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 [...]

Pennsylvania, drug tests, unemployment and job creation May 7
Hour 2 Guests:  David Taylor and Paul Harrington In an interview last week about Pennsylvania's declining job growth numbers, Governor Tom Corbett said that among the challenges employers face in hiring is that too many job applicants can't [...]

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 [...]

Solitary confinement: the historical and contempory practice April 30
Guests:  Sean Kelley, Jules Lobel and Shirley Moore Smeal There are upwards of 25,000 prisoners in the United States who are housed in solitary confinement units, some of whom reside in these units for decades. In Pennsylvania, where [...]

Senate politics: Immigration reform and gun laws April 23
Last week was an interesting one in the U.S. Senate. A bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" unveiled their long-awaited bill to overhaul the nation's immigration system. Debate over the legislation began in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday in [...]

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 [...]

Continuing coverage of the bombings in Boston April 17
Guests:  John Chovanes, Ron Fournier and Heather Hurlburt As the details surrounding Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon unfold, we'll continue our coverage. We're joined in this hour of Radio Times by Cooper University Hospital trauma surgeon JOHN [...]

Reaction to the Boston bombings April 16
Guests:  Kevin Cullen Charles Ramsey and Tricia Wachtendorf In the aftermath of the tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon yesterday we get reaction from Boston Globe columnist KEVIN CULLEN, Philadelphia Police Commissioner CHARLES RAMSEY and TRICIA WACHTENDORF of [...]

Debating gun regulation April 11
GUESTS: JOHN GRAMLICH, BOB CAVNAR and GAREN J. WINTEMUT Firearm background checks may expand to include online purchases, guns bought at shows and through private sales. A bi-partisan bill was announced yesterday sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin III [...]

The problem with Pennsylvania's system of halfway houses for paroled inmates April 9
Guests: John Wetzel and Sam Dolnick A new report by the Pennsylvania Corrections Department shows that the state’s halfway houses are failing.  Recidivism rates are higher for inmates paroled to halfway houses than inmates released directly to the [...]

An update on the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention facility April 1
CAROL ROSENBERG, BENJAMIN WITTES & DAVID FRAKT At least 31 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have joined a hunger strike to protest the conditions and their indefinite detainment, according to some of the detainees’ lawyers. When [...]

Pennsylvania's new Megan's Law March 22
Guests: CAPTAIN SCOTT PRICE, TED GLACKMAN and GREG ROWE Pennsylvania's new and stricter Megan's Law took effect in December making the Commonwealth the sixteenth state to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.  The [...]

The justice gap — the challenge of providing legal services for poor people March 13
Guests:  MARC BOOKMAN, CATHERINE CARR, JAMES FUNT Fifty years ago this month, in the case Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme court ruled that poor people charged with a felony were entitled to government-financed legal representation.  Over the [...]

Cell phone video & public-police relationship March 7
GUESTS: DAVID RUDOVSKY, JERRY RATCLIFFE, TIMOTHY B. LEE Cell phone video footage captured then-Philadelphia Police Lt. Jonathan Josey striking a woman in the face at the street celebrations in North Philadelphia following September’s Puerto Rican Day Parade. When [...]

The Future of Guantanamo Bay March 1
Hour 1 Guests: Carol Rosenberg, Benjamin Wittes, David Frakt At least 31 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have joined a hunger strike to protest the conditions and their indefinite detainment, according to some of the detainees’ [...]

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.  [...]

Cybersecurity and the growing threats February 14
Guests: SIOBHAN GORMAN, ALAN PALLER and JAMES LEWIS On Tuesday, President Obama signed an Executive Order to protect the country’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.  As he announced Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, the [...]

Guns and politics February 11
GUESTS: RICHARD FELDMAN and ROBERT SPITZER Vice President Biden is in Philadelphia today to hold a roundtable discussion on gun violence with law enforcement officials. He’s been leading the White Houses effort for tougher gun laws including a [...]

Obama's drone strike policy February 8
The Obama administration’s use of drones for targeted killings has been drawing increasing attention and criticism from some.  In his confirmation hearings yesterday, John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for CIA director and current top counterterrorism adviser, faced questions and [...]

