 10
Guest: EZEKIEL EMANUEL HR 1 [REBROADCAST]EZEKIEL EMANUEL is the eldest brother of the current Mayor of Chicago and former White House Chief of Staff, and a powerful Hollywood agent immortalized in the HBO series, “Entourage” – Rahm and [...]

The Great Gatsby May 9
Hour 2 Guests:  Suzanne Del Gizzo and Michael Tatner The newest film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925, jazz era novel The Great Gatsby opens in movie theaters this weekend. This time around, Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has [...]

Anatomy of violence May 6
Guest: Adrian Raine Why does someone commit a violent crime?  Is it their genes, their environment or a combination of the two? Neurocriminologist ADRIAN RAINE has been studying the psychological origins of crime for 30 years and, through [...]

Alexandra Horowitz: "On Looking" May 3
Guest: Alexandra Horowitz [REBROADCAST] Take a walk around the block and look around — what do you see?  What don’t you see?  Cognitive scientist ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ says that most of us fail to see a lot of the [...]

'Embers of War': Historian Fredrik Logevall traces long roots of Vietnam War May 2
GUEST: FREDRIK LOGEVALL [REBROADCAST] Why did Vietnam became the setting for one of the longest and bloodiest struggles of the entire post-1945 era, and why did two Western powers, first France and then the United States, lose their [...]

What do you say to a sick friend? April 30
Guest:  Letty Cottin Pogrebin What do you say to a sick friend and why is it so difficult to come up with the words and actions that both adequately express our concern and at the same time offer [...]

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia with writer Mohsin Hamid April 26
GUEST: MOHSIN HAMID [REBROADCAST] Pakistan-based writer MOHSIN HAMID's latest book is “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia." Written as a  self-help novel, with chapters like “Avoid Idealists” and “Befriend a Bureaucrat,” it  follows the life of [...]

Michael Pollan: Cooked April 26
Guests: Michael Pollan “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” That’s the famous advice of food writer MICHAEL POLLAN.  Pollan has written a number of bestselling books exploring the problems with America’s industrialized food system and the way [...]

Vali Nasr: Dispensable Nation April 25
Guest: Vali Nasr Middle East scholar VALI NASR knows President Obama’s foreign policy inside and out.  From 2009 to 2011, Nasr was a senior adviser to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and worked closely with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. [...]

Local, award-winning poets DAISY FRIED and LYNN LEVIN April 25
GUESTS: DAISY FRIED and LYNN LEVIN “Women’s poetry is like a car – it might have purple lights underneath, or outrageous hubcaps, or an enormous spoiler jutting off the back, but underneath it’s still a car.” You’ll hear [...]

Revisiting King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. April 24
Guest:  Jonathan Rieder Fifty years ago this month, from his cramped, dirty jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr. drafted a letter in response to eight white moderate clergymen who had issued a statement criticizing the [...]

What drives radicalization; then media coverage of the Boston bombings April 22
Guests: John Horgan and Rem Rieder What does it take for a young man to go from being what friends said was a "regular" kid to someone who commits a heinous act of violence? What would motivate that [...]

"Fire and Forget" and the value of war stories April 18
Guests:  Matt Gallagher and Roy Scranton Fire and Forget is an anthology of short stories about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the post-war lives of those who served. All written by veterans, the stories reflect the [...]

Digital Etiquette April 18
Guest: Daniel Post Senning It’s probably happened to you – a friend answers a text at dinner or checks their email in the middle of a conversation.  Maybe you’re the guilty one.  Sometimes it seems like good manners [...]

"Far from the Tree" with author Andrew Solomon April 17
Guest:  Andrew Solomon In his new book,  Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, writer ANDREW SOLOMON tells the complicated, sometimes heartbreaking and oftentimes compelling stories of parents who not only learn to cope [...]

Meet Poet Ernest Hilbert April 16
GUEST: ERNEST HILBERT Many years ago our guest ERNEST HILBERT washed dishes after college to make ends meet – he would tape a poem on the dishwasher and memorize it to inspire him, like many artists before him, [...]

A conversation with Michael Smerconish; then Bill Adair on the future of journalism April 12
Guests:  Michael Smerconish and Bill Adair MICHAEL SMERCONISH announced last month that he is taking his syndicated, Philadelphia-based talk show to SiriusXM radio starting this Monday, April 15th.  Calling his style a "non-ideological brand of talk" he's soured [...]

When sibling rivalry follows us into adulthood April 12
[REBROADCAST] For most of us, the bickering and battling with our brothers and sisters when we were children become amusing pieces of our family history. But for others, unresolved hurts and jealousies accompany us into adulthood and have [...]

