Oscar weekend is no longer the season of discontent for independent filmmakers. This year, Indies aren’t pressing their noses up against the glass, but racking up major nominations. The competitive independent alternative ushered in the ’90s by Hollywood’s own Robert Redford and by the brothers Weinstein at Miramax is a great, and often garbled American [...]

WBUR’s news reporter Monica Brady-Myerov reports on the latest reactions to today’s release of two studies on the priest sex abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church.
Guests:
Monica Brady-Myerov, reporter for WBUR.

Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, was both an American success story and tragedy. Wilson was a pioneer in the field of financial market research but was often unable to pay his own bills. He was driven by a puritanical work ethic, but at times was unable to get out of bed because he [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called yesterday for a cut in social security benefits to rein in the burgeoning federal deficit. Meanwhile, in Kentucky today president Bush pushed to make his tax cuts permanent, yet backed away from Greenspan’s comments on social security. Tonight, On Point, the looming cost of social security.
Guests:
Laurence Kotlikoff, [...]

North Korea blamed the United States’ “hardline position” for the lack of progress in six-party talks in Beijing that began Wednesday. Officials from the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea are meeting to discuss North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and Washington’s demand that the reclusive and isolationist Communist country dismantle its [...]

American jobs are flying overseas. Politicians are starting to moan. But what are the real options here? We’ll look at free trade, protectionism, and the future.
Guests:
Paul Craig Roberts, economist and columnist for Creators Syndicate, former assistant secretary of the treasury for economic policy in the Reagan administration (1981-1982)
Everett Ehrlich, director of research, [...]

After months of anticipation and controversy, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” opened in more than 3,000 theaters nationwide today. The film has been criticized for its graphically violent portrayal of the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth and for unfairly portraying Jews, which could feed anti-Semitism.
But the film is receiving glowing reviews [...]

The American economic machine, not to mention most of the rest of the world these days, runs on cheap oil and lots of it. The global economy can’t live without it. But we may feel the end of the age of oil much sooner than most people expect, says one of America’s top scientists.
Physicist [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan today warned that cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits will be necessary to deal with the huge federal budget deficit and the looming retirement of the Baby Boom generation. The suggested cuts should not affect current retirees, Greenspan said, but future retirees will need to have reduced [...]

After 19 years as junior senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry has a long record to poke at. Opponents say his position on gay marriage, the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, and especially Gulf Wars I and II, has swayed with the political winds.
Republicans accuse Kerry of flip-flopping on issues for political gain. The Kerry [...]

Author Debra J. Dickerson on race and racism, and bringing on African-American empowerment by bringing about “The End of Blackness.”
Guests:
Debra J. Dickerson, author of “The End of Blackness.”

President Bush today said he supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Guests:
John Harwood, Political Editor, The Wall Street Journal
Nathaniel Persily, professor of law and political science at The University of Pennsylvania.

Pakistan begins its push to gain control over the border region with Afghanistan in what has been described by military officials as a “hammer and anvil” operation involving U.S. troops.
On Point looks at Pakistan’s revitalized efforts in the hunt of for Bin Laden.
Guests:
David Rohde, Co-Chief, South Asia Bureau, New York Times
Husain Haqqani, journalist, diplomat and [...]

At bars and in their homes, “Sex and the City” fans said goodbye Sunday night to a show whose protagonists talked frankly about sex, relationships and dating faux pas. Tonight, On Point, six seasons of “Sex and the City” put to bed.
Guests:
L.S. Kim, assistant professor of film and digital media, University of California, [...]

Ralph Nader–who some Democrats believe played a “spoiler’s” role in the 2000 election–is running for president as an independent. The 69-year old consumer advocate made the announcement yesterday on the
NBC News program “Meet the Press.” Today, candidate Nader made the rounds of the morning talk shows.
We’ll look at the impact of the Nader candidacy [...]

Debate flares over Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier. Now the Hague takes up the case. We examine the impact on Israelis, Palestinians and the Middle East peace process.
Guests:
John Ward Anderson, reporter, The Washington Post
David Makovsky, senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process, Washington Institute for Near East [...]