Philly Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey; then Barbara Laker on 'Tainted Justice' 4 years later February 6
Philadelphia Police Commissioner CHARLES RAMSEY joins us to brief us on his contribution to the Gun Violence Panel convened by Vice President Joe Biden and appointed by President Obama. That panel’s work culminated in four ambitious legislative proposals [...]

'Pull of Gravity,' a documentary about re-entry after prison January 31
Seven hundred thousand inmates are released from U.S. prisons each year. A new documentary film funded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania wrestles with the question: What happens when they come home? “Pull [...]

Debating mental health legislation after Newtown massacre January 25
The massacre last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut galvanized the national conversation on gun control, but that wasn’t all. Family stories of shooter Adam Lanza’s mental health struggles – on the heels of mental [...]

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 [...]

Guns & gun laws, after Newtown, CT: US, PA, Philly January 16
In advance of President Obama’s much anticipated news conference later this morning outlining his agenda regarding gun and safety regulations in the wake of the horrific massacre in Newtown, Connecticut last month, we check in with three people [...]

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 [...]

Gov. Corbett's suit vs. the NCAA over Penn State/Sandusky penalties January 8
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett sued the NCAA last week on behalf of the Commonwealth, claiming that the governing body for college sports went overboard in penalizing Penn State in response to the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal. In [...]

Violence against women January 7
The six men accused of gang raping and killing a 23-year-old Indian woman were formally charged last week. The horrific attack has set off dozens of protests in India demanding justice for the victim and changes in attitudes [...]

Marijuana politics in NJ, PA & the U.S. January 3
Last month, JAY LASSITER of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, purchased the Garden State’s first legal medical marijuana from Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, New Jersey. Battling HIV for two decades, the advocacy consultant and former BlueJersey.com blogger campaigned [...]

Gun violence in cross-hairs, in Philly & U.S. December 27
As many families gathered over the holidays, the issue most hotly debated and discussed was guns and gun violence in the United States. With the Dec. 14 massacre of 20 first-graders and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut, still [...]

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 [...]

Some suggestions about how we can live with guns December 12
Gun control hardly came up during the 2012 election.  Obama briefly mentioned an assault weapons ban in one of the debates but neither Governor Romney nor the President really weighed in on what’s become one of the most [...]

Philly legal shenanigans: DA's cash machine & Traffic Court ticket-fixing December 6
On today’s Radio Times, we look at two recent investigative reports raising questions about two different parts of the legal system in Philadelphia. In the first half of the hour, ISAIAH THOMPSON, who just left the City Paper [...]

PA Task Force on Child Protection, post-Sandusky December 5
The Pennsylvania Task Force on Child Protection has been meeting for 10 months with experts in all facets of child care and protection, tasked with reviewing the commonwealth’s laws and procedures protecting children, and where and why they [...]

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 [...]

Journalist Mark Bowden on "The Finish" of Osama bin Laden October 25
Hour 2 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 [...]

Remembering U.S. Senator Arlen Specter October 15
Hour 1 Former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Arlen Specter died on Sunday in Philadelphia of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  From 1966 to 1974, Specter was the Philadelphia District Attorney and in 1980 was elected to the U.S. Senate [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

Philly gun violence, Pt. 4: Moving toward solutions August 24
Hour 1 To close out Radio Times’ series on gun violence in Philadelphia this summer (links to Part 1: Responding to Gun Violence in Philadelphia & Wilmington; Part 2: Victims & City's Perspective; and Part 3: Youth Perspectives), [...]

Philly gun violence, Pt. 3: Youth perspectives August 22
Hour 1 In the third part of our summerlong series (links to Part 1 and Part 2) on the intersection of guns and violence in Philadelphia, we hear from some young Philadelphians whose lives have been touched by [...]

Hate groups in the U.S., including the Sikh temple shooter August 9
Hour 2 Wade Michael Page, the man police say shot up a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, on Sunday and killed six worshipers there, was a well-documented participant in the underground white racist extremist fringe of this [...]

Gun violence Philly: Victims & City's perspective August 2
Hour 1 The grim tally of homicide victims in Philadelphia continues to grow, with 208 lives lost in 2012 thus far, and the vast majority slain by gun. That’s 16 murder victims since our last show on this [...]

