Life is filled with little mysteries. For high schools seniors and their parents, the bizarre and secret world of college admissions is one of them. Each fall, seniors put their fate in the hands of the admissions gods and pray. And for good reason. Nowadays, even perfect scores and varsity letters won’t necessarily cinch a [...]

From inside the Ministry of Information in Baghdad, BBC correspondent Caroline Hawley talks about the Iraqi people, the Iraqi leadership, and a city possibly preparing for war.
Guests:
Caroline Hawley, BBC Baghdad Correspondent

In 1991, with smoke still billowing off the Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush - the first President Bush - called on the Iraqi people to rise up and liberate their country from the rule of Saddam Hussein. Thousands did, and were slaughtered when Washington decided not to push the U.S. military into Baghdad.
Now [...]

Over the past year, a number of Arab and Muslim comedians have sprung up on stages across the country, capitalizing on the public’s increased awareness of their religion and culture. Jokes about burkas, the Taliban and racial profiling are being used to puncture stereotypes, tackle hate and ease tensions. One year after Rudy Giuliani stepped [...]

Packing for college isn’t what it used to be. The laptops are spiffier. The DVDs are new. And the toiletry bag, for an astounding portion of young Americans heading off to school, is loaded with prescription psychoactive drugs.
Never mind the old equation of college and recreational drugs, the parents’ old tiptoe through [...]

In a national bastion of scientific research, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is going on the offensive for art.
Each fall, the school takes a collection of hundreds of prints, silk screens and lithographs — some worth as much as $2000 — into student dorm rooms, where they hang, on loan, for a year.
Jane Farver is [...]

In just over a month, hundreds of seats in the U.S. Congress are on the line in midterm elections being contested in the shadow of war. At stake is control of both the House and the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats each hold a narrow majority in one body.
Democrats have seethed as national security [...]

Checklist for a second go at the Gulf: Depose the dictator. Destroy the weapons. Conquer the oil?
In all the debate over an American-led invasion of Iraq, the talk has rarely turned to crude. But the light, sweet stuff that flows in such abundance beneath the Iraqi desert could well be the ultimate war spoil for [...]

Doing the crime, getting off without time.
A South Dakota ballot initiative would let juries determine not only guilt or innocence, but the wisdom of the law in question.
Proponents call Amendment A the best defense against misguided and draconian prosecutions. Opponents of the initiative call it antidemocratic and unconstitutional.
Jury nullification’s new day: Letting the voters decide.
Guests:
Clay [...]

Across the country, the push for divestment has spread to more than 40 campuses. The movement condemns Israel for human rights abuses against the Palestinians. Hundreds of big-name academics have signed on, but so far no university has moved to divest.
The current debate isn’t the first time divestment has been used on college campuses as [...]

Fact one: Terrorists can hit the United States. Fact two: Iraq may try to hit the United States in the context of a strike on Baghdad. Fact three: the weapon most feared is biological. And the biological weapon most feared is smallpox.
Smallpox is deadly, it’s hideously disfiguring, it’s super-contagious–and [...]

For decades, American foreign policy was divided, essentially, into two camps: realists and idealists. The realists were generally hard-nosed conservatives. The idealists, liberals with dreams. Now, the Bush administration has set its compass by a powerful new foriegn policy faction: conservatives with dreams.
They proudly call themselves hawks. They sniff [...]

Charisma, a quality once associated with religious and political leadership, has become the primary qualification for the CEO’s job in much of corporate America. The CEOs of many of today’s publicly owned companies, are chosen not for their relevant work experience, but for their ability to articulate messianic visions for their companies. The results [...]

Peter Ford, the Christian Science Monitor’s senior European correspondent, based in Paris, with the latest on Donald Rumsfeld’s NATO visit and European reaction
Guests:
Peter Ford, senior European correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor

Trans-Atlantic trouble shooting. With America’s European allies seemingly split over support for a US-led war on Iraq, a look at key allies, the rifts between them, and what it all means for America.
Gerhard Schroeder’s staunchly anti-war rhetoric. Jacques Chirac’s conditional support. Tony Blair’s Parliament problem. That and more, On Point.
Guests:
Catherine McArdle Kelleher, visiting professor of [...]

