Old obstacles, new challenges. Sarah Chayes joins us for an update on the aftermath of America’s other war — in Afghanistan.
Guests:
Ahmed Rahid, Journalist and author of “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia”
Sarah Chayes, Field Director of the Kandahar branch of Afghans for Civil Society and former correspondent for NPR.

Colin Powell currently enjoys one of the highest approval ratings in the Bush administration. Yet, political leaders on both sides are suggesting that he resign, creating an even deeper rift between the Department of Defense and the Department of State.
We ask how a Colin Powell’s resignation and the growing rift between the State and [...]

Is science bringing us dangerously close to changing what it means to be human? Could we be developing technologies that will genetically design us out of our own humanity?
Genetic engineering and nanotechnology are awesome new technologies but they may threaten our species, argues author Bill McKibben in his new book, “Enough: Staying Human in [...]

In the long global arms race, the U.S. has emerged as the heavyweight champion. With unchallenged superiority in the air, land and sea, America is the most powerful nation the world has seen in centuries. But, does overwhelming military power buy America security or will it lead to more terrorism both inside and outside its [...]

A firefight in Fallujah has left several Iraqi protesters dead. Scott Peterson, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, reports from Baghdad on the latest developments in the U.S. effort to maintain law and order and to create an interim post-war Iraqi government.
Guests:
Scott Peterson, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor

Ten years after the Oslo Accords created the hope of peace for Israelis and Palestinians, the two peoples are still at war. One of Israel’s most celebrated authors, David Grossman, joins us to talk about his newest book, a compilation of essays he wrote since Oslo about the ongoing conflict.
An outspoken peace advocate, he asks [...]

Guests:
Case Ootis, Deputy Mayor of the City of Toronto;

Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican and rising star in his party, is in the hot seat over comments that linked gay consensual sex with bigamy, polygamy, incest, and adultery. Some gay-rights advocates and Democrats have called on him to quit the chairmanship of the Senate Republican Conference. Senator Santorum is standing by his remarks.
A few [...]

Guests:

She died this week at the age of 70. But Nina Simone, the High Priestess of Soul, leaves behind an extraordinary life’s work. Remembering the bitter and the sweet of a singular Jazz Diva.
Guests:
David Nathan, author of “Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of Over a Dozen Divas”
Gabrielle Goodman, professor of voice at Berklee College of [...]

Enron Corporation had a good run as poster child for the New Economy. Powered by Ivy League entitlement, rampant intimidation, unchecked ambition, and bogus numbers, Enron went down with a fatal case of denial. Whistle-blower Sherron Watkins saw the writing on the wall. She joins us tonight for an insider’s look at the fallen [...]

In 1983, an 18-person commission formed by the Reagan administration came out with a scathing report on the American public education system. “A Nation at Risk,” as it was called, was chockfull of strong language and disturbing findings on the state of the American public education, calling it “eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity.”
Twenty [...]

Presidential aide Karl Rove, the man who built Bush’s political career from scratch, isn’t giving his boss a moment to relax after the victory in Iraq. In the last two weeks, Rove and George W. Bush have been zigzagging the country on speaking engagements in what seems to be the very early stages of campaigning [...]

Seizing Saddam’s alleged weapons of mass destruction was Washington’s number one justification for invading Iraq. So far, US troops have come up empty-handed. A look at the search for Iraq’s missing WMD.
Guests:
Jonathan Tucker, Director of the Chemical Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program and Monterrey Institute for International Studies and author of “Scourge: The Once and Future [...]

On the same day U.S. envoy James Kelley left for Beijing, a secret Donald Rumsfeld memo was leaked calling for regime change in North Korea. President Bush has made no secret of his disdain for Kim Jong-il, but the Rumsfeld memo leads some to question the administration’s policy on how to resolve tensions on the [...]

Long repressed by Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s dominant Shiites are now free to express their faith. Hundreds of thousands are converging on the holy city of Karbala to mark the death of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Leaders have expressed their gratitude to the Americans, but now call for the U.S. to get out.
Dr. Mahmoud [...]

The size of executive pay packages fell last year overall, reflecting the sluggish economy and greater public scrutiny following two years of corporate accounting scandals. But many executives still managed to reel in super-sized pay packages despite poor company performance.
John Cassidy, staff writer for the New Yorker Magazine, says that the reason why senior managers [...]

More wiretaps and secret searches, government access to credit reports and other personal records, a database of DNA samples, and provisions allowing the Attorney General to revoke the U.S. citizenship of anyone who provides assistance to a group the U.S. government considers a “terrorist” organization are just some of the proposals readying for Congressional consideration [...]

Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for the Washington Post and historian, Rick Atkinson, was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division during the war in Iraq. Now, he’s back with a first-hand view of the second war in Iraq and the role of the journalists in a new kind of war.
According to Atkinson, because journalists were given [...]

Today, retired Army Lt. General Jay Garner spent his first day on the job as the U.S.-appointed boss of Baghdad. Among the pressing items on his agenda is supplying clean water and electricity to the stricken city. Christian Science Monitor’s Scott Peterson reports from Baghdad.
Guests:
Scott Peterson, Reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.