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  • How to Watch TV News Revisited

    Is the news getting you down? We’ll find out what TV news is all about this hour with former New York news anchor and media scholar, Steve Powers. Powers has recently revised his classic, written along with Neil Postman, “How to Watch TV News” (Penguin, 2008).

  • Life in a Rapidly Changing Beijing

    We’ll see lots of ultra-modern Beijing on TV next month. What we probably won’t see are the centuries-old hutong neighborhoods which are being destroyed at a record pace to make way for new development. We’ll explore them this hour with Michael Meyer, author of “The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets […]

  • Obsessive Branding Disorder

    Regardless of the product it represents, it’s probably the brand that we’ll identify with and remember to look for next time. Our guest this hour, Lucas Conley, writes about the phenomenon in his new book “OBD – Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion” (Public Affairs, 2008).

  • The Men Who Invented the Constitution

    221 years ago, a group of men gathered in Philadelphia to frame our nation’s government. What was the process like? We’ll look back this hour with David O. Stewart, author of “The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution” (Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2008).

  • Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas?

    Who killed seven endangered mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park last summer? Why? Those are the questions that journalist (and adventurer) Mark Jenkins and photographer Brent Stirton set out to answer for National Geographic. Their cover story appears in the May issue of National Geographic Magazine. We’ll talk with Jenkins […]

  • Education in America

    What are the key challenges facing educators today and what can be done to improve our schools? We’ll talk this hour with Rita Haecker, president-elect of the Texas State teachers Association. She’s in Washington, DC for the National Education Association’s 146th Annual Meeting.

  • A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial

    Can the drug-approval process be improved, or at least altered to better ensure the public’s safety? Journalist Alison Bass might think so. Her new book is “Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial” (Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2008). Bass will join us for the hour.

  • Doug Brooks, Brinker International

    Doug Brooks is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer for Brinker International. Brinker brands include Chili’s® Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy.

  • Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

    There’s no doubt that Russia is changing – growing more powerful and, as our guest this hour might say, more dangerous. What’s driving the change and what can we expect from this “newly assertive” Russia? We’ll talk this hour with BusinessWeek’s Steve LeVine, author of the new book “PUTIN’S LABYRINTH: Spies, Murder, and the Dark […]