Housing market recovery? May 9
Guests: Todd Sinai, Stan Humphries Home prices are increasing at their fastest rate since 2006.  According to the S&P Case-Shiller Index of 20 U.S. cities, prices for a single family house rose 9.3 percent from February 2012 to [...]

Why your online purchases could get more expensive May 7
Guests: Michael Mazerov and Megan McArdle Do you shop online?  If so, your purchases could get a little more expensive.  The Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act yesterday which will force Internet retailers to collect sales tax on [...]

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 [...]

Analysis of President Obama's trip to Mexico May 6
GUESTS: TIM JOHNSON and CHRISTOPHER WILSON Is a new Mexico emerging? That’s what President Obama said in a speech Friday during his two-day trip to Mexico, his fourth as President. He met with Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto [...]

Health care law update May 2
Hour 1 Guests: David Grande, Robert Field The Affordable Care Act, what’s popularly known as Obamacare, is three years old but a recent poll shows that 42 percent of Americans don’t even know it is law.  According to [...]

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 [...]

The ins and outs of federal tax policy April 15
GUEST: ROBERTON WILLIAMS It's Tax Day. Have you filed your taxes yet for 2012? Are you claiming the right tax credits for education, a child and child care?  ROBERTON WILLIAMS, Tax analyst and Sol Price Fellow at the [...]

Keystone XL Pipeline debate April 10
Guests: Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Amy Myers Jaffe The Obama administration is expected to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline expansion in the next few months.  The pipeline would carry 800,000 barrels a day of tar sands crude [...]

Give and Take: helpfulness as a key to success April 9
GUEST: ADAM GRANT Are you sick of being the patient doormat at work, passed by the fierce, ambitious type of co-worker who always seems to get ahead? Well, nice guys and gals may finish first, according to our [...]

The debate on paid sick leave in Philadelphia April 8
GUESTS: RANDY LOBASSO, MARIANNE BELLESORTE  & WILLIAM DUNKELBERG Last week Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter vetoed the Earned Sick Days Bill recently passed by City Council. This is the second time around for the bill, championed by Councilman Bill [...]

Debating 'no smoker' hiring policies April 5
Guests: Harald Schmidt, David Asch Smokers need not apply to the University of Pennsylvania Health System starting this July when a ban on hiring nicotine users will go into effect.  Penn Health system says this policy is an [...]

200 Years of Latino History in Philadelphia April 4
Guests: Erika Almiron, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Victor Vazquez Hailing from several different regions and close to half a million strong, Latinos have played a central role in Philadelphia, from politics to civic life. From the time of the founding [...]

The financial lives of twenty-somethings April 4
Guests: Annie Lowrey and Tamara Draut In an article in last week's New York Times Magazine, writer ANNIE LOWREY posed a provocative question — "Do Millennials Stand a Chance in the Real World?  Victims of the financial meltdown, [...]

US and American Airlines merger April 3
Guests: Henry Harteveldt and Brian Kelly Last week a federal bankruptcy judge approved the merger of US Airways and American Airlines allowing the $11 billion plan to go forward. When joined, the two companies would become the world’s [...]

Household chores — figuring out who does what and why it's so hard April 2
Guests:  Wendy Klein, Andy Hinds, Emily Oster Let's be honest….no one likes doing chores, but the good news is much has changed at home when it comes to sharing the responsibilities of raising children and maintaining a home.  [...]

Douglas Rushkoff's Present Shock March 27
Guest: DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF Do you often feel you aren’t on your game because you’re not hip to the new trend and are behind in your tweets? Our guest, author DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, has been observing our culture’s need to [...]

Rethinking law schools March 21
Guests: Brian Tamanaha, Lawrence Mitchell Law schools are in trouble. Applications are at a 30-year low and rising tuitions have led to high student debt.  A weak job market has meant that many graduates can’t find a good [...]

Should the PLCB be privatized? March 20
GUESTS: LEW BRYSON and MARC STIER On Monday, Pennsylvania’s House Committee on Liquor Control presented their revised version of Governor Corbett’s bill to privatize the sale of wine and hard liquor. The plan includes potentially slowing down the [...]

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 [...]