Before Israel was a state, a group of young American sailors tried to carry 4,500 Holocaust survivors past a blockade into British-held Palestine. They were stopped, but their story helped change the map of the Middle East. On Point presents the Insdie Out documentary “Exodus ‘47.”
Guests:

Women’s roles have dramatically changed in the last few decades. Women now share the same career aspirations as men, and are still loving mothers. They make sacrifices, but it’s their nannies who often pay the highest price, says The Atlantic Monthly’s Caitlin Flanagan.
Tonight, On Point, how middle-class working women get ahead on the [...]

In his new book “The Sorrows of Empire; Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic” author Chalmers Johnson asserts that in the 13 years from 1989 to 2002 there was a revolution in America’s relationship to the rest of the world; there had always been an element of militarism and occasional extra-constitutional lapses but [...]

Guests:
Tina Griego, a columnist with “The Rocky Mountain News”

Katie Hnida made football history at the University of Colorado when she became the first woman to play in a Division 1 football game. Now, she’s making news by saying she was sexually harrassed, grouped, and raped by her male teammates.
The charge is the latest to rock the university. There have been allegations of escort [...]

By any standard, it has been a brutal winter in much of the country this year. Just this week, record low temperatures were set in cities from Rochester, New York to Salt Lake City, Utah. Boston had its coldest January in over 100 years. And according to America’s groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, the [...]

Three U.S. envoys were expected to arrive in Israel late today to try again to jumpstart the peace process there. Meanwhile, this week Israeli lawmakers approved $22 million in new spending for settlements in the West Bank, just two weeks after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would remove most of the settlements from [...]

Richard Cohen is a professional storyteller. A senior producer for CBS and CNN, he traveled the world to tell other peoples’ stories. He was brash, a golden boy on the fast track. He carried a big secret.
At age 25, he was diagnosed with MS and plunged into a vortex of despair and uncertainty. Along with [...]

He was the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination only a few weeks ago. But today, former Vermont governor Howard Dean told supporters and the nation that he was ending his run for the White House.
The one-time frontrunner went winless in 17 primaries and caucuses. Still, Howard Dean’s campaign shattered Democratic fundraising records, energized [...]

The front-loaded primary season has the feel of a cross-country tour bus where candidates stop in states just long enough to wave and then move on to another contest.
Supporters of front-loading the primaries say it’s important to pick a nominee early, and get ready to take on President Bush. Opponents, say there isn’t enough time [...]

In the shadowy war on drug traffickers and leftist guerillas in Colombia, the United States has increasingly employed the services of private sector military contractors rather than its own armed forces.
Three employees of subsidiaries of Northrop Grumman have been held hostage for over a year now after a plane crash that left them in the [...]

The eyes of the nation are on Wisconsin for tomorrow’s primary. Polls and Pundits have had their say. We’ll check in with the young voters.
Guests:
Evan Rytlewski, senior at the University of Wisconsin, Editor-in- Chief The Daily Cardinal newspaper.

Robert Kagan trumpeted the case for preemption in Iraq, whether or not Europe and the UN pitched in. As U.S. dominance has grown, so has anger toward us. America, Kagan argues, has rightly responded by becoming the world’s sheriff.
Hear a conversation with Robert Kagan about America’s unilateral moral imperative to spread democracy.
Guests:
Robert Kagan, senior associate, [...]

Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is struggling to hold on to a country on the brink of civil war. Aristide was elected in 1990, toppled in a military coup nine months later, put back in power by U.S. troops in 1994 and served until 1996, when his term limit ended. He was re-elected [...]

She’s been called the greatest living opera singer. She’s also lived in a Mexican jail and loves Joni Mitchell. The force and fire of mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
Guests:
Lorraine Hunt Lieberon, mezzo-soprano recitalist, concert singer and operatic performer. Her recordings of Bach Cantatas BWV 82 and 199 has been widely praised and topped a number of [...]

