Author Stieg Larsson in a 1998 file photo. (AP)

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“Swedish thriller” can sound like a contradiction in terms — but not when the thriller is the super global bestseller “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

Its heroine — a four-foot-nine-inch, pierced-and-tattoed hacker-punk-savant elfin ball of violent fury named Lisbeth Salander — is like no other you’ve ever met, except maybe her distant pigtailed cousin, Pippi Longstocking.

Its author, Stieg Larsson, a real-life Nazi-hunting Swedish crusader, wrote three killer mysteries all at once, and died. Another mystery.

This hour, On Point: the Swede who played with fire and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Edward Kastenmeier, vice president and executive editor for Vintage/Anchor and editor of Stieg Larsson’s books in paperback: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.”

Lasse Winkler, editor-in-chief of of Svensk Bokhandel, akin to a Publishers Weekly, and a former investigative journalist.

Niels Arden Oplev, director of the new film, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

President Barack Obama talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP)

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Arms are being triple-twisted all over Washington this week as Democrats go down to the wire on health care reform.

Two-hundred-sixteen votes needed in the House. Sunday billed as the moment of truth. Republicans warning of Armageddon. It’s a major-league moment in the capital.

We’ve got flooding in Fargo. Mexican drug violence hitting an American consulate. Federal moves on Wall Street, jobs, and No Child Left Behind. U.S.-Israel fireworks. And Tiger Woods headed out of the dog house and back to the links.

This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. 

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Eleanor Clift, contributing editor and columnist for Newsweek and a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group. Her latest book is “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Politics.”

Noam Levey, health policy reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan looks on at left as President Barack Obama meets with students at Wright Middle School in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. (AP)

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No Child Left Behind has had American education by the scruff of the neck for years now, with the tests and deadlines and failure tags and penalties that have had American schools both on their toes and in an uproar ever since it was made the law of the land under George W. Bush.

Now, the Obama administration is proposing its own answer to the Bush-era federal program.

The Obama plan would scrap the language and much of the guts of No Child Left Behind. And bring on its own blueprint.

Is it a fix? A surrender? An advance?

This hour, On Point: after No Child Left Behind.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jonathan Kaufman, Pultizer Prize-winning reporter and education editor at Bloomberg News. He has been following the rollout of the new education blueprint and its reception by lawmakers and educators.

Charles Barone, director of federal policy at the advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform.  From 2001 and 2003, he served as Deputy Staff Director for the House Education and Labor Committee under Democratic Congressman George Miller of California, a principle player in the passage of No Child Left Behind.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. She’s a critic of the Obama administration’s new education plan and an advocate for school choice.

Dr. Susan Gourley, superintendent of public shools in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A Palestinian youth flashes the V sign during clashes near the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP)

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What a stretch it’s been in U.S.-Israel relations.

Joe Biden snubbed in Israel. The vice president quoted saying, essentially, that Israeli policy is getting American soldiers killed. The Pentagon seconding something like that notion. Hillary Clinton dressing down the Israeli prime minister. The Israeli ambassador in the headlines saying it’s the worst crisis in 35 years.

Now the headlines are full of denials, clarifications, and attestations of unbreakable bonds. But something unusual just broke in the open here. And it’s not over.

This hour, On Point: American interests and the blowup with Israel.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington are:

Mark Perry, an author who specializes in military, intelligence and foreign affairs analysis. His online piece for Foreign Policy magazine, “The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story,” put the issue of the Pentagon’s interest in this issue in public in an unusual way. His book “Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage With Its Enemies,” won the National Jewish Book Award.  He also served, from 1989 to 2004, as a consultant to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Martin Indyk, vice president and director of foreign policy at Brookings and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel. He is the author of “Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peacemaking Diplomacy in the Middle East.”

David Sanger, Pulitzer Prize-winning chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times. His book, “The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power,” has just come out in paperback in an updated edition.

(photo: sonnyrollins.com)

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Jazz great Sonny Rollins was there when the masters were neighbors. When Coleman Hawkins walked Harlem. When Monk and Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell would pull up for a midnight jam.

And young Sonny — Theodore Walter Rollins — would pull out his tenor sax and paint the universe.

He was there for bebop and hard bop, with “Saxophone Colossus” and “The Bridge,” and wailing with the Rolling Stones. And he’s still playing, in his 80th year.