What is AVI, and what will it mean for Philadelphia? February 25
GUESTS: ROB DUBOW, PATRICK KERKSTRA and KEVIN GILLEN Philadelphia is in the midst of a massive overhaul of its property tax system. Mayor Michael Nutter’s Actual Value Initiative, known by its acronym AVI, is attempting to match city [...]

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 [...]

Obama's early education proposal February 20
President Obama wants to provide quality early education for all low to moderate income 4-year olds. Last week the White House provided more details on the proposal which would involve a  partnership with states to guarantee preschool for [...]

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),  [...]

Black Media in the 21st Century February 11
GUESTS: SARA LOMAX REESE, IRV RANDOLPH and LORI THARPS What is the role of Black Media today? As the landscape of journalism is exponentially changing, and those working in the field are taking inventory of how they cover [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

#innovateRT: The Arts Community January 16
“Kids are everything. Poetry is my passion, but PYPM is my purpose,” says our guest, poet PERRY “VISION” DIVIRGILIO, referring to his work with the Philly Youth Poetry Movement. The third part of our PHILADELPHIA INNOVATORS series drums, [...]

#innovateRT: A conversation with local tech innovators January 15
Talk to local government officials, entrepreneurs and investors and they will tell you that things are happening in Philadelphia's technology sector.   New tax incentives that benefit start-ups and venture capitalists who are committed to developing and nurturing them [...]

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 [...]

Worker safety in the global marketplace — whose responsibility is it? December 17
Over the past several months, major factory fires in Pakistan and Bangladesh have killed over 400 people working for companies that manufacture clothing for major American and European retailers and brands.  The tragedies are raising awareness of the [...]

The risks and rewards of older parenthood December 13
Among the many changes in American families over the past few decades is the increasing number of parents who are having children later in life.  While the average first time parent in the U.S. is in her twenties, [...]

Jacob Tomsky's reckless memoir of hotels, hustles, and so-called hospitality December 4
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: a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Hair and who we are October 8
Hour 2 Our hair says a lot about who we are.  That’s why losing it can be so traumatic. But for balding men, a new study may offer some hope. It turns out that a completely shorn head [...]

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 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 [...]

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 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, [...]

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake with writer Anna Quindlen August 31
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Writer ANNA QUINDLEN is on the verge of turning 60 and she says that one of the best part of getting older is that she just doesn't care what people think about her anymore.   She's [...]

The Common Core Standards for public education; then PA's voter ID law August 15
Hour 1 When No Child Left Behind (NCLB) became law in 2001 it promised to improve public education by raising standards and establishing measurable goals for student progress.  While the law was praised for making schools more accountable, [...]

National political roundup August 10
Hour 1 Speculation continues about who Mitt Romney will pick to join him on the GOP ticket – Tim Pawlenty, Rob Portman, Paul Ryan and Chris Christie are some of the names floated as possible running mates.  Romney [...]

Reimagining the postal service August 8
Hour 1 According to recent estimates, the United States Postal Service is losing $25 million a day and last week, defaulted on a  $5.5 billion dollar payment for future retiree benefits.  USPS is an independent agency yet it [...]

Chris Hayes: Can hard work & pluck be corrupted? July 30
Hour 2 Are those who worked their way to top doing a better job than those who were born into it? CHRIS HAYES, The Nation’s editor-at-large and host of MSNBC’s “UP with Chris Hayes,” feels America is broken [...]

Working at home July 27
Hour 1 Ten percent of U.S. workers telecommute to work each day – they log-in at home and avoid traffic and a dress code.  But a recent survey confirms what many people suspect, that when people work at [...]

Character and leadership July 25
Hour 1 What makes a great leader? Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty and others fail? New technologies, the unstable economy and the unconventional habits of high-profile CEOs show leadership has different skills and sensibilities. Our guest, [...]

Health care — what happens next? July 17
Hour 1 While the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is settled law, questions still remain about how and whether the law will work to improve access to health care, ensure its quality, and reduce its costs.  [...]

The life of a New Yorker receptionist/Scranton's financial trouble July 16
Hour 2 JANET GROTH had big dreams when she moved to New York in 1957.  Fresh from the Midwest, she landed a big interview at The New Yorker and was eager to begin a career as a writer.  [...]