Debating Pennsylvania's prison system August 1
Hour 1 Two months ago, we had Pennsylvania’s Corrections Secretary JOHN WETZEL on the show, discussing his work leading the commonwealth’s corrections policy, management and reform. Wetzel, who rose up through the ranks from corrections officer to cabinet [...]

Penn State, the NCAA and next steps July 24
Hour 1 At a news conference yesterday, Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), outlined a set of unprecedented "corrective and punitive" sanctions on Penn State in response to the actions and inactions of [...]

Making sense of shootings: Aurora, CO & Utoya, Norway July 23
Hour 1 Yet another mass murder by gun has claimed too many lives in the United States and inflamed the nation's bitter debate about gun safety and legislation. Friday morning's slaughter in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater premiering [...]

Mexico's post-election politics & violent cartels July 19
Hour 1 On July 1st, Mexican voters returned the PRI – the Institutional Revolutionary Party that controlled the Mexican presidency for 71 years until 2000 – to power by electing its telegenic candidate, former Governor Enrique Pena Nieto. [...]

Responding to gun violence in Philadelphia & Wilmington July 18
Hour 1 This summer’s heat wave has brought the feared spike in homicides, especially murders by gun. The spasm of violence is both shocking and distressingly familiar, and Radio Times joins the voices searching for new and effective [...]

The Freeh report's damning conclusions about Penn State's Sandusky scandal July 13
Hour 1 Last month, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, for a reign of terror in his home, in his car and in the locker room of [...]

The statute of limitations in sex abuse cases July 10
Hour 1 A victim of sexual abuse in New Jersey has to report the incident two years from the day they turn 18, or else the statute of limitations runs out, and the abuser can’t be prosecuted. In [...]

Women in the military and "The Invisible War" July 3
Hour 1 Thousands of women serve in the U.S. military; 142 have lost their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Women make up 15% of the active duty force. Yet according to a startling new documentary, “The [...]

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden June 28
Hour 1 Joseph R. "BEAU" BIDEN, III, the oldest son ofVice President Joe Biden, is Delaware’s Attorney General. Once a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, Biden’s career in public service in the Delaware [...]

Life without parole for juveniles: The Supreme Court decides June 26
Hour 1 The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that states may no longer sentence juveniles under the age of 18 who have committed homicide to mandatory life sentences without parole.  The 5-4 majority ruling in the case called such [...]

The Fast and Furious investigation & executive privilege June 25
Hour 1 President Obama invoked executive privilege for the first time last Wednesday.  He was protecting Attorney General Eric Holder, who refused to turn over certain documents to a Congressional committee investigating the Justice Department’s failed gun-smuggling operation [...]

Catching up on courts: Sandusky & Lynn trials June 22
Hour 2 The nation’s courtrooms are always providing newsworthy cases and verdicts, and recent weeks have been full of important legal battles. The U.S. Supreme Court has been keeping the media, political, legal, medical and other sectors in [...]

Immigration, the White House & the Supreme Court June 19
Hour 1 President Obama’s “DREAM Order” last Friday, along with the pending Supreme Court ruling on Arizona's immigration law, are reshaping immigration policy on the state and federal levels and have put immigration squarely in the center of [...]

Pennsylvania's prisons, with Corrections Secretary John Wetzel May 29
Hour 1 Pennsylvania’s Corrections Secretary JOHN WETZEL has worked in the field for 20 years, starting as a corrections officer at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility, rising through the ranks at Berks County Prison, and serving as warden [...]

Survey says PA schools struggling; then, the Orie sisters in power, in trouble May 24
Hour 2 An annual survey of Pennsylvania school districts (pdf) found that schools are in financial crisis and are planning deep cuts to education programs. Things like summer school, Advanced Placement classes, tutoring, music, gym, arts education and [...]

Are hate-crime laws necessary? May 22
Hour 1 Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi was sentenced yesterday to 30 days in prison for committing a bias crime in connection with the suicide death of his roommate Tyler Clementi.  Bias intimidation laws, also known as [...]

Child welfare: protecting children's interests April 30
Hour 1 The shocking death of 6-year-old Khalil Wimes, who was allegedly starved and beaten to death by his parents, has outraged and confused many Philadelphians. Why was this young boy removed from a safe foster home and [...]

