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Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:00 am

We’ll hear the red-hot debate over whether top Bush administration officials could – or should — be prosecuted for crimes against the constitution.

Comments [81]
 
Monday, October 27, 2008 at 10:00 am

The right attacks ACORN and its voter registration drives. Now Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the real issue is widespread vote suppression. We’ll hear the debate.

Comments [57]
 
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 10:00 am

The presidential election and the U.S. Supreme Court. Top legal thinkers on what an Obama Court or a McCain Court would mean for the country.

Comments [10]
 
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 10:00 am

For much of the country, it felt like a bolt from the blue. Last week, giant California gave a green light to gay marriage.
California’s high court, in a 4-3 ruling, said civil union rights were not enough. Gay Californians — and those from anywhere else who barrel west to the Golden State — are entitled, [...]

 
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 10:00 am

The Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar is underwater, thousands dead, and environmentalists say it’s global warming. Monster tornadoes are plaguing the U.S. — last weekend in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.
Meanwhile, far away, on the west coast of Alaska, the tiny fishing village of Kivalina is falling into the sea. And its attorneys are suing 24 oil, [...]

 
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 10:00 am

The heat on New York governor Eliot Spitzer is now tremendous. By the end of the day, he may have resigned. He may be hanging on.
But the supernova of media attention to Spitzer’s alleged use of a high-priced prostitution ring — Emperors Club, Client No. 9, “Kristen,” five thousand dollars per tryst — has lit [...]

 
Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 10:00 am

There is no death row or execution chamber at Guantanamo, but the Army is working on it. On Monday, the Pentagon made public murder and conspiracy charges against six Guantanamo inmates accused in the attacks of 9/11, and announced it will seek the death penalty before a military tribunal.
The military’s own JAG legal community and [...]

 
Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 11:00 am

Freedom of speech is enshrined right there in the American Bill of Rights, but Americans took a long time to really embrace it. By 1798, President John Adams was already blowing by the First Amendment to go after supporters of Thomas Jefferson.
More than a century later, in World War I, Americans were sentenced to 20 [...]

 
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 10:00 am

Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General looked like a sure thing. Now, with the legal definition of torture in the balance, Democrats aren’t so sure.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Charlie Savage, reporter for The Boston Globe, is author of “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.”
John McGinnis, professor at Northwestern University School of [...]

 
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 10:00 am

It was a travesty: crude, privileged white-boy lacrosse players at Duke, raping a black woman for kicks. And then it was a different travesty: innocent young men railroaded by a politically-ambitious prosecutor, and a public too willing to believe.
Race and class stereotypes turned on their heads and unleashed with a vengeance. A media machine and [...]

 
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 10:00 am

With its 800,000 citizens, South Dakota may be one of the smallest states in the nation, but it made a big noise last week.
The South Dakota legislature has passed a bill that would virtually ban abortion. Straight out. No matter how old or young the woman. No matter if the pregnancy was the result of [...]

 
On Point Today
Hour 2
How Nukes Spread
Thursday, January 8, 2009 090108nukes225

Spies, lies and nukes. We’ll look at a new history of nuclear proliferation – and how the bomb really spread.

Comments [5]
 
Hour 1
The Stimulus Debate
Thursday, January 8, 2009 Obama

Barack Obama’s nearly $800 billion stimulus package outline is now front and center in Washington. What’s in it? And can it save the economy?

Comments [13]

Recent Shows
21st-Century Slavery
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 090107traffic225

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof says global sex trafficking is 21st-century slavery — and he wants Barack Obama to abolish it.

Comments [31]
 
Gaza, Hamas, and the Arab World
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 APTOPIX MIDEAST EGYPT PALESTINIANS ISRAEL

As Israel presses its war on Hamas, we’ll look at the Arab world’s reaction to the dire situation in Gaza, and what it means for the Middle East.

Comments [35]
On Point Blog
Here, for the holidays…
By Eileen Imada

One of the great pleasures of directing On Point is that I hear just about every show we produce. And around the holidays, I listen back to some of our best shows to rebroadcast while the staff takes a well-deserved break.

More » | Comments [1]
 
Canon Wars, Cont.
By John Wihbey

Jay Parini, Middlebury College professor and jack-of-all-literary trades, makes the case in our second hour today for America’s thirteen “representative” books in his new tome “The Promised Land.” Of course, the idea of a great list or “canon” of hallowed must-reads

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How Much to Pay the College Prez?
By John Wihbey

Today’s second hour looks at how the financial crisis is hitting higher education. And as belts tighten, it’s perhaps inevitable that executive compensation – the big payouts to people at the top – will come under scrutiny in academia as it has on Wall Street and in Detroit.

More » | Comments [6]