The nation is still buzzing over the arrest of eminent African American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Mass., two weeks ago. Today the president will sit down with Professor Gates and the arresting officer Sergeant James Crowley for a conciliatory beer. Essence Senior Editor Patrik Henry Bass has his own opinion on who "acted stupidly." He joins The Takeaway with his thoughts on race, beer, and the president.

But is sitting down for a beer the best way to resolve conflict? Sheila Heen, author of Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most joins, with her take on conflict resolution, negotiations, and whether beer can fix anything. Or everything.

For more on the Henry Louis Gates, Jr., listen to The Takeaway's stories, America, Still Not 'Post-Racial', Call the Police: Racial Profiling and the Law, and read Takeaway Contributor David Wall Rice's essay, Professor Gates Arrested? No Surprise.

Click through for a transcript of this conversation.

Here are the President's initial comments on the Gates arrest:

The city of Baltimore, Maryland, is quietly working on a potentially groundbreaking technological project: wireless. WiMax, the super high speed wireless internet network spreading throughout the city, is broadcast from cell phone towers and is much faster than the 3G network used by cell phones, DSL, or cable modems. While other countries such as Israel, Korea, and Japan already know the technology, the U.S. has been slow to adopt the trend. Sam Grobart, the personal technology editor at The New York Times, and Peter Wayner, a contributing tech writer for The New York Times and author of Translucent Databases 2Nd Edition: Confusion, Misdirection, Randomness, Sharing, Authentication And Steganography To Defend Privacy, talk us through the pros and cons of the new wireless.

One of the most expensive health-care markets in the country is Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in McAllen, Texas. Eighty-two percent of the hospital is owned by doctors who also practice there. That same hospital is one of the largest sources of campaign contributions to Senate Democrats. Is this a conflict of interest or just good business practice? The Takeaway talks to Kevin Sack, a National Correspondent for The New York Times who is covering the story.

For more, read Kevin Sack's article Texas Hospital Flexing Muscle in Health Fight, about what the hospital hopes to influence with it's large campaign contributions.

As federal agents sift through the case against the suspected jihadists in Willow Spring, North Carolina, it became clear that one man was missing from the conspiracy. Now federal authorities are scouring Pakistan for an 8th suspect in the alleged terrorist group. It is believed that the man (and, yes, it is most likely a man) has gone to Pakistan to gather intelligence. The story is startling as a reminder that terrorism can grow on American soil. Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder warned that some Americans are becoming radicalized and turning to terrorism. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano then asked Americans to be alert for homegrown terrorists. But how do you recognize a radicalizing terrorist? Mitch Silber, Director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York Police Department, joins the conversation with his tips.

Here is Attorney General Eric Holder's interview with ABC News:

A Centers for Disease Control advisory panel has recommended that pregnant women get top priority for an H1N1 vaccine when it is expected to become available this fall. How is this recommendation reverberating on the frontlines? The Takeaway turns to Dr. Richard Wenzel, an epidemiologist and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, who has just returned from studying the spread of the flu in South America. Also joining the conversation are Leila Laniado, an Atlanta resident who is 5 months pregnant and weighing her options, and Dr. Laura Riley, an OB/GYN at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston explains what she is telling her patients about the vaccine.

A type of body fat that actually burns calories sounds counter-intuitive, but that’s what brown fat does. Babies and animals have it, and earlier this year we learned that adults have it too. Today the latest developments in brown fat will be released on the online version of the journal Nature. Researcher Bruce Speigleman and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have decoded the recipe for brown fat and concocted functional brown fat cells from both mouse and human stem cells. Joining us to discuss the research and the implications of this latest breakthrough is health reporter and special correspondent for The Takeaway, Rachel Gotbaum.

We check in with The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich to get the latest from Capitol Hill. The Senate has the outline of a deal which got the Congressional Budget Office on their side with its comparatively modest price tag. But that doesn't mean it's close to passing. On the House side of the Hill, Sen. Henry Waxman, the author of the House's health care bill, has struck a deal with the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats. But that may not be enough to get the bill to a vote.

The Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Henry Waxman, who drafted the health care bill, and Blue Dog Democrats, the fiscally conservative wing of the Democratic party, reached an agreement yesterday that would slash approximately $100 million dollars from the health care reform bill. This has enraged some progressive Democrats in the House, who want a public option included in the bill. One of those progressive House Democrats joins us from Washington, D.C.: Congressman Anthony Weiner, Democrat from New York's 9th District.

Over 4,000 U.S. Marines launched a major offensive against the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan. They face a tough battle and not just against their military foes but against the weather and the thick dust that clings to everything. Aaron Schachter, correspondent for PRI’s The World, has been embedded with an army medical evacuation unit at Camp Dwyer in Helmand province. He joins The Takeaway with a first hand look at the offensive in Afghanistan.

Copyright Aaron Schacter/with permission

Just when you thought things couldn't get worse in Detroit...they do. The unemployment rate in the Motor City jumped up almost 3 points last month. It now stands at a staggering 17 percent— the highest unemployment of any major city in the country. Is this the jobless economic recovery that economists keep discussing? And can Detroit rise again? Bankole Thompson, Senior Editor at the Michigan Chronicle, joins The Takeaway with more of the story.

As the president prepares to host a kegger to smooth the feathers ruffled over the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, the nation's beer drinkers are paying close attention. The Takeaway's Femi Oke has hit the bars (for research, naturally) to find out whether conflict is best resolved over a beer. Then Brooklyn Brewery's Beer Master, Garrett Oliver, adds his thoughts on the president's beer selection: Budweiser, Blue Moon, and Red Stripe. No Brooklyn Lager, Mr. President?

It's been 40 days since the world was horrified by the video of a woman, Neda, being shot and killed during the protests surrounding the presidential elections in Iran. Under Iranian custom, a death is mourned 40 days later, but Iranian officials refused a request for a large public memorial service. Opposition leaders have since been barred from attending even small private services. Jon Leyne, the BBC's Tehran correspondent who was kicked out of Iran in the wake of the elections, joins The Takeaway with the latest.

Neda's death was captured on video and quickly became a rallying cry for Iranians and the world [Warning: Graphic Content]: