Oscar weekend is no longer the season of discontent for independent filmmakers. This year, Indies aren’t pressing their noses up against the glass, but racking up major nominations. The competitive independent alternative ushered in the ’90s by Hollywood’s own Robert Redford and by the brothers Weinstein at Miramax is a great, and often garbled American [...]

Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, was both an American success story and tragedy. Wilson was a pioneer in the field of financial market research but was often unable to pay his own bills. He was driven by a puritanical work ethic, but at times was unable to get out of bed because he [...]

WBUR’s news reporter Monica Brady-Myerov reports on the latest reactions to today’s release of two studies on the priest sex abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church.
Guests:
Monica Brady-Myerov, reporter for WBUR.

North Korea blamed the United States’ “hardline position” for the lack of progress in six-party talks in Beijing that began Wednesday. Officials from the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea are meeting to discuss North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and Washington’s demand that the reclusive and isolationist Communist country dismantle its [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called yesterday for a cut in social security benefits to rein in the burgeoning federal deficit. Meanwhile, in Kentucky today president Bush pushed to make his tax cuts permanent, yet backed away from Greenspan’s comments on social security. Tonight, On Point, the looming cost of social security.
Guests:
Laurence Kotlikoff, [...]

American jobs are flying overseas. Politicians are starting to moan. But what are the real options here? We’ll look at free trade, protectionism, and the future.
Guests:
Paul Craig Roberts, economist and columnist for Creators Syndicate, former assistant secretary of the treasury for economic policy in the Reagan administration (1981-1982)
Everett Ehrlich, director of research, [...]

The American economic machine, not to mention most of the rest of the world these days, runs on cheap oil and lots of it. The global economy can’t live without it. But we may feel the end of the age of oil much sooner than most people expect, says one of America’s top scientists.
Physicist [...]

After months of anticipation and controversy, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” opened in more than 3,000 theaters nationwide today. The film has been criticized for its graphically violent portrayal of the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth and for unfairly portraying Jews, which could feed anti-Semitism.
But the film is receiving glowing reviews [...]

After 19 years as junior senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry has a long record to poke at. Opponents say his position on gay marriage, the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, and especially Gulf Wars I and II, has swayed with the political winds.
Republicans accuse Kerry of flip-flopping on issues for political gain. The Kerry [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan today warned that cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits will be necessary to deal with the huge federal budget deficit and the looming retirement of the Baby Boom generation. The suggested cuts should not affect current retirees, Greenspan said, but future retirees will need to have reduced [...]

Author Debra J. Dickerson on race and racism, and bringing on African-American empowerment by bringing about “The End of Blackness.”
Guests:
Debra J. Dickerson, author of “The End of Blackness.”

Pakistan begins its push to gain control over the border region with Afghanistan in what has been described by military officials as a “hammer and anvil” operation involving U.S. troops.
On Point looks at Pakistan’s revitalized efforts in the hunt of for Bin Laden.
Guests:
David Rohde, Co-Chief, South Asia Bureau, New York Times
Husain Haqqani, journalist, diplomat and [...]

President Bush today said he supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Guests:
John Harwood, Political Editor, The Wall Street Journal
Nathaniel Persily, professor of law and political science at The University of Pennsylvania.

At bars and in their homes, “Sex and the City” fans said goodbye Sunday night to a show whose protagonists talked frankly about sex, relationships and dating faux pas. Tonight, On Point, six seasons of “Sex and the City” put to bed.
Guests:
L.S. Kim, assistant professor of film and digital media, University of California, [...]

Debate flares over Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier. Now the Hague takes up the case. We examine the impact on Israelis, Palestinians and the Middle East peace process.
Guests:
John Ward Anderson, reporter, The Washington Post
David Makovsky, senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process, Washington Institute for Near East [...]

Ralph Nader–who some Democrats believe played a “spoiler’s” role in the 2000 election–is running for president as an independent. The 69-year old consumer advocate made the announcement yesterday on the
NBC News program “Meet the Press.” Today, candidate Nader made the rounds of the morning talk shows.
We’ll look at the impact of the Nader candidacy [...]

Before Israel was a state, a group of young American sailors tried to carry 4,500 Holocaust survivors past a blockade into British-held Palestine. They were stopped, but their story helped change the map of the Middle East. On Point presents the Insdie Out documentary “Exodus ‘47.”
Guests:

Women’s roles have dramatically changed in the last few decades. Women now share the same career aspirations as men, and are still loving mothers. They make sacrifices, but it’s their nannies who often pay the highest price, says The Atlantic Monthly’s Caitlin Flanagan.
Tonight, On Point, how middle-class working women get ahead on the [...]

In his new book “The Sorrows of Empire; Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic” author Chalmers Johnson asserts that in the 13 years from 1989 to 2002 there was a revolution in America’s relationship to the rest of the world; there had always been an element of militarism and occasional extra-constitutional lapses but [...]

Katie Hnida made football history at the University of Colorado when she became the first woman to play in a Division 1 football game. Now, she’s making news by saying she was sexually harrassed, grouped, and raped by her male teammates.
The charge is the latest to rock the university. There have been allegations of escort [...]