Frans de Waal: Primates, evolution and morality April 11
Hour 2 Guests: Frans de Waal Morality is not unique to humans.  Biologist FRANS DE WAAL has found ethical behavior like empathy, altruism, and fairness in chimpanzees, bonobos and capuchin monkeys.  De Waal is the director of the [...]

Jackie Robinson and the civil rights movement April 10
Guests:  Chris Lamb and Michael Long On April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Boston Braves on opening day of Major League Baseball, marriage between blacks and whites in most [...]

The Brothers Emanuel April 2
Guest: EZEKIEL EMANUEL EZEKIEL EMANUEL is the eldest brother of the current Mayor of Chicago and former White House Chief of Staff, and a powerful Hollywood agent immortalized in the HBO series, “Entourage” – Rahm and Ari Emanuel. [...]

Marlene Zuk on "Paleofantasy" April 1
Guest: Marlene Zuk Have you tried barefoot running, the Caveman Diet or attachment parenting?  Taking lessons from our ancient ancestors has become all the rage lately.  But evolutionary biologist MARLENE ZUK warns that our Paleolithic past was far [...]

Rebecca Skloot, 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' March 29
[REBROADCAST] Henrietta Lacks was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors; she died in obscurity more than 60 years ago, buried in an unmarked grave. But her cells, taken by scientists [...]

The health and stability of our financial system March 26
Guests:  Jesse Eisinger and Anat Admati Is the financial system any safer today four years after the bank bailout? The Dobb-Frank financial reform bill was supposed to bring stability, accountability and transparency to Wall Street but a lot [...]

The controversy surrounding "Being White in Philly" March 25
GUESTS: ROBERT HUBER and TOM MCGRATH Philadelphia Magazine’s March cover story, “Being White in Philly: Whites, Race, Class, and the Things that Never Get Said,” has created a local media phenomenon. The story, written by journalist ROBERT HUBER, [...]

Online Comments March 25
Guests: Dietram Scheufele, Meghan Daum, Bob Cohn Do you read the comments at the end of an article or blog?  Do you post responses yourself?  A recent study examined the effect of online comments on readers and found [...]

Jonah Berger on how products, behaviors and ideas catch on March 22
Guest:  Jonah Berger Why does a fad become a fad?  Why does a video go viral?  What makes some products catch on when others fail?  Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last 10 years researching the [...]

Salt, Sugar and Fat March 21
GUEST: MICHAEL MOSS If you eat processed food, how much do you scrutinize the ingredients on the package? Our guest, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, MICHAEL MOSS, has considered the quality of these ingredients, including identifying the 8,500 milligrams [...]

Assessing the media coverage of the war in Iraq March 20
Guests:  JONATHAN LANDAY, MARK THOMPSON In 2004, the New York Times ran an unprecedented apology for its reporting in the lead-up to the U.S. war in Iraq admitting that their work "was not as rigorous as it should have [...]

A conversation with Philadelphia activist and restauranteur Judy Wicks March 18
Guest:  Judy Wicks JUDY WICKS founded the White Dog Cafe on the first floor of her house along a row of threatened brownstones in West Philadelphia. Over the years she grew what began as a small muffin shop [...]

Lincoln's code: the fundamentals of international war time conduct March 15
[REBROADCAST] 1863 was a very bloody year as thousands of Americans were killed in many Civil War battles, despite the hopeful start of the year, as the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln on January 1st. But [...]

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court March 15
Guest: Sandra Day O'Connor Justice SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR was the first woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court.  She joins us in studio to discuss her new book, "Out of Order: Stories from the History of [...]

Alexandra Horowitz: "On Looking" March 14
Guest: Alexandra Horowitz Take a walk around the block and look around — what do you see?  What don’t you see?  Cognitive scientist ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ says that most of us fail to see a lot of the world [...]

The pros and cons of working from home March 13
Guests:  Raymond Fisman and Jennifer Glass Like many technology companies, Yahoo had a corporate culture that encouraged employees to work remotely providing them with flexible work hours and less time spent commuting.  All that will come to an [...]

The Chavez Legacy March 11
Guests: George Ciccariello-Maher, Francisco Toro Last week, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died after a two-year battle with cancer at the age of 58. He was a polarizing figure in Venezuela and the world. To some, he was a [...]

A Circus Life: the art and history of the big top March 8
Guest: Duncan Wall Have you ever dreamed of running off to join the circus?  That's exactly what DUNCAN WALL did.  After studying the circus in Paris he became so intrigued he decided to apply to the prestigious Ecole [...]

