New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called Gustov “The Mother of All Storms.” If it was a scare tactic to move the residents of New Orleans out of the city, it worked. Residents left by the thousands, fearing what could have been a repeat of Katrina. Now as the storm begins to settle, The Takeaway talks to Lolis Eric Elie, Metro Columnist for the Times-Picayune, about what the mayor will do the next time New Orleans is threatened.

The news yesterday morning of McCain’s VP pick Sara Palin’s daughter was not a complete surprise; blogs had been tossing rumors around all last week. But how did Gov. Palin’s home state of Alaska respond to the news of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy?

Guest: Jonathan Head, BBC Correspondent in Bangkok

When it comes to sports, fans and non-fans might see it as a nothing more than a form of entertainment, but in the hands of sports writer Dave Zirin it’s anything but. In his new book, "A People’s History of Sports in the United States," Zirin points out that it is often in the boxing ring, or on the court where the societal conflicts of the day are played out literally and figuratively. Zirin joins the Takeaway for a conversation on sports, politics and American history.

Now that Hurricane Gustav has dashed the momentum leading up to the Republican National Convention, the storm’s ill-timing led us to wonder if there has been a time in history when inclement weather affected political outcome. Author Laura Lee joins us with five examples of when the weather changed history.

Guests: Bob Hennelly, WNYC reporter; Ben Calhoun, Chicago Public Radio

Hurricane Gustav was the first test of New Orleans' new and improved levees, which are still being rebuilt three years after Hurricane Katrina.

Guest: Trisha Wallace, meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center, Miami, Fla.

College kids heading to school are also heading for sticker-shock when they discover the costs of this semester's textbooks. But Rich Baraniuk believes he has a solution: free, collaborative textbooks.

About half of the year, actor and comedian Harry Shearer lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He’s been watching Gustav’s wrath from afar, via satellite feeds from his other home in Southern California.

There's a micro-sized voting bloc you probably haven’t heard about this election cycle: "Hip Hop Republican." The group has a blog, an agenda and several members attending the Republican National Convention. But what does this apparent contradiction of terms really mean? And what does the group think of the convention and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as Arizona Senator McCain's VP pick? We speak with group member Claudio Simpkins, a conventioneer, former Huckabee volunteer and student at Harvard law.

Guest: Faith Salie, Takeaway convention correspondent

Guest: Kate Zernike, New York Times