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Past Shows — January, 2009
 
 
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Friday, January 30, 2009 at 11:00 am

The craze for karaoke. Equalizer or embarrassment? One devotee tells the uninitiated what they’re missing.

Comments [16]
 
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Friday, January 30, 2009 at 10:00 am

House Democrats pass the stimulus bill, the economy keeps bleeding jobs, and Obama’s envoy heads to the Middle East. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [69]
 
Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 2:29 pm

In today’s second hour, Tom talked with filmmaker George Tillman Jr. and scholar Tricia Rose about the legacy of deceased rapper Biggie Smalls and hip-hop, particularly in the age of Obama. One of the biggest names in hip-hop today, rapper Jay-Z, who went to the same high school as Biggie, might best represent the melding of hip-hop culture [...]

Comments [1]
 
Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 11:39 am

Harvard economist Martin Feldstein was on the show Monday, and he touched off a vigorous response both from callers and in the online comments. Today, he published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post headlined “An $800 Billion Mistake” — laying out many of the same points he presented on the show.

Comments [5]
 
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Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 11:00 am

We’ll talk with the director of “Notorious” about the life and death of rapper Biggie Smalls — and the state of hip hop.

Comments [22]
 
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Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 10:00 am

Thousands of new layoffs across the country this week, adding to the millions of jobs already lost to recession. We’ll talk with Americans around the country about life without work.

Comments [28]
 
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 11:00 am

John Updike, master of American letters, is dead at 76. We’ll look at his work and his influence from “Rabbit” to now.

Comments [12]
 
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 10:00 am

President Obama has pledged to “restore science to its rightful place.” We’ll ask what that means, for America – and the future of science.

Comments [22]
 
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 11:00 am

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, who took us into his miserable childhood in Ireland in “Angela’s Ashes,” talks about his book “Teacher Man.”

Comments [8]
 
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 10:00 am

U.S. banks are face-to-face with a worst-case scenario: failure on a massive scale. We’ll look at President Obama’s options — including nationalization.

Comments [34]
 
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Monday, January 26, 2009 at 11:00 am

The Atlantic’s James Fallows is back from China as America transfers power to a new president. We’ll ask how it all looks to the China maven.

Comments [8]
 
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Monday, January 26, 2009 at 10:00 am

Uber-economist Martin Feldstein on what it’s really going to take to pull out of the trouble we’re in.

Comments [89]
 
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Friday, January 23, 2009 at 11:00 am

American horror master Edgar Allan Poe, at 200. We’ll look at how his stories still chill us.

Comments [9]
 
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Friday, January 23, 2009 at 10:00 am

An epic Inauguration. The Obama White House gets to work. And the economic challenges mount. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [40]
 
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Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 11:00 am

Aretha Franklin sang on the Capitol steps. Who’s next in the world of soul? We’ll talk with rising star Alice Smith.

Comments [11]
 
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Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 10:00 am

Barack Obama says the prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay must be closed. We’ll ask how.

Comments [18]
 
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 11:00 am

Killing for coal in the Colorado mountains. We’ll look back on union miners, mining bosses, and the Ludlow Massacre of 1914.

Comments [12]
 
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:48 am

Excerpt from “Introduction: Civil War, Red and Bloody”

 
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:00 am

President Obama. The oath is taken. Now comes the governing. We’ll look at what’s ahead in the first 100 days.

Comments [17]
 
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Special 7pm Broadcast: Our in-depth coverage from Washington continues with perspectives on Obama’s speech, and all the buzz and celebration around the nation’s capital.

Comments [6]
 
On Point Today
The Pandora Effect
Friday, November 20, 2009 image

We’ll talk with the founder of Pandora, the online music service that claims it knows what you’ll want to hear.

Comments [53]
 
Week in the News
Friday, November 20, 2009 image

Obama in China. Healthcare crunch time in the Senate. And the mammogram controversy rages on. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [44]

Recent Shows
Poker: America’s Game
Thursday, November 19, 2009 image

Poker and American history. How the game of presidents, cowboys, gangsters, and online gamblers helped shape America.

Comments [9]
 
Google vs. Murdoch
Thursday, November 19, 2009 image

Rupert Murdoch wants to block the search giant from scooping free content from his newspapers. We’ll look at the staredown.

Comments [130]
On Point Blog
Michael Wolff and Jeff Jarvis on Murdoch v. Google

We had a rousing discussion about Google vs. Murdoch, and what it says about the whole future of news, with Michael Wolff, Jeff Jarvis, and Steven Brill. Here’s what Wolff and Jarvis had to say about the delusions of both Murdoch and Google.

More » | Comments [18]
 
Video: Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Last week, host Tom Ashbrook was on stage with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, asking him about some of the biggest technology and business issues of our time.

More » | Comments [4]
 
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [10]