The future of Philadelphia's oil refinery workers July 12
Hour 1 The future of United Steelworkers’ (USW) jobs at local oil refineries futures looked bleak last September when Sunoco announced plans to sell or close their South Philadelphia and Marcus Hook facilities. Later that month ConocoPhillips announced [...]

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 [...]

The high cost of cheap fashion June 20
Hour 2 Are you a clothes horse? Are your closets and drawers spilling over with shirts, pants, skirts, and shoes? It turns out Americans buy a lot of clothes — around 64 pieces a year — and that's [...]

Peter Cappelli on 'Why Good People Can't Get Jobs' June 11
Hour 1 Unemployment in the U.S. ticked back up to 8.2 percent in May, one reflection of the lingering effects of the Great Recession and a statistic that includes 12.7 million unemployed Americans. And even now, employers bemoan [...]

The role of public unions in the American workforce June 11
Hour 2 What is the role of public unions in today’s work force? Big changes in Wisconsin and California may be setting precedents for popular support in traditional union states like Pennsylvania. Have workers been given too good [...]

Deconstructing the work cubicle June 8
Hour 2 Do you work in a cubicle? If you do than you may know what it’s like to endure the smell of a co-worker’s stinky food, overhear a personal phone call or be interrupted by someone peeking [...]

The jobs picture for new graduates June 4
Hour 1 What kind of jobs are out there for new college graduates? How has the job market changed since the depths of the Great Recession of 2008? Who’s getting jobs, and who’s not, and why? Joining us [...]

Young Farmers May 29
Hour 2 Farmers markets are popping up in all around the country and many people are buying shares in CSAs for the season.  But even with all the talk about eating locally and community supported agriculture, the USDA [...]

Why students drop out of college & what can be done to help them graduate May 15
Hour 1 Until a decade ago, the U.S. led the world in college graduation rates. Now we rank 12th globally in the number of young adults who hold a minimum of an associate's degree, and while almost 70 [...]

How the new economic power of women is changing work, home and family May 11
Hour 1 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time working women earned 81 percent of what full-time working men earned in 2010, but over the past three decades women's wages have been steadily increasing. And now, more [...]

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake with writer Anna Quindlen May 10
Hour 2 Writer ANNA QUINDLEN is on the verge of turning 60 and she says that one of the best part of getting older is that she just doesn't care what people think about her anymore.   She's raised [...]

Lunch break: Why fewer American workers are taking it May 8
Hour 2 Do you take your lunch break when you’re at work – leave your desk, walk to a restaurant or maybe brown bag it in the park? Turns out, more and more American workers are eating at [...]

Suspended Santorum; then, the 'Buffett Rule,' politics & the economyt April 11
Hour 1 Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum suspended his campaign yesterday, one week before Pennsylvania's primary election. We'll check in with NPR National Political Correspondent DON GONYEA, who covered the announcement in Gettysburg yesterday, about the announcement and [...]

High-seas slavery: Was your seafood caught by captives? March 27
Hour 2 Was that seafood on your plate today caught by slaves? That’s the troubling prospect raised by the investigative reporting of E. BENJAMIN SKINNER, senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism of Brandeis University. Skinner, [...]

How high rents hurt the economy March 12
Hour 1 Most of us expect to pay more for housing in New York or San Francisco than we would in Birmingham or Omaha – two, three, even four times as much.  But Slate business and economics correspondent [...]

Is 60 the new 40? A conversation about middle age February 21
Hour 2 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 entry [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Future of Retirement December 28
Hour 1 A new poll published in the National Journal found that Americans over 50, when compared to today's retirees, are more stressed about their current financial circumstances and expect that they will have to work five years [...]

Are Machines Taking Over…the Workplace? December 26
Hour 1 [REBROADCAST] Work is hard to find in the United States right now. The unemployment rate is at 9% and we’ve lost some 8.5 million jobs since economic downturn began. Will these jobs ever come back? Technological [...]

Jon Corzine and MF Global — what went wrong and were laws broken? December 14
Hour 1 Former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine testified yesterday before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to explain the whereabouts of over $1.2 billion in client money missing from the accounts of the firm he headed, [...]

