This week will mark the eight-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, and the casualty rate is ticking upward. The United States lost eight troops in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, lending more urgency to the debate over what the Obama administration's next steps will be in Afghanistan.

We talk to Andrew Bacevich, professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. He is author of "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism"; and Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department analyst on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich updates us once again on the slow, slow movement of health care reform through the Senate.

We speak with Louise Story, finance reporter for The New York Times, about new findings that say the Treasury Department may have misled the country when it declared some of the nation's largest banks "healthy."

Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin joins us to talk about some of the big games in the NFL last night, and the wild finish in baseball's AL Central race.

We look at what's coming up this week with Marcus Mabry, international business editor for The New York Times; and from London we speak to Jonathan Marcus, diplomatic correspondent for the BBC. On the agenda: the latest with Iran and their nuclear program; the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan; China Premier Wen Jiabao's visit with Kim Jong Il in North Korea; and the Supreme Court's new term with new Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Observers say the high winds and heavy rain that have ravaged Manila have caused more damage than Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans. Tropical storm Ketsana (locally called Ondoy) hit Manila last month, driving over 80,000 families out of their homes and into evacuation centers on higher ground. To hear what it's currently like in Manila, we talk to Patricia Hizon-Bermudez, a Filipina TV reporter and relief worker currently on the ground there.

Experts say that the way siblings treat each other early in life can be a good predictor for how they'll relate to each other down the road. The relationship you start out with, though, doesn't have to be the one in which you wind up: Parents, it turns out, can take a more active role to help kids communicate better with their sisters and brothers. We speak with Takeaway contributor Lisa Belkin, who writes the "Motherlode" blog for The New York Times. We're also joined by psychology professors Laurie Kramer from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, assistant psychology professor at Columbia University.

The Supreme Court begins its annual term this morning with a packed agenda. Among other cases, they'll be hearing about gun rights, dog-fighting videos, corporate political contributions and the First Amendment. Plus, it's Justice Sonia Sotomayor's first day on the job, and there are rumors that Justice Stevens is on his way out. For more, we turn to Dahlia Lithwick, Supreme Court correspondent and senior editor at Slate Magazine.

Comedian David Letterman and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) were both recently blackmailed for what's long been considered taboo: consensual relationships with their employees. But is it really that bad to date someone you work for or who works for you? For some answers we talk to Liz Shalet, an employment lawyer who specializes in sexual harassment cases.

Our Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, joins us to talk about the latest in Washington's steps toward extending domestic unemployment benefits and discussion of potential sanctions on Iran.

Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin talks about Minnesota's next two days of sports drama. Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings will host his former team, the Green Bay Packers, today, and on Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins host the Detroit Tigers in