Talking trash and savoring the classics with Anthony Lane.
The New Yorker writer best known for his acid-penned film reviews and wonderment at Demi Moore’s fame has a new collection of criticism and essays.
Tonight On Point, a conversation about the serious critic’s responsibility in an age of hack reviewing, and why even the worst movies can [...]

Guests:

It’s been a rapid-fire ten days of headlines in the al Qaeda front. Six Yemeni-Americans scooped up in a terror dragnet launched outside Buffalo. Mohammad Atta’s former Hamburg roommate, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, has been caught in Pakistan and charged with 3,000 counts of murder for his alleged role in the 9/11 attacks. [...]

We’re going to the movies tonight with gatling guns and brass buttons, pith helmets and Gungha Din. We’re going to the movies with the Hollywood films that paint the grandeur and gore of the golden age of Imperialism. Of Rudyard Kipling and Lawrence of Arabia, of British Empire and American ambition. Hollywood [...]

The conventional wisdom is that U.S. forces will win the war with Iraq. What happens after victory is far less certain. After the Gulf War, America packed its bags and went home. But this time around, things could be very different. If Saddam Hussein was removed from power, Iraq would be left in political chaos, [...]

The month of September means the end of summer, the sound of school bells and most importantly for some, a new fall TV lineup. New shows like Push, Nevada, American Dreams and CSI Miami are receiving a lot of hype. We look through the trends, hopeful hits and inevitable flops of a new season [...]

America, it’s fair to say, is wild about gambling.
In 1962, American place about $2 billion in bets. By the year 2000, that number had grown to $866 billion. And now, the country is headed for a staggering trillion dollars a year in wagers.
These bets take place in over four hundred casinos nationally. [...]

Iraq Attack? Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld takes the Bush administration’s case against Saddam Hussein to Congress, and the United States looks poised for war. Meanwhile, there are weapons inspections to oversee, and a rift to mend in the UN Security Council. Disarm. Depose. Democratize.
This hour: Donald Rumsfeld’s plans for Iraq, and the delicate dance [...]

The message from Baghdad is delivered: come and inspect us.
Already, the news is shaking up the coalition President Bush seemed to have gelling since his speech to the United Nations last Thursday.
Then, Iraq threw a wrench in the war machine. Bring in your inspections teams, without conditions, it said. Inspect away.
Where does [...]

In 2000, Salman Rushdie wrote that “the defining struggle of the new age would be between terrorism and security.”
And he was right.
In his new book “Step Across This Line,” Rushdie explores the idea of the frontier, its role in creating the American character, and the crossing of borders — of countries, of language, of culture, [...]

So, school’s back in session, but the economy, it seems, is not. The recession that brought a confetti burst of pink slips in the last year may have ended in the last month. But you’d hardly know it. Wall Street’s summer rally has fizzled. The dollar is down, the trade deficit [...]

Guests:
Rakesh Khurana, professor at Harvard Business School, author of the new book “Searching for a Corporate Savior;” Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior edtor at The Atlantic Monthly

First strikes and the fall elections. Qatar’s airbase is open for American business. Ammunition and armored vehicles are en route to the Middle East. And the dialogue about a war on Iraq has suddenly shifted from “why” to “when.” Now, it’s all about the blitzes — of bombs over Baghad, and public relations in the [...]

Singer, songwriter road traveler and now author, Ellis Paul has been compared to a troubadour.
A natural entertainer, observer and storyteller, his lyrics don’t candy-coat life. Songs of inspiration and hope are interspersed with songs of alcoholism, guns and politics.
Tonight, notes from the road and live music with Ellis Paul.
Guests:
Ellis Paul, singer, songwriter and author [...]