Novelist Karen Russell finds 'Vampires in the Lemon Grove' March 7
GUEST: KAREN RUSSELL KAREN RUSSELL has enjoyed critical acclaim and success since her novel, "Swamplandia!," was published in 2011. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and is being adapted for HBO. Her new book, "Vampires in [...]

The civil war in Syria: The conflict, U.S. policy and how might it end March 6
GUESTS:  SAMER ABBOUD and ANDREW TABLER Last week, for the first time since the civil war in Syria began two years ago, the U.S. announced its support for the Syrian opposition movement.  In a major shift in policy, [...]

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia with writer Mohsin Hamid March 6
GUEST: MOHSIN HAMID Pakistan-based writer MOHSIN HAMID's latest book is “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia." Written as a  self-help novel, with chapters like “Avoid Idealists” and “Befriend a Bureaucrat,” it  follows the life of a [...]

Proposals for a new Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract March 5
GUESTS:  WILLIAM HITE, RON WHITESTONE, ANDREW ROTHERHAM Philadelphia School District leaders say that in order to prevent a deficit of $1 billion over the next five years, they will be asking teachers to make major concessions that would [...]

To Sell is Human March 4
Guest: DANIEL PINK According to the 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine people work in sales. And the other nine work in sales, too, according to our guest, DANIEL PINK. Employees pitch new ideas to their [...]

David Leonhardt on the sequester, the debt, the deficit and economic growth February 28
GUEST:  DAVID LEONHARDT Tomorrow is the day the sequester is set to kick in — that's the $85 billion in government spending cuts for the coming year that resulted from the failure of Congress in 2011 to raise [...]

Peter Edelman on why U.S. is 'So Rich, So Poor' February 28
GUEST: PETER EDELMAN PETER EDELMAN has been working to raise awareness about and fighting to end poverty in the United States for four decades.  Touring the Mississippi Delta in 1967 with his boss, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, exposed [...]

The history and legacy of mass incarceration in the U.S. February 27
GUESTS:  KEITH REEVES, JANE SIEGEL, HEATHER ANN THOMPSON As a result of stricter drug laws and more rigid sentencing guidelines enacted in the 1970s, the U.S. prison population has grown by 500 percent over the past thirty years.  [...]

The life and art of Horace Pippin February 25
GUESTS: JUDY STEIN, GWENDOLYN DUBOIS SHAW, JEN BRYANT This year marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of African American artist Horace Pippin who was born and lived most of his adult life in West Chester, Pennsylvania.   Entirely [...]

Vow: A Memoir of Marriage (And Other Affairs) February 22
GUEST:  WENDY PLUMP WENDY PLUMP found out from a friend that her husband was cheating on her.  What made it even worse was that he had a child with his mistress and this second family lived a few [...]

85th Academy Awards preview February 22
GUESTS: PIERS MARCHANT, MATTHEW QUICK and SAM FRENCH The 85th Academy Awards are this Sunday, February 24th, and we’re going to listen back to Marty’s interviews with local connections to two nominated films: writer MATTHEW QUICK, whose debut [...]

Nuclear weapons and nonproliferation February 21
GUEST:  WARD WILSON North Korea conducted its third underground nuclear test last week, the same day President Obama addressed the country in his State of the Union speech.  Obama has made reducing the nation’s nuclear arsenal a priority [...]

The Science of Winning and Losing February 21
GUESTS: PO BRONSON and ASHLEY MERRYMAN How can you make the best of your inner competitive spirit? According to our guests, competition must work if the participants know the rules of the game. Author PO BRONSON and journalist [...]

Addiction: tightening the gap between research and practice February 19
Are addiction treatment centers prepared to provide the care necessary for sustainable sobriety? And how can we successfully track those suffering from addiction after they have 'graduated' from intensive treatment? We’ll get an update on how the growing [...]

The secrets of happy families with Bruce Feiler February 19
Guest:  BRUCE FEILER For his new book, The Secrets of Happy Families, Bruce Feiler used his experience as an investigative reporter to discover new techniques and ideas to make contemporary family life more functional, more meaningful and more [...]

The complicated, internal secrecy of the Eisenhower administration February 18
[REBROADCAST] President Dwight D. Eisenhower, known for his calm, grandfatherly demeanor, was the first American president that could have destroyed the world, according to our guest, writer EVAN THOMAS. The morning after his election in 1952, “Ike” was [...]

Laughing, sneezing, burping and more: the science of curious behavior February 18
[REBROADCAST] Scientists have sent rovers to Mars and decoded our DNA but they rarely look at the strange assortment of behaviors that we all do everyday – scratching, burping, sneezing, yawning, and laughing.  Psychologist and neuroscientist Robert Provine [...]