This hour, On Point: the last jazz immortal Sonny Rollins.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests: 

Sonny Rollins joins us from New Paltz, New York. A Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist and composer, he’s one of the biggest names in modern jazz. In a career spanning six decades, he’s performed with such greats as Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, and John Coltrane. He begins his “80th Birthday Tour” in April. 

Bob Blumenthal, jazz critic who has written for Down Beat, Jazz Times, The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, and The Atlantic. He holds two Grammy Awards for liner notes. He’s the author of “Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America’s Music.” His forthcoming book on Sonny Rollins will be out in September.    

Upcoming dates for Sonny Rollins’ 80th Birthday tour include: 

April 6     Orchestra Hall, Detroit, MI

April 9     Orchestra Hall, Chicago, IL

April 18   Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

May 10    Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA

May 13    Wheeler Auditorium, University of California, Berkeley, CA

May 16    Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA

May 19    Davis Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts Jackson Hall, Davis, CA

June 12   Discover Jazz Festival, Burlington, VT

June 23   Winnipeg Jazz Festival, Winnipeg, Canada

June 27  Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreal, Canada

Fintan O’Toole is columnist and critic for the Irish Times. Like everyone else, he saw Ireland’s astounding boom, from the ‘90s and into the new millennium.

The Celtic Tiger, standing, roaring. New factories and jobs and pride and money everywhere. A dazzling Ireland as Europe’s sparkling icon of free-market globalization.

And then, it all came crashing down. Now Ireland is in deep trouble. And Fintan O’Toole is delivering a scathing post-mortem on the Celtic Tiger and what went wrong.

This hour, On Point: On St. Patrick’s Day, after the bust in Ireland.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Fintan O’Toole, columnist and critic for the Irish Times. His new book is “Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and corruption sank the Celtic Tiger.”

Language never stands still. Usage, phrasing, new words, new meanings, new “penumbras and emanations” are unending.

And it frames the way we see the world. For decades, language maven William Safire tracked the course and politics of American English in his “On Language” column for The New York Times. Last fall, the great maven died.

This weekend, his much younger successor, Ben Zimmer, steps up to the plate — ready to take on “the party of no,” the politics of yes, the verb “to Kanye,” and a whole lot more.

This hour, On Point: we’ll talk with the new language maven, Ben Zimmer.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Ben Zimmer joins us from New York.  This Sunday he takes over The New York Times Magazine’s “On Language” column launched by William Safire in 1979. Zimmer is executive producer of VisualThesaurus and a contributor to Language Log. He was editor of American dictionaries at Oxford University Press and is a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., unveils his proposal on new financial rules during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Monday, March 15, 2010. (AP)

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Wall Street games and risky lending almost killed the American economy. Eighteen months after the onslaught of the financial crisis, the U.S. Senate is stepping toward its regulatory answer.

Senator Chris Dodd yesterday laid out legislation that would bring the biggest overhaul in financial regulation since the Great Depression. Is it enough to straighten up Wall Street and bar another meltdown?

Republicans are sitting on their hands. Democrats are trying to thread public outrage and industry interests.

This hour, On Point: Will the Senate rein in Wall Street?

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York is Roben Farzad, senior writer for BusinessWeek.

Joining us from Washington is Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and cofounder of the widely read blog The Baseline Scenario. He was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from March 2007 to August 2008. His new book, “Thirteen Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown,” will be released March 30.

Also from Washington we’re joined by Douglas Elliott, fellow in economic studies and the initiative on business and public policy at the Brookings Institution. He’s former president of the Center on Federal Financial Institutions, and a former investment banker at JPMorgan Chase & Company.

Originally broadcast on Feb. 11, 2009

American architect, and legend, Frank Lloyd Wright loved fame, followers and women. American novelist and short-story writer T.C. Boyle is no stranger to the limelight himself, or to the stories of larger-than-life American figures.

Now, T.C. Boyle has taken on Frank Lloyd Wright’s tempestuous love life in a novel called “The Women.” If Wright’s famed Prairie Style houses were cool and serene, his love life was anything but — up to and including axe-murder and fire.

This hour, On Point: Novelist T.C. Boyle on Frank Lloyd Wright and “The Women.”

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

T.C. Boyle joins us in our studio. He’s the bestselling author of 20 books of fiction, both novels and short stories. His historical fiction has looked at John Harvey Kellogg in “The Road to Wellville” and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in “The Inner Circle.” His new novel, about Frank Lloyd Wright, is “The Women.”