Yesterday British Airways cancelled Flight 223 scheduled to depart Sunday from London Heathrow Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport–the fifth cancellation in six weeks. The General Accounting Office also released a report yesterday saying that it has found serious flaws in the air-traveler screening system in the US. We talk with reporter Robert [...]

Brian Green, physicist and author of “The Elegant Universe” takes us on a trip across the centuries and the cosmos to understand the texture of reality.
Guests:
Brian Greene, professor of physics at Columbia University, author of “The Elegant Universe” and “The Fabric of the Cosmos”

Earlier today, in an open challenge to California law, city authorities in San Francisco officiated at least 50 same-sex weddings Thursday and issued about a dozen more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Rachel Gordon covers City Hall for The San Francisco Chronicle and reports on the latest.
Guests:

The Massachusetts Legislature continues to debate gay marriage. Fred Thys, political reporter for WBUR joins us with the latest developments.
Guests:
Fred Thys, political reporter WBUR

When Nick Kurson was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, he found hope in playing poker.
Guests:
Nick Kurzon was diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago. He wrote an essay about his experience ” My Turn: A Poker Player’s Guide to Beating Cancer” in Newsweek magazine

Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is struggling to hold on to a country on the brink of Civil War. Street thugs, both for and against the president, flood the streets of Haiti’s Capital. Aristide was elected in 1990, toppled in a military coup nine months later, put back in power by U.S. troops in [...]

Oliver Wendell Holmes, a 19-century physician once cautioned, “Beware how you take away hope from another human being.” For nearly 30 years, Jerome Groopman has treated cancer and AIDS patients and has encountered hope in many of them.
When you’re really sick, says Dr. Jerome Groopman in his new book “The Anatomy of Hope,” hope is [...]

Yesterday, President Bush proposed new measures to address the proliferation of nuclear weapons. His speech came one week after supporting Pakistan’s presidential pardon of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of that nation’s nuclear program. Khan admitted to selling weapons technology to other countries, including Libya and North Korea.
The scope of Kahn’s network, and [...]

The image of George W. Bush as shining warrior during the Vietnam war era has taken some hits as the war on terrorism continues, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry dusts off medals for his real combat service in Vietnam.
Bush is being forced to defend his military record when he was in the Texas Air [...]

With dozens of Iraqis killed in suicide bombings over the last 48 hours the challenges of American occupation and reconstruction have never been greater. Frontline producer Martin Smith takes us beyond Baghdad for and glimpse at the mounting tensions between Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups.
Guests:
Martin Smith, producer for the PBS series “Frontline.”

It’s a crucial moment in the history of the gay marriage debate. The Massachusetts legislature holds a constitutional convention to consider a new definition of the nature of marriage. How will this wedge issue play out in the presidential campaign?
Guests:
Andrew Sullivan, author of The Daily Dish Weblog at andrewsullivan.com, senior editor at the [...]

Voters in Virginia and Tennessee vote Tuesday, and may decide the fates of both John Edwards and General Wesley Clark, who depend on the South to stay in the Democratic race. We get the latest polls numbers from those states.
Guests:
Tom Humphrey, Knoxville New Sentinel, Nashville Bureau Chief
Hugh Lessig, political reporter for the Daily Press [...]

Poll numbers show John Kerry and George W. Bush neck and neck. Turnout for the presidential primaries has been unprecedented. Yet former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the Democratic Party lacks a vision. Tonight, On Point, defining the Democratic Movement, if there is one.
Guests:
Robert Reich, professor of social and economic policy [...]

The country’s top retirement savings plan is coming up short–we ask why and if there’s a way to fix it.
Guests:
Alicia Munnell, professor of management sciences and director of the Center for Retirement Research, Boston College and co-author, “Coming Up Short: The Challenge of 401(k) Plans.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Shipler on America’s working poor. From garment workers to migrant laborers, what everyday Americans must do to make ends meet.
Guests:
David Shipler, author, “The Working Poor: Invisible in America”