Long-term unemployment & its repercussions December 13
Hour 2 The most recent unemployment numbers announced December 2nd brought some good news, with the unemployment rate dropping from 9 percent in October to 8.6 percent in November. But few were celebrating, as that statistic benefits from [...]

Are Machines Taking Over…the Workplace? November 17
Hour 1 Work is hard to find in the United States right now. The unemployment rate is at 9% and we’ve lost some 8.5 million jobs since economic downturn began. Will these jobs ever come back? Technological advances [...]

The Occupy Movement October 31
Hour 1 It’s been a month and a half since the Occupy Wall Street protests started in New York’s Zuccotti Park. Since then, anti-Wall Street demonstrations have spread to cities around the country and world, drawing attention to [...]

Inside an Amazon.com warehouse in the Lehigh Valley September 29
Hour 1 When you order something from an online retailer like Amazon.com, it’s easy to forget the work that happens between your keyboard and the package arriving at your door. But an investigation by SPENCER SOPER, reporter for [...]

The Liquor Control Board, the Iranian hikers and the Federal Reserve September 22
Hour 1 Today on Radio Times, we'll catch up on three stories in the news we've been following.  We'll start off talking to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter BRAD BUMSTEAD about the push to privatize Pennsylvania's liquor stores. Then, we [...]

How to Help the Housing Market September 15
Hour 1 President Obama is touring the country pushing his new jobs plan.  But many people are wondering why he isn’t giving equal attention to the ailing housing market which is crucial to mending the economy.  In his [...]

The President's speech, Republican plans and the politics of jobs and the economy September 9
Hour 1 In a much anticipated speech last night, the president outlined his proposals for getting Americans back to work and jumpstarting a stagnant economy.  His roughly $447 billion plan included the extension of existing tax breaks for [...]

Back to School with budget cuts August 31
Hour 1 It was tough year for schools and teachers across the country as they struggled with their state governments over budget cuts. Here in Pennsylvania public education funding was slashed and in the last few months, and [...]

Why Sitting is Harmful to Your Health: The Science of Inactivity August 5
Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Millions of American workers spend most of their day inactive.  We may spend eight hours sitting at a desk in front of a computer.  All this sitting turns out to be deadly.  Researchers in the [...]

Men negotiating the work-life balance August 3
Hour 2 The pressures that women encountered when entering the workforce in large numbers – to excel at home and at work – are now being felt more fully by men. That’s the finding of a new study [...]

Dressing for Success: Has 'Business Casual' Gone Too Casual? July 28
Hour 2 It’s summer in Philadelphia. Therefore it’s very hot and humid, and putting on a pair of closed-toe shoes or a tie is the last thing you want to do going out the door to work in [...]

Why Sitting is Harmful to Your Health: The Science of Inactivity June 14
Hour 2 Millions of American workers spend most of their day inactive.  We may spend eight hours sitting at a desk in front of a computer.  All this sitting turns out to be deadly.  Researchers in the growing [...]

A check-up on the economy — is it growing, stalled or just going through a soft patch? June 2
Hour 1 It's been two years since the official end of the Great Recession, the worst economic downturn in 75 years.   Economists say we are in a recovery mode and big businesses, large banks and wealthy Americans are [...]

Secretaries 'Swimming in the Steno Pool' May 27
Hour 2 How did women enter the white-collar workplace? As secretaries and receptionists, mostly and at first. LYNN PERIL’s new book, Swimming in the Steno Pool: A Retro Guide to Making It in the Office, explores the history [...]

The Vanishing Middle Class May 23
Hour 1 What has happened to the middle class in America?  Is the American dream slipping away?  Middle class used to mean owning a house, putting your kids through college, and still having enough to retire on but [...]

Jobs and the Jobless May 10
Hour 1 The new job numbers came out last week — 244,000 jobs were created in April, mostly in the private sector, but still the unemployment rate crept up two-tenths of a percent.  So what do these latest [...]

Sleep and the Night Shift April 20
Hour 1 Recent news of air-traffic controllers falling asleep on the job got us thinking about the challenges of working the night shift.  The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it will give workers an additional hour between shifts [...]

Is It OK to Cry at Work? April 5
Hour 2 How much emotion can you show at work? Is it okay to cry at your desk once in a while? And if you do cry, does it reflect how much you like your job? Our guest, [...]