As Sarah Palin chats with Oprah and releases her new book, "Going Rogue," we take a look at the role of women in the GOP and Palin's political future. Why are there relatively few Republican women currently in Congress? Is the party inadvertently losing women because it's shifting to a more conservative position? And will Palin run for office again? Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and Republican strategist Mary Matalin weigh in.

• Washington Takeout: We take a quick look at politicians' reactions to the Fort Hood shootings and the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court. Our Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, describes the view from Congress.
• Sports Takeout: We recap a Browns/Ravens game which nearly put Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin to sleep.
• Listener Takeout: Listeners react to our story on college students' visits home and Sarah Palin's just-released book.

The new "SuperFreakonomics" book has attracted some passionate criticism from climate scientists and a community of writers, researchers and scholars for a chapter on global warming. Co-authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt reject the idea that reducing carbon emissions should be the sole focus for addressing global warming, and dive into an array of bold ideas for "geoengineering," which would allow people to directly change temperatures on Earth. Stephen Dubner joins us to explain and defend the Freakonomics approach.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office says many employers and workers aren't reporting injuries that happen on the job. The report calls into question data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is responsible for compiling numbers on workplace injuries. New York Times labor and workplace reporter Steven Greenhouse tells us why these injures are going unreported. Greenhouse is also the author of "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker."

Our contributor Beth Kobliner brings in a new 6-year survey out today from The Ethics Resource Center, which says people are behaving more ethically at work while the economy is slow. Stephen Dubner is a little skeptical, however, that people reliably self-report their own ethics practices.

President Obama met with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, today for talks that ran the gamut from climate change to Taiwan to global security. Residents of China watched Obama's visit carefully, as did many Chinese-Americans. Shirong Chen is the BBC's China editor; he joins us from London. We're also joined by members of different generations of Chinese-Americans for their take on how Obama did. David Zhang is an associate professor of pathology and oncological sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Jenny Jiang is a junior, studying marketing at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Business Takeout: The New York Times' Louise Story previews what some Wall Street executives will tell Congress later today about bailout money and the Bank of America/Merill Lynch merger.
• Washington Takeout: President Obama's first appointment to the federal courts is being met by threats of a GOP fillibuster in the Senate today. Todd Zwillich examines the roots of the opposition.
• Sports Takeout: Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin joins us with news of a football match happening off the field, as the Supreme Court decides not to weigh in on the debate over re-naming the Washington Redskins.

The federal government needs a place to move the detainees from Guantánamo Bay if they hope to close the detention camp, as President Obama has promised. Moving terrorism suspects onto U.S. soil is a controversial move opposed by many – especially Republicans. But there are also those who support the idea and believe it could be beneficial in a time of high unemployment. One of the places the government is considering is Thomson Correctional Center, in the small town of Thomson, Ill. We speak to Tony Arnold from Chicago Public Radio, along with Illinois state Rep. Mike Boland, a Democrat whose district covers Thomson.

The Leonid meteor shower peaked early Tuesday morning – before most of our listeners were awake. At around 4 a.m. EST the meteor shower sent sparks flying through the skies in the Americas and Asia. Our friend, space and aviation reporter Miles O'Brien, said it was something of "a dud" from where he was standing, on the beach in Florida. O'Brien also tells us about NASA's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. It's the fifth successful shuttle launch this year; and with only five shuttle missions left before the program ends, every piece of cargo counts.

[Rakim's "Guess Who's Back"]

Rakim’s influence is all over contemporary hip hop (and beyond it), from Tupac and Jay-Z to Eminem and Rage Against the Machine. He releases his third solo album, “The Seventh Seal,” today – his first solo album in nine years. Morehouse College professor David Wall Rice talks with us about why Rakim is so respected in hip-hop circles, and why he's relatively unknown outside hip-hop despite his wide-ranging influence.