'Eslanda,' a new look at Paul Robeson's remarkable and underappreciated wife February 15
GUEST: BARBARA RANSBY Paul Robeson, one of the most interesting figures of the 20th Century, has been the subject of dozens of books. Not so his remarkable life partner, Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson, an unsung heroine of [...]

Learning about love from arranged marriages; then the science behind online dating February 14
Guests:  ROBERT EPSTEIN, REVA SETH and BENJAMIN KARNEY The notion of an arranged marriage (by choice) seems odd to most of us but several recent studies have found that such unions are just as likely, if not more [...]

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom on 'Citizenville' February 13
GUEST: GAVIN NEWSOM You may recognize the name GAVIN NEWSOM from his historic 2004 decision as San Francisco Mayor to allow same-sex marriages. He is now the lieutenant governor of the State of California, following his two terms [...]

How to predict the next financial crisis, with Steve Clemons & Richard Vague February 12
GUESTS: STEVE CLEMONS and RICHARD VAGUE Are we missing the forest for the trees by focusing on government debt and not private debt? According to a recent report, “How to Predict the Next Financial Crisis” (link to pdf),  [...]

Al Gore on 'The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change' February 5
Former Vice President AL GORE has a new book out, inspired by his restless quest for understanding of the factors reshaping our world. It’s called “The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change,” and it ties together global climate [...]

A history of the financial crisis from economist Alan Blinder February 4
In his new book, After the Music Stopped, economist ALAN BLINDER offers a history of the financial crisis — its causes and the government efforts to fight it — and provides his prescription for the work that needs [...]

The Genius of Dogs February 4
If you've ever had a dog, chances are you’ve wondered what is going on in their head.  Scientists have been thinking about this too, probing the canine mind to figure out just how smart dogs really are.  And [...]

Jacob Tomsky's reckless memoir of hotels, hustles, and so-called hospitality February 1
[REBROADCAST] Our guest, JACOB TOMSKY, who has worked in many capacities in hotels for over 10 years, lets us in on how to get the best out of a hotel stay. Do: check in with the proper kit: [...]

The early causes and lasting impact of the education and knowledge gap January 31
For their newly-published book, Giving Our Children A Fighting Chance, education researchers DONNA CELANO and SUSAN NEUMAN studied two Philadelphia neighborhoods — one in Chestnut Hill and the other in North Philadelphia — and found that children living [...]

Immigration reform: reaction and response January 30
Yesterday afternoon, President Obama announced his blueprint for immigration reform in response to a set of principles laid out by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Monday.   The President's plan calls for a quicker path to citizenship [...]

Penn's Eve Troutt Powell on 'Tell This in My Memory' January 30
Hour 2 What does the slave trade in North Africa of the late 19th Century have to tell us about the countries whose revolutions and social unrest explode onto our screens today? How does the legacy of the [...]

The ongoing threat of al-Qaeda January 29
In her Congressional testimony last week regarding the attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Hillary Clinton said that the recent seizure of an Algerian gas plant and the ongoing conflict in northern Mali were “all part of [...]

An end to the combat ban for women January 28
Last week Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that he was ending the military’s ban on women serving in combat positions. “Female service members have faced the reality of combat, proving their willingness to fight and, yes, to die [...]

Julie Otsuka-The Buddha in the Attic January 25
Novelist JULIE OTSUKA didn’t dream of being a writer. She pursued fine art at Yale and Columbia Universities, and it wasn’t until she was 30 that she put her paint brush down and concentrated on words as her [...]

Ayana Mathis on The Twelve Tribes of Hattie January 24
AYANA MATHIS is living every aspiring writer’s fantasy. Your first book gets published and then the good reviews start rolling in. You are even chosen for the Oprah book club guaranteeing good sales.  Ayana Mathis’ novel that’s getting [...]

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards on why political parties are the real problem with government January 23
In his new book, The Parties Versus the People:  How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans, former Republican Congressman MICKEY EDWARDS argues that it is the political parties that are the root of dysfunction in American government.  [...]

The Mary Wilson, co-founder of the Supremes January 23
Last month marked the 50th anniversary of “Meet the Supremes,” the first album featuring the seminal female vocal group. From 1963-1969, the group scored 10 number one hits, including their first number one pop hit in 1964, “Where [...]

The Inauguration and Obama's next term January 22
Yesterday President Obama was sworn into his  second term as commander in chief of the United States , something that has only happened to 16 other U.S. Presidents.  The inaugural ceremony, though full of pomp and pageantry, didn't [...]

True confessions: Lance Armstrong comes clean January 18
Lance Armstrong confessed last night in an interview with Oprah Winfrey to taking performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee stripped Armstrong of his 2000 bronze medal and last fall cycling’s governing body, the [...]

William Ecenbarger on the 'Kids for Cash' scandal January 17
[REBROADCAST] 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 [...]

Sarah Palin: Unlikely Liberal January 14
Since her selection as Republican vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 election, Sarah Palin has become a popular partisan voice in conservative politics – she’s a strong Tea Party supporter and a commentator on FoxNews.  But for people who [...]

Food myths and fad diets January 11
Every New Year millions of Americans resolve to lose weight, eat better and hit the gym.  Sadly, many of us aren’t successful.  But in our quest to be slimmer and fitter, we often seize on headlines that tout [...]

Journalist Mark Bowden on "The Finish" of Osama bin Laden January 11
[REBROADCAST] Journalist MARK BOWDEN returns to Radio Times to take us inside the rooms where the decisions were made to take down Osama bin Laden. Having access to President Obama, his national security advisors, and high ranking members [...]

Abolitionist Pennsylvania U.S. Representative, Thaddeus Stevens January 10
If you’ve seen the recent film, “Lincoln,” you may have walked away wanting to know more about the character played by Tommy Lee Jones – outspoken abolitionist Pennsylvania U.S. Representative, Thaddeus Stevens. Our guests will help us understand [...]

Forty years since Roe v. Wade January 9
Forty years ago this month, the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, the historic case that made abortion legal in the United States. The Roe v. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could have [...]

Trips, adventures and vacations and how to get there in 2013 January 9
If you're like the staff of Radio Times, you're always planning your next trip or thinking about where you'd  like to go — especially this time of year when we're counting down the days to warmer weather.  There's [...]

What's happened to recess? January 7
As school districts cut budgets, worry about litigation and squeeze more academics into limited time, recess has taken a hit in terms of frequency and duration in some schools throughout the country.  Only six states mandate 20 minutes [...]

Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss: 'A Universe from Nothing' January 4
[REBROADCAST] How did the Universe arise from nothing? And what was there before?  Those are the kinds of questions that for most of us set our heads spinning — not so for renowned cosmologist LAWRENCE KRAUSS.  Krauss says [...]

The diary of Emilie Davis January 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 her pocket [...]

Ross King on Leonardo da Vinci and The Last Supper January 1
[REBROADCAST] 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 [...]

A look at today's changing drug laws January 1
[REBROADCAST] Recently 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 [...]

New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov December 31
[REBROADCAST] Are you comfortable choosing wine at a restaurant? Do you know a good value when buying a bottle in a store? Can you bring a red, white or bubbly to a party with confident vintage choice? The [...]

Remembering South Philadelphia's Jim Croce December 27
[REBROADCAST] South Philadelphia native Jim Croce left an indelible, musical mark in the world of singer-songwriters. When he died in a plane crash at the age of 30 in 1973, he left behind five studio albums and 11 [...]

Politics, foreign affairs and the year in review December 26
In Washington, lawmakers are still wrangling over plans that would prevent a fiscal crisis in coming days and have put on hold further negotiations until after they take their Christmas break.   Meanwhile on the city, state and federal [...]

Garbology: a look at America's trash habit December 26
[REBROADCAST] Americans make a lot of trash, more than any other country in the world. In fact, each of us produces around 7.1 pounds of garbage a day, or roughly 102 tons in a lifetime. And trash turns [...]

How make believe is important to our survival December 25
[REBROADCAST] 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, JONATHAN [...]

Listening to Johann Sebastian Bach into the 21st century December 25
[REBROADCAST] We’ll discuss Johann Sebastian Bach’s musical DNA from the 17th Century through today with writer PAUL ELIE. He looks at how the master’s music has been flexible through evolving technologies and has influenced countless popular songs. We’ll [...]

How to protect yourself from scams December 20
Tens of billions of dollars are lost each year to consumer fraud and when the economy is down, fraud goes up.  These last years have been boom times for scammers.  While research shows that many of us are [...]

Downsizing the Pentagon budget; then, what suicide bombers & rampage shooters have in common December 19
Should the U.S. slide off the fiscal cliff in a few weeks, over $55 billion in spending cuts a year for the next decade will kick in at the Pentagon. That amount added to the $487 billion in [...]

Lincoln's code: the fundamentals of international war time conduct December 19
1863 was a very bloody year as thousands of Americans were killed in many Civil War battles, despite the hopeful start of the year, as the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln on January 1st. But within [...]