Famed crime thriller writer Elmore Leonard talks about his latest, “Road Dogs,” and compares notes with former poet laureate Robert Pinsky.

GM and bankruptcy. North Korea’s nukes. And Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Cable powerhouse Lauren Zalaznick, the force behind Bravo and Oxygen, “Real Housewives” and “Tori & Dean,” on creating television for women.

We talk with Toni Morrison, novelist and Nobel laureate, about censorship and the power of the free word.

Nobel winning novelist Toni Morrison joined us to talk about censorship and writers around the world. Here she is at the 2008 PEN American Center awards, delivering a speech that she would fold into a new volume called “Burn This Book.”

Five years after the nation’s first legal same-sex marriages, a new study looks at what’s changed for gay couples since tying the knot.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets President Obama this week. We’ll look ahead with scholars Juan Cole and Rashid Khalidi.

We’ll talk with actor, writer, and performer Eric Bogosian about sex, death, celebrity, talk radio, and his new novel, “Perforated Heart.”

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court. We’ll look at the pick, the confirmation battle ahead, and what it means for the Court.

We’ll look back on Leonard Bernstein, who took the helm of the New York Philharmonic 50 years ago, and changed American music.

For Memorial Day, we talk with veteran and scholar Andrew Bacevich about America, war, and the world: troops, leaders, and fateful choices.

NBA and Boston Celtics basketball legend Bill Russell reflects on a life on the court and his friendship with coaching great, Red Auerbach.

The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle writes that Ed Andrews, the New York Times economics reporter who was a guest with us earlier this week, left some key information out of his book, “Busted,” and the excerpt which ran in The New York Times Magazine.

Democrats defy Obama on Guantanamo. The president speaks. Detroit emissions get a haircut. Iran tests a missile. It’s the weekly news roundtable.

President Obama and former Vice President Cheney offered up some high political drama today with what have quickly been dubbed “dueling speeches.” Last week we looked at Cheney’s very public challenges to Obama…

High-flying British historians Simon Schama and Niall Ferguson join us to debate the American future.

California votes down a tax hike and looks for a federal bailout. We’ll ask where this story ends.

NASA celebrates as its astronauts wrap up a daring mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. We’ll look at the repair crew in space.

The class of 2009. They’ve got degrees, lots of enthusiasm, but few have found jobs. We’ll hear from them and experts on what the future holds.

Ed Andrews, economics reporter for The New York Times, tells us his personal home foreclosure story.