Cullen Murphy on The Inquisition & its modern legacy April 27
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] 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 [...]

Pulitzer Prize winner Sara Ganim & her editor Mike Feeley; then the Philadelphia Food Stamp Challenge April 24
Hour 1 In announcing its award for local reporting last week, the Pulitzer Prize committee praised crime reporter SARA GANIM and her colleagues at the Patriot-News of Harrisburg for “courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State [...]

Philly's crumbling vacant buildings, & what to do about them April 17
Hour 1 Last week’s fire at the former Bucks Hosiery factory in Kensington killed two firefighters and cast a spotlight on a longterm problem confronting Philadelphia: the economic opportunities, challenges and physical dangers presented by its many old [...]

Sexual assaults on college campuses April 16
It is estimated that  20 to 25 percent of women will be the victim of a completed or attempted rape while in college, but fewer than 5 percent of these cases go reported. High profile cases at Penn [...]

Strip searches: Debating the recent Supreme Court ruling April 9
Hour 1 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that anyone arrested can be subjected to a strip search even if they’re being held for a minor offense. That’s what happened to plaintiff Albert Florence, who was wrongly [...]

A Breeze of Hope & justice for sexual abuse survivors April 6
BRISA DE ANGULO is a student at Rutgers School of Law-Camden and a co-founder of  Centro Una Brisa De Esperanza (CUBE), or A Breeze of Hope Center — the only place in Bolivia specializing in providing comprehensive assistance [...]

A conversation with former Sen. Arlen Specter March 29
Hour 1 In his new memoir, "Life Among the Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It," former Pennsylvania Senator ARLEN SPECTER tells stories about his decades in politics, [...]

Penn professor John DiIulio on politics, religion & government March 26
Hour 1 Penn professor JOHN DiIULIO has long been an advocate for the role of faith-based organizations in the delivery of social services provided by the government.  Over the years, in the Philadelphia area, he has created programs [...]

The Trayvon Martin Case March 26
Hour 2 The shooting death of Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida has sparked outrage around the country. The 17-year-old black teen was unarmed and walking home from a convenience store when he was [...]

Hate crimes, cyberbullying & the Rutgers spy cam case March 22
Hour 1 The ruling against Rutgers student Dharun Ravi, who used a webcam to spy on his roommate Tyler Clementi, provides stern warnings regarding the punishment for bullying by young people and the prosecution of hate crimes. Clementi [...]

Sex trafficking, prostitution & backpage ads March 16
Hour 2 Sex trafficking doesn’t only happen abroad, it’s become a growing crime in the United States as well. According to the FBI, more than 100,000 children are trafficked for sex in the United States every year and [...]

Kony 2012, the controversy & a reality check March 13
Hour 2 Since the "KONY 2012" video went viral on March 5, over 75 million viewers have watched it online.  Created by the nonprofit organization Invisible Children, the video was produced to create awareness of the atrocities perpetrated [...]

Pennsylvania gun laws: The state vs. local governments February 21
Hour 1 Pennsylvania state law forbids local governments from making their own gun ordinances, but in an effort to control gun violence, cities, towns and counties across the Commonwealth, including Philadelphia, have enacted laws mandating the reporting of [...]

Internet piracy & how to stop it February 16
Hour 2 From the download of that song stuck in your head to the episode of that TV show viewed on a foreign website, it's easier than ever to get your favorite media for free on the internet. [...]

The Supreme Court's blockbuster term February 2
Hour 1 By all accounts, the Supreme Court's current term has been filled with decisions on important and historic cases, influencing criminal procedure, privacy, and decency on the airwaves, with decisions still to come that will influence politics [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Russell Banks' Lost Memory of Skin December 30
Hour Two [REBROADCAST] Where do convicted sex offenders live after they’re paroled? Laws vary within the United States and the states themselves, and Miami-Dade County made news the last several years as its ordinance banned registered sex offenders [...]

A Cultural History of Shoplifting December 16
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] It’s called the “five finger discount” and it’s been around for centuries – Plato, Zeno and St. Augustine all had thoughts on shoplifting.  In her fascinating book, The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, writer [...]

Doing a better job of protecting our children November 29
Hour 2 Several high profile cases in recent years involving the abuse of children have highlighted serious weaknesses in Pennsylvania's child welfare system and the Commonwealth's laws designed to protect them. Charges of sexual abuse at Penn State and [...]

