A scary Halloween story. We’ll talk with Yale historian John Demos about the 2,000-year history of witch-hunting in the Western world.

Countdown to Election Day. Obama buys prime time. McCain is running out of time. Our weekly roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Novelist Margaret Atwood turns her discerning eye to debt, to what we owe each other, and what makes us human.

It’s a fight to the finish for campaign ‘08. We’ll touch down in key battleground states where everything’s on the line for John McCain and Barack Obama.

We’ll ask The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan, The New Yorker’s Nicholas Lemann, and Daily Beast chief Tina Brown.

Top Wall Street insider Henry Kaufman on what our economy — and society — are up against in the current downturn.

We’ll talk with the field biologist who tracks new threats, to jungle and stream, before they become pandemic.

The last big issue: America’s wars. With one week to election day, we’ll look at McCain and Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Filmmaker Wayne Wang, director of “The Joy Luck Club,” on Chinese- American life now and his new film, “The Princess of Nebraska.”

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.

A conversation with “Silver Palate” chef and cookbook star Sheila Lukins on what we eat now.

Alan Greenspan faces history. Obama flies to an ailing grandmother. McCain fights on. Markets shudder. Our weekly roundtable goes behind the headlines.

The unmentionable. How couples talk - and don’t talk - about old loves.

Fear and trembling in the retail world. If the lights go out in economic crisis, what happens to all those stores?

The ‘08 election on campus. We’ll hear from college newspaper editors on how their readers see the presidential contest.

Stopping the foreclosure devastation. We’ll look at a plan that would let strapped homeowners rent to buy.

Descartes said “I think, therefore I am.” Bestseller Russell Shorto reminds us it’s more complicated than that, in his new tale of faith, reason, and “Descartes’ Bones.”

Taxes, spending, and the huge federal deficit. We’ll dig deep into the McCain and Obama plans, and what they could mean for the country’s bottom line.

Naughty or nice, from racy Gossip Girl to upright Beacon Street Girls — the high-drama, high-stakes battle of books and TV over America’s teenage girls.

A filibuster-proof majority for Senate Democrats? It’s possible. We’ll look at key Senate races, and what a Democratic “supermajority” might mean for the country.

We listen back to American radio’s earliest days — Herbert Hoover, FDR, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and the radio revolution.

Wild swings and no rest for the markets. Tough punches on the campaign trail. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Two and a half thousand years ago, he wandered the ancient world, trying to make sense of the great war that had shaped his times.

We look at the McCain and Obama visions on the giant issues of energy and the environment.

Rebuilding the U.S. economy. We’ll get recipes from super-capitalist and Vanguard founder John Bogle and progressive economist Jared Bernstein.

Obama is surging, and John McCain has three weeks, and one last debate, to turn the race around. We’ll look at the state of the McCain campaign, what hasn’t worked — and what still might.

We talk with ordinary Americans about how the new economic realities are hitting their jobs, businesses, and lives.

In the wake of the G7 crisis meeting and dramatic actions in Washington and Europe, we look at the global economic picture, the future of globalization, and where America stands in the world.

Civility for uncivil times. A new biography of etiquette maven and entrepreneur Emily Post, who said mind your manners and much more.

In Afghanistan: violence spiking and grim U.S. military and intelligence warnings of a return to chaos. We’ll look at Afghanistan sliding the wrong way.

The women behind much of the word economy. We look inside the lives of China’s factory girls.

Global financial panic, and the rough road back, in politics and pocketbooks. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Candace Bushnell — “Sex and the City” author and chronicler of New York money — on life in the big city when it’s all coming down.

We’ll talk with the top advisors to Obama and McCain on the number one issue in the world — the economy, and how to save it.

Renowned author and nature writer Peter Matthiessen on the 30th anniversary of his landmark travel tale, “The Snow Leopard.”

McCain and Obama appeal to the undecided. We’ll score their second debate as they enter the campaign home stretch.

Investigative reporter Danny Schechter names names, in what he calls the “plunder” of the U.S. economy.

At the root of the financial crisis — problems with American bank regulation and the American housing market. We’ll look at both.

U.S. warships, Russian warships, and the bold pirates of the Somali coast. We look at high stakes piracy on the high seas.

We look at the long-checkered history of financial rescues and bailouts — and what they’ve meant for the U.S. economy.

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan takes the long view of this American moment, with a call for unity and what she calls “Patriotic Grace.”

Bailout maneuvers, market swings. Palin versus Biden. And Obama inches up in the polls. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Remembering Paul Newman. Actor and activist. Butch Cassidy. Cool Hand Luke. We look back on an American movie hero.

Sarah Palin prepares for Joe Biden and her first national debate. It’s been one month since she stepped onto the national stage. We take stock.

Billionaire Warren Buffett has waded deep on the financial crisis. We’ll look at the life and outlook of the “Oracle of Omaha.”

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.