For millions of Americans, the week of 9/11 brought great sadness and grief. Then anger took hold. In many communities, the Arab-American community received the brunt of the blame for the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Stories spread about Arab immigrants being unlawfully detained, Arab women being targeted for wearing hijab, Arab [...]

With a simple email message last fall, 25-year-old Indiana resident Jenna McKnight embarked on an extraordinary project to compile the personal stories of lives that were changed by the September 11th attacks. She originally sent the message to a few friends. But to her surprise, her requests spread throughout cyberspace, and brought her powerful reactions [...]

President Bush stepped into the green marble well of the United Nations General Assembly today to make his case for a hard-line confrontation with Iraq.
As America and the world watched and listened, the president spoke of chemical weapons, biological threats, and even nuclear threats. Of Iraqi rape, torture and deceit. But the heart of the [...]

The sermon of hope delivered tonight by the Reverend James Forbes, Jr. at the Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Guests:

Tonight, against a backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, President Bush will address a somber nation. It’s been a long day.
Now, the ceremonies are almost over. The bagpipes are winding down. The wreaths are lain. The names, read. The end written, perhaps, to one chapter of the country’s relationship with 9-11. [...]

For Massachusetts resident Gary Ainsworth, September 11th brings two reasons to grieve. He reflects on the lessons he’s learned from both his own personal tragedy, and the nation’s.
Guests:
Gary Ainsworth

When the sky fell one year ago, Americans looked heavenward - and inward - for answers, for understanding and for solace.
On the anniversary of the day that shook America’s faith and struck a blow at its belief, we’re having an interfaith conversation about spirituality, self-reflection and God’s place in America now.
Tonight, On Point: soul-searching and [...]

Last year, millions of America’s school children sat in their classrooms as terrorists attacked their nation, their home.
In the subsequent weeks and months, teachers were forced to add some new lessons to the curricula, lessons about religion, war, patriotism and prejudice.
Today, teachers continue to struggle with how to help students understand what appears so far [...]

Courageous, impassioned, complex. The American character is an amalgam, forged from both trials and successes.
Throughout the centuries, war has tested this American fabric. We’ll look at the American character, in wartime.
Guests:
David Kennedy, Professor of History at Stanford University, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, [...]

Among the many musical ceremonies and memorials on September 11th, the Rolling Requiem may be the world’s largest. In each of the world’s time zones, at exactly 8:46 a.m. on September 11th, the exact time the first plane crashing into the world trade center, choirs and orchestras will begin performing Mozart’s Requiem. As the 50 [...]

New York City as central character. More than a sum of its telegenic parts, the Big Apple lives and breathes, morphs and crackles with an energy and an identity all its own. So when terror took hold one year ago, when the divide between fact and fiction blurred anew, writers and directors everywhere had to [...]

The long career of the singer Marian Anderson is many times traced to a single performance on a cool Easter morning in 1939.
After being banned from performing at Washington DC’s Constitutional Hall because of her race, Anderson sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an enthusiastic audience of 75,000, whites and blacks together. [...]

Tom and Jack Review the week in the news.
Guests:

U.S. and British airstrikes against Iraq could be a precursor to larger military action. Major Charles Heyman assesses the situation.
Guests:
Major Charles Heyman, editor of Jane’s World Armies

Out of the blue…and into black and white. Since September 11th, America has been a land of us against them, faith against freedom, unum versus pluribus. That, says Forrest Church, is not the way it ought to be.
In his latest book, “The American Creed,” the senior minister of All Souls Church in New York City [...]

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has released a report detailing a new option for U.S. policy regarding Iraq. Rather than do nothing and let the Iraqi regime continue its proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or stride unilaterally into battle without the world’s support, the report suggests that a third option is viable: [...]

Ann Coulter tells it like she sees it. What she sees when she looks out across the nation are liberals vilifying Republicans. “Liberals have been wrong about everything in the last half century,” writes the conservative pundit. In page after page of her national bestseller, Coulter examines the events and personalities that have shaped politics [...]