Read an excerpt from “The Women” at Boyle’s website.

College students and supporters demonstrate against cuts to higher education at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, March 4, 2010. (AP)

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Lots of new survey data out on young Americans, age 18-29, the so-called “millennial” generation. They have way more tattoos. We knew that. They have way less certainty they can pay their next tuition bill.

Millennials voted two-to-one for Barack Obama in 2008. Now they’re taking stock, in their own way, of everything. Big goals? Traditional: to be good parents, in a good marriage. Social views? Very open: on sexuality, race, religion. Politics? In flux.

This hour, On Point: we sit down with young Americans for their views on what can and should come next for this country.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. He directed a recent survey of “millennials,” Americans aged 18 to 29, on their political views and prospects for the future. He is founder and CEO of SocialSphere, a strategy and technology company focused on millennials.

Joshua Sargent, 22, senior at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he is studying international relations.

Marcela Garcia-Castanon, 25, a graduate student at the University of Washington doing research on young people and politics. She is originally from Arizona, the child of migrant workers.

Charles Mitchell, 27, works at a non-profit in Washington that is focused on education. He identifies as a conservative. We first met Charles in 2003 when he was a junior at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and was president of the Conservative Club.

Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro looks great on the travel poster — and is great on its famous beaches, in its famous Carnivale, and more.

But Rio is also a city of vast hillside shantytowns — favelas – where poverty is the rule, the drug trade is king, police are often lawless, and urban violence is some of the world’s very worst.

Brazil’s murder rate is five times that of the United States. In Rio, only three percent of homicide cases are solved.

Into all that comes AfroReggae, a Brazilian musical grroup born of the streets of Rio’s favelas. AfroReggae is trying to give back — to give inspiration, hope, pride and a path to youth surrounded by too much violence, drugs, and poverty.

This hour, On Point: AfroReggae’s musical lifeline to the favela — the hardest streets of Rio.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York is Damian Platt, co-author of “Culture Is Our Weapon: Making Music and Changing Lives in Rio de Janerio.” He was a human rights researcher for Amnesty International in Brazil from 1997 to 2005, and from 2006 to 2008 he was coordinator for international partnerships at AfroReggae.

And with us from Dartmouth, Mass., is Dario Borim, associate professor and chair of the department of Portuguese at UMass-Dartmouth. He hosts a weekly live radio program called Brazilliance, dedicated to the music of Brazil.

Here’s the latest video from AfroReggae’s YouTube channel…

We want to give big thanks to WBUR reporter Monica Brady-Myerov for her gracious translation skills, helping us to better understand AfroReggae’s Portuguese lyrics. Here’s a sampling:

from “To Bolado” (“I am confused”)

I am confused
Only workers live in Vigario Geral
The 29th of August, they killed my people

They killed 21 people who lived here…

Because the day before
Drug traffickers killed four police officers…

I am Vigario, I say with pride
I love my community

I don’t understand this world
They tell me the police
is an organization that exists to protect citizens…

from “Nenhum Motivo Explica a Guerra” (“No Motive for War”)

No motive for war
Not money
Not greed
Not revenge or industrial advances
Not hope, not ideals
Not in the name of good versus evil
No motive for war
Not the thirst for power
Not the fear of loss
Not anger
Not a lie
Not a land grab
No one has to do what they don’t want to…

Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks at Tel Aviv University in Israel on Thursday, March 11, 2010. (AP)

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A slap in the face for Vice President Joe Biden in Israel this week. Dueling press conferences in Kabul from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iran’s Ahmadinejad.

And at home, on health care reform, the president says, “I don’t get worn down, I wear them down.”

We’ve got Jihad Jane. Congressman Eric Massa, out after allegations of harassment and a “tickle fight” confession.

Conservatives going after Liz Cheney. And Chief Justice John Roberts may pull his court from the State of the Union.

This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests: 

Joining us from New York is George Packer, staff writer for The New Yorker. His piece in the current issue is “Obama’s Lost Year: The President’s Failure to Connect With Ordinary Americans.” His most recent book is “Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent Decade.” 

From Washington we’re joined by Andrea Seabrook,congressional correspondent for NPR.

