Past Shows
May, 2012
 
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Monday, May 21, 2012 | 11:00 am
A nurse holds a baby in the nursery of the Pennsylvania Hospital in this 1930 photo. The country has reached a historic tipping point -- with minority births constituting more than half of all births, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this month. (AP)

A majority minority births now in the USA. We’ll ask what that means.

Comments [3]
 
Monday, May 21, 2012 | 10:00 am
e temple of Parthenon is silhouetted against a cloudy sunset atop the Acropolis hill in Athens, Thursday May 17 2012. Fitch ratings agency downgraded debt-crippled Greece deeper into junk territory on Thursday, warning of a "probable" Greek exit from the euro currency union if new national elections next month produce an anti-bailout government. Fitch said it had cut Greece's rating by one notch, from B- to CCC, the lowest possible grade for a country that is not in default. (AP)

The threat from Greece to Europe and the world economy. Your economy.

Comments [2]
 
Friday, May 18, 2012 | 11:00 am
Roger Williams (National Park Service)

Roger Williams, and the history that set the table.

Comments [181]
 
Friday, May 18, 2012 | 10:00 am
A demonstrator hit a pot during a protest to mark the anniversary of the "Indignados" movement in Sol square, Madrid, Spain, Tuesday May 15, 2012. Spaniards angered by increasingly grim economic prospects and unemployment hitting one out of every four citizens protested in droves in the nation's largest cities, marking the one-year anniversary of a spontaneous movement that inspired similar anti-authority demonstrations across the planet. (AP)

JP Morgan loses it. Europe wobbles. Facebook fever. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [677]
 
Thursday, May 17, 2012 | 11:00 am
Portrait of Henry VIII

We go back to the deadly intrigues in the court of Henry VIII with celebrated “Wolf Hall” author, Hilary Mantel.

Comments [43]
 
Thursday, May 17, 2012 | 10:00 am
Photo Illustration (Alex Kingsbury/WBUR)

Caps, gowns, and a still tough economy. We’ll talk with the Class of 2012 about jobs, strategies, and how the real world looks from Graduation Day.

Comments [127]
 
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | 11:00 am
Lizz Winstead (credit: Mindy Tucker)

Comedian Lizz Winstead, co-creator of “The Daily Show” is with us, on the truth in humor.

Comments [65]
 
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | 10:00 am
Photo Illustration (Alex Kingsbury/WBUR)

Democrats charge Republicans with being prisoners of special interests. A young conservative turns that charge around.

Comments [517]
 
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 11:00 am
Time magazine May 21, 2012

A breast-feeding three-year-old – and mom – on the cover of Time Magazine. We’ll talk with the guru of “attachment parenting.”

Comments [358]
 
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 10:00 am
People arrive at JPMorgan Chase headquarters in New York Monday, May 14, 2012. JPMorgan, the largest bank in the United States, is seeking to minimize the damage caused by a $2 billion trading loss, disclosed Thursday by CEO Jamie Dimon. (AP)

Two billion dollars lost in a flash by JP Morgan. Is this an argument for the Volcker rule – cracking down on speculative bets by the banks?

Comments [250]
 
Monday, May 14, 2012 | 11:00 am
Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant, right, puts up a shot as Denver Nuggets power forward Al Harrington defends during the first half in Game 5 of an NBA first-round playoff basketball game, Tuesday, May 8, 2012, in Los Angeles. The Nuggets won 102-99. (AP)

From tennis to soccer to the NBA, the surprising history of why we play ball.

Comments [27]
 
Monday, May 14, 2012 | 10:00 am
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES (Portfolio Hardcover)

A former Bain Capital man and Romney supporter says income inequality shows our economy is working.

Comments [660]
 
Friday, May 11, 2012 | 11:00 am
A 2012 photo released by Alfred A. Knopf, shows author Toni Morrison. As she gets older, Morrison says, the world becomes more interesting and more distressing. (AP)

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison joins us to talk race, war, redemption and her new book, “Home.”

Comments [24]
 
Friday, May 11, 2012 | 10:00 am
Sen. Richard Lugar leaves following a concession speech Tuesday, May 8, 2012, in Indianapolis. Lugar lost his Republican Senate primary on Tuesday to state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. (AP)

President Obama backs gay marriage. Big elections shake Europe. A double-agent and Al Qaeda. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind on the headlines.

Comments [751]
 
Thursday, May 10, 2012 | 11:00 am
Author Bay Buchanan and her three sons.

Conservative pundit Bay Buchanan. She’s rallying for Romney and talking life as a single mother.

Comments [309]
 
Thursday, May 10, 2012 | 10:00 am
President Barack Obama is seen on television monitors in the White House briefing room in Washington, Wednesday, May 9, 2012. President Barack Obama told an ABC interviewer that he supports gay marriage. (AP)

President Obama declares support for same-sex marriage. We’ll look at the politics of gay marriage.

Comments [615]
 
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 | 10:00 am
This undated file photo released by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010, in a combination of two photos which they say both show bomb maker suspect Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010. U.S. bomb experts are picking apart a sophisticated new al-Qaida improvised explosive device, a top Obama administration counterterrorism official said Tuesday, to determine if it could have slipped past airport security and taken down a commercial airplane. (AP)

The CIA says it’s stopped an al-Qaida plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner. We’ll go deep on how they spotted the plot and the bomb threat now.

Comments [290]
 
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 | 11:00 am
President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. (AP)

Language and politics. We’ll look at the power of rhetoric from Aristotle to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Comments [219]
 
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 | 10:00 am
Supporters of Socialist candidate Francois Hollande celebrate his victory in the second round of French presidential elections at Bastille Square in Paris, France, Sunday, May 6, 2012. (AP)

France and Greece vote out austerity. We’ll look at what their elections mean for Europe’s debt crisis and the world.

Comments [165]
 
Monday, May 7, 2012 | 11:00 am
A horse drawn carriage carrying the casket of Florida A&M University band member Robert Champion is lead by his fellow band members following his funeral service Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 in Decatur, Ga. The 26-year-old was found dead on Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla. hotel after the school's football team lost to a rival. Authorities suspect hazing but have not released any further details. (AP)

“Homicide by Hazing” at Florida A and M. What’s going on?

Comments [78]
 
Monday, May 7, 2012 | 10:00 am
The social networking site Facebook says it plans to go public later this month. (AP)

The world’s largest social network readies its IPO. Do you want in?

Comments [92]
 
Friday, May 4, 2012 | 11:00 am
An unidentified produce employee restocks the shelf of bagged lettuce at a grocery store in Berkeley, Calif. (AP)

On a crowded planet, it may get strange. We’ll dig in.

Comments [231]
 
Friday, May 4, 2012 | 10:00 am
Police push back protesters near a banner that reads "Happy May Day," Tuesday, May 1, 2012, during May Day protests in downtown Seattle. Hundreds of activists across the U.S. joined the worldwide May Day protests on Tuesday, with Occupy Wall Street members in several cities leading demonstrations against major financial institutions. (AP)

The U.S. gives up China’s barefoot lawyer. President Obama in Afghanistan. “Occupy” is back. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [667]
 
Thursday, May 3, 2012 | 11:00 am
Police officials and others examine the wreckage of three-vehicle accident four miles west of Oxford, Mississippi on Thursday, March 26, 1987, that killed five University of Mississippi students who were participating in a sorority walk-a-thon. Several others were injured in the accident. (AP)

Twenty-five years ago a college student lost five of her closest friends in a freak accident. We’ll look at what it means to lose someone when you’re young.

Comments [99]
 
Thursday, May 3, 2012 | 10:00 am
In this April 12, 2012, file photo, former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John Edwards arrives outside federal court following a lunch break in Greensboro, N.C., during jury selection in his criminal trial on alleged campaign finance violations. Defense lawyers for John Edwards will argue at his trial that much of the nearly $1 million in secret payments at issue in the criminal case against their client were actually siphoned off by a trusted aide to build an expansive dream home. (AP)

John Edwards on trial, accused of using nearly a million dollars in campaign funds to hide an affair. Is he a cad or a criminal? Should he be facing up to 30 years in jail?

Comments [318]
 
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | 11:00 am
Staff stand guard by Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' as it is hung for display at Sotheby's Auction Rooms in London, Thursday, April 12, 2012. The painting made with pastels is one of four versions of the composition, and dates from 1895, it will be auctioned in the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale in New York on May 2, with an estimated price of 80 million dollars. (AP)

Painter Edvard Munch’s iconic masterpiece “The Scream” is up for auction. We’ll look at how that image— “The Scream” — has seared itself into our culture.

Comments [104]
 
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | 10:00 am
Venus De Milo sculpture in front of the Calyon building in Manhattan, home of the Dewey & Laboeuf LLP headquarters. (Courtesy Michelle Verdugo)

We look at the business of law in trouble and the crumbling of the venerable New York firm Dewey and LeBoeuf.

Comments [112]
 
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 | 11:00 am
Author David Frum.

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum on the GOP today and his tough new novel “Patriots.”

Comments [235]
 
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 | 10:00 am
This file image made from video posted to YouTube April 27, 2012 by by overseas Chinese news site Boxun.com, shows blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell arrived early Sunday, April 29 in Beijing on a hastily arranged trip as problems from the escape of a blind legal activist to possible new arms sales to Taiwan threaten to derail fragile U.S.-China co-operation. His trip comes after activist Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest in his rural village (AP)

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng makes a daring escape. We’ll examine his fate and impact on U.S.-China relations.

Comments [97]
 
ONPOINT
TODAY
May 21, 2012
e temple of Parthenon is silhouetted against a cloudy sunset atop the Acropolis hill in Athens, Thursday May 17 2012. Fitch ratings agency downgraded debt-crippled Greece deeper into junk territory on Thursday, warning of a "probable" Greek exit from the euro currency union if new national elections next month produce an anti-bailout government. Fitch said it had cut Greece's rating by one notch, from B- to CCC, the lowest possible grade for a country that is not in default. (AP)

The threat from Greece to Europe and the world economy. Your economy.

May 21, 2012
A nurse holds a baby in the nursery of the Pennsylvania Hospital in this 1930 photo. The country has reached a historic tipping point -- with minority births constituting more than half of all births, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this month. (AP)

A majority minority births now in the USA. We’ll ask what that means.

RECENT
SHOWS
May 18, 2012
Roger Williams (National Park Service)

Roger Williams, and the history that set the table.

 
May 18, 2012
A demonstrator hit a pot during a protest to mark the anniversary of the "Indignados" movement in Sol square, Madrid, Spain, Tuesday May 15, 2012. Spaniards angered by increasingly grim economic prospects and unemployment hitting one out of every four citizens protested in droves in the nation's largest cities, marking the one-year anniversary of a spontaneous movement that inspired similar anti-authority demonstrations across the planet. (AP)

JP Morgan loses it. Europe wobbles. Facebook fever. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

On Point Blog
On Point Blog
Tom’s Commencement Address At Niagara University
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Tom gave the commencement speech at Niagra University on May 12, 2012. Hear the speech here.

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8 Comments
 
Literary On Point
Monday, May 14, 2012

Enjoy Toni Morrison? Check out these On Point interviews with…

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1 Comment
 
Baby Names
Monday, May 14, 2012

The Social Security Administration released today its top 1,000 baby name list for 2011.

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