What we can learn about child sexual abuse from the Penn State case November 15
Hour 1 As shocking and disturbing as the allegations against former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky are, some of the facts of the case come as no surprise to experts in the field of child sexual abuse.  As [...]

Reexamining Eyewitness Testimony November 14
Hour 1 Eyewitnesses identify roughly 75,000 suspects a year and some studies have shown that as many as one-third of them may be wrong. DNA evidence has exonerated over two hundred people convicted, in part, on false identification. [...]

The how & the why of hit-and-run drivers November 7
Hour 1 Sometimes, it’s because they’re drunk or high. Sometimes it’s because they’re uninsured or unlicensed. But why – how – a driver could flee the scene of an accident – hit and run – is still largely [...]

PTSD: A Mafia mole & NBA ref blows whistle on recovery November 4
Hour 1 BOB DELANEY’s life has already brought him deep inside worlds most of us can only dream about. In his first act, he spent three years infiltrating the Mafia as a young New Jersey state trooper. Then [...]

Thinking about political evil with Alan Wolfe October 27
Hour 1 In his provocative new book, Political Evil:  What It Is and How to Combat It, Boston College political scientist ALAN WOLFE challenges the way we think about genocide, humanitarian intervention and the use of force to [...]

Youth courts and the value of a jury of their peers October 27
Hour 2 In the last decade the number of juvenile offenders in jail has dropped about 25 percent — welcome news since research and experience show that young people who serve time are more likely to become more [...]

What Tacony dungeon tells us about holes in safety net for mentally challenged adults October 26
Hour 1 The October 15th discovery in a dirt-floored sub-basement in the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia sickened and chilled the spines of even hardened cops and reporters: four intellectually disabled adults under blankets, one chained to a boiler, [...]

Perspectives on Crime and Punishment October 20
Hour 1 The recent execution of Troy Davis in Georgia has reignited a public debate over the death penalty in the United States.  Davis, who was convicted of killing an off-duty police officer in 1989, had always maintained [...]

Erosion of our civil liberties post-9/11, with ACLU president Susan Herman October 19
Hour 1 According to our guest, SUSAN HERMAN, president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the greatest casualty of the war on terror is the assault on the U.S. Constitution.  Of particular concern to Herman is the [...]

Closure: The Rush to End Grief and What it Costs Us October 17
Hour Two Do you need closure to heal? Can it be achieved? Most people want a satisfying end to a traumatic event, but are we setting our expectations too high? Our guest, associate professor of sociology at Drake [...]

Russell Banks' "Lost Memory of Skin" October 11
Hour Two Where do convicted sex offenders live after they’re paroled? Laws vary within the United States and the states themselves, and Miami-Dade County made news the last several years as its ordinance banned registered sex offenders at [...]

Dana Priest on 'Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State' September 12
Hour 1 In the 10 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks commemorated yesterday, the world has been utterly transformed. But so much of what has changed has been done in secret, classified and covered up by officials in [...]

David Eagleman: The Secret Lives of the Brain August 11
Hour 2 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 new book INCOGNITO: The Secret Lives of the Brain, Eagleman [...]

What to do about violent flash mobs in Philadelphia? August 9
Hour 1 We’ll discuss the “flash-mob” youth violence crime wave plaguing the city of Philadelphia, what’s causing it and the city’s official response, which was announced by Mayor Michael Nutter yesterday [Monday Aug. 8]. In it, Mayor Nutter [...]

Massacre in Norway & Europe's far right July 28
Hour 1 The attacks in Norway on Friday killed 76 people, most of them teens and young adults slaughtered at an island camp for young political leaders in training. Early on, speculation about the murderers focused on Al [...]

Facial Recognition Technology July 21
Hour 1 Police and sheriff departments around the country are testing facial recognition technology. They are building databases of suspects using photos, iris scans and fingerprints that will allow law enforcement officials to identify people remotely using handheld [...]

A Cultural History of Shoplifting July 11
Hour 2 It’s called the “five finger discount” and it’s been around for centuries – Plato, Zeno and St. Augustine all had thoughts on shoplifting.  In her fascinating new book, The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, writer [...]