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Some of the several hundred "Tea Party Express" protesters who demonstrated in Las Vegas on Monday, Aug. 31, 2009. (AP)

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Americans sure look angry. Sometimes, lethally. The IRS attack in Texas. Campus killer Amy Bishop in Alabama.

And then there’s media pundit rage, and Tea Party rage, and anti-Wall Street rage, and the slow boil anger of the broke and out of work.

There are reaons. And it’s not the first angry season in American history. But it sure is vivid — in a time of 24-hour cable magnification and the easy rant on the web.

The anger can, and does, come right into our personal lives. It imbues our public arena. What’s the effect?

This hour, On Point: Anger in America, and where it’s taking us now. 

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars and a  former professor of anthropology at Boston University. He’s author of “A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America.”

Paul Starobin, staff correspondent at National Journal and contributing editor at The Atlantic. He’s the author of “After America: Narratives for a Global Age.”

In this image made available Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009 and taken from Al Alam TV, a missile is fired in an unspecified location in Iran, which had begun large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting the country's nuclear facilities against any possible attack, state television reported. (AP)

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The pressure cranks higher and higher around Iran, with allegations that it is rolling forward on nuclear weapons development.

The White House is talking high-pressure diplomacy — sanctions. But others are talking war.

Israel’s defense minister speaks of a “finger close to the trigger.” Newspapers report that preparations for an Israeli strike are clear.

There’s a lot of theater here. But there’s a real threat, too. And strategists all over are war-gaming how a strike on Iran would play out. It’s not pretty. Today, we’re listening.

This hour, On Point: war-gaming Iran.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Kenneth Pollack, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and author of “A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East.” He was a member of the “control team” in the war game organized by the Saban Center last December.

Also from Washington is Suzanne Maloney, Iran expert at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and author of “Iran’s Long Reach.”  She was a member of the “Iran team” in the center’s December war game. 

And from Tel Aviv, we’re joined by Giora Eiland, retired major general in the Israeli Army and former National Security Advisor focusing on, among other things, the Iranian nuclear program. He is now senior research fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.  He took part in a “war game” at Tel Aviv University last October.

Chang-rae Lee was the first Korean-American novelist brought out by a major American publisher. He’s made publishers and readers happy ever since with his critically-acclaimed “Native Speaker,” “A Gesture Life,” and “Aloft.”

Now, Chang-rae Lee is taking on the wages of war, the Korean War, and how they echo through lives — Korean lives, American lives — nearly forever.

When we go to war, we go to a brutal place. And we bring it home, wherever that home may be.

This hour, On Point: Chang-rae Lee and his new novel of war, “The Surrendered.”

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Chang-rae Lee, author of the novels “Native Speaker,” “A Gesture Life,” and “Aloft.” He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. His new novel is “The Surrendered.”

Read an excerpt from “The Surrendered.”

U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves leaves the home of World War II veteran and village elder Clifton Jackson, 89, in the remote Inupiat Eskimo village Noorvik, Alaska., Monday, Jan 25, 2010, after counting him to formally launch the nation's 2010 census. (AP)

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Heads-up letters from the U.S. Census Bureau went out to 120 million households this week. Next week comes the form: Who lives in your home? What sex? What age? What race?

The once-a-decade U.S. Census goes back to 1790. The Constitution requires it. Its count tells how to apportion representation and government spending in this democracy.

That means it’s loaded — politically, financially. And this time, the numbers are pointing toward big change.

This hour, On Point: the 2010 census and the changing face of America.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Carol Morello, reporter for The Washington Post covering the 2010 Census.

Amy Sullivan, former national editor and now contributing writer at Time magazine.

Joel Kotkin, author of “The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050.” He is a distinguished fellow in urban futures at Chapman University in California.

Harry Markopolos listens to testimony from David Kotz, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) inspector general, not pictured, during a Senate Banking Committee hearing regarding Bernard Madoff, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009. (AP)

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Onetime Wall Street legend Bernie Madoff pulled off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history — until he didn’t. And $65 billion — many people’s life savings — went up in smoke.

Harry Markopolos saw it coming, for years, and could not get anyone to stop it. He and a band of investment insiders begged the SEC to shut Madoff down, to open his books and really see.

They got nowhere. Instead, Harry Markopolos feared for his own life — that big-money Madoff investors would come after him for spoiling the game.

This hour, On Point: The man who yelled bloody murder about Bernie Madoff.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Harry Markopolos, securities executive at Rampart Investment Management from 1991 to 2004. He now works privately as a forensic accounting analyst. His new book is “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller.”

Frank Casey, former colleague of Harry Markopolos at Rampart Investment Management, from 1998 to 2001. He was the one who first told Markopolos about Bernie Madoff. He now works for Close Asset Management, a wealth management bank based in London.

More:

WBUR’s Curt Nickisch got the first radio interview with Harry Markopolos, which aired on April 21, 2009. You can read the transcripts and watch video from WBUR.

Actor Jeremy Renner in a scene from "The Hurt Locker," directed by Kathryn Bigelow, which won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards on Sunday. (AP)

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Six Academy Awards for “The Hurt Locker” Sunday night, including an Oscar for Best Picture. Then the cast and crew went off to party.

But the bomb-defusing work depicted so powerfully in the film never ends in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IEDs — “improvised explosive devices” — have been the number-one killer of American troops in both wars. They make every step a potential last step. They slow and enervate soldiers ready to charge and fight.

This hour, On Point: Beyond “The Hurt Locker” to the real battle against IEDs.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Fredricksburg, Va., is Kevin Lutz, retired Army Colonel who was the top officer overseeing the military’s EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) work in Iraq from 2006 to 2009. He led the 52nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group, members of which are portrayed in “The Hurt Locker,” and led Task Force Troy, fighting IEDs at the height of the Iraq War. He’s served three combat tours, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been awarded two Bronze Stars. He’s now executive vice president of A-T Solutions, a company focusing on global counter-terrorism efforts.

You can read about what Lutz faced in Iraq in a series written by The Washington Post’s Rick Atkinson.

Also from Fredricksburg is Jonathan Hunter, retired Army Captain who served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer in Afghanistan, primarily in the Khost and Kandahar areas. He served with Kevin Lutz in Afghanistan and now works for Allen Vanguard, the company that makes the bomb suits featured in “The Hurt Locker.” He works on anti-IED systems and briefs Congress on the latest technologies.

From Arlington, Va., is Command Sergeant Major Todd Burnett, the military’s senior enlisted advisor to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). He is the recipient of the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Legion of Merit. He has served in Iraq and Afghanistan and has endured 44 IED attacks, 23 of which were direct hits.

More:

We’ve posted statistics on IEDs in Afghanistan from the Department of Defense.

A special thanks today to the EOD Memorial Foundation, which is dedicated to the memory of troops who have served in this line of work. Our gratitude to executive director Jim O’Neil.

A quarter of the calories that feed the planet come from wheat. It’s going to take a lot more wheat to feed the world as its population moves toward 9 billion.

But keeping that vast hunger fed is a constant race against pathogens that can wipe out a harvest, climate change that can strangle a crop.

It takes non-stop breeding and new hybrids. Breeding that can depend on some very old and out-of-the-way strains. On seeds you’d never think of. In the most exotic locations. Seeds that keep your family fed.

This hour, On Point: the staff of life, and the wild story of how bread stays on your table.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us in our studio is Susan Dworkin, author of “The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist’s Struggle to Preserve the World’s Harvest.” 

Read an excerpt from the book.

And from Ithaca, N.Y., we’re joined by Per Pinstrup-Andersen, professor of food, nutrition and public policy at Cornell University. He won the World Food Prize in 2001.

President Barack Obama, flanked by health care professionals Barbara Crane, left, and Stephen Hanson, speaks about health care reform on March 3, 2010, in the East Room of the White House. (AP)

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Health care reform is about as big as it gets when it comes to systemic change in this country. Now the White House is throwing everything it’s got at passage.

But Republicans and Democrats are making sharply different claims about what the American people want. The President says the people want action, now. Republicans say the people want this reform killed.

You can read the polls a lot of ways. So today, we’re putting it straight to you. Open phone lines. Your questions. And ours, the big one: yea or nay on this reform?

This hour, On Point: open lines and your views on health care.

Tell us what you think — call 1-800-423-8255, or comment here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

We have two deeply knowledgeable guests this hour to help answer your questions and add their perspective.

Joining us from New York is Laura Meckler, staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, where she’s covered health and health policy for many years.

And from Chapel Hill, N.C., we’re joined by Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine and health policy and management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

During the show, Jonathan mentioned the Kaiser Foundation’s interactive online subsidy calculator.  You can check it out here.