Guests: Stephen Eke, BBC Russian Affairs Analyst, and James Collins, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia.

Guest: Ollie Williams, BBC Olympics blogger

Guest: Mitch Lawrence, NBA columnist for the New York Daily

Guest: Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Guest: Anne Barnard, The New York Times

Guest: Chad Hart, agricultural economist, Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa

Takeaway science correspondent and science writer Jonah Lehrer, author of "Proust Was a Neuroscientist"

Swimmers are breaking world records at an astounding pace at the Beijing Olympics. What’s behind this incredible trend?

This week, the media reported on scientists developing materials they say could create a kind of invisibility cloak. The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation. It’s just one example of “nanomanufacturing,” which the NSF sees as a way to give the United States an edge as industrial manufacturing wanes.

Guest: Vasil Sikharulidze, Georgia’s ambassador to the United States.

Guest: Jonah Fisher, BBC World Service

Guest: Joshua Green, senior editor for the Atlantic magazine

Guest: Caroline Wyatt, BBC correspondent in Moscow.