The unemployment rate reached 5.5% last month, the highest jump from month to month in two decades. Coupled with the rising prices of gas and food, is it time to admit we're in an economic spiral? Charlie Fleming is the president of the North Georgia Labor Council, he speaks with us about job loss in Atlanta. Then economist Sophia Koropeckyj joins us to widen the bigger picture.

While China mourned the victims of its deadly earthquake, the shuttered Chinese media became tentatively bolder and began to openly question the methods of government construction and relief efforts. Now, as the disaster has been assessed and the government regains its footing, reporters in China are finding it harder to get their story told. On the Media's Brooke Gladstone joins us from Hong Kong.

Last year’s NBA finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers was the least watch series in history. But a 2008 revival of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry is hoped bring back fans. With exciting teams and people nostalgic for the face-offs in the 80s, We’ll talk to sports writer Dave Zirin about how much people are paying attention so far, and explore the differences between now and then.

In You Don't Mess With the Zohan, Adam Sandler plays an Israeli martial-artist-turned-hairdresser. On The Takeaway this morning, we spoke with Oded Gabay, a real-life Israeli hairdresser ... with a black belt.

We can’t imagine you need help thinking about what to spend your stimulus check on… and well we can’t recommend very many of the ideas that people posted on the site http://www.howispentmystimulus.com/ either. Everything from vacations, to tattoos, to pet surgeries, to hand guns. We’ve awoken the creator of the Web site, Rudy Adler, in Phoenix, Ariz to ask him where he’s spent his stimulus check.

Over the weekend, the animated flick Kung Fu Panda got the top spot at the box office … and Hillary Clinton gave her support to Barack Obama as the top Democrat in the presidential primary. If you caught a movie over the weekend, which one do you think the also-rans should catch up on? Our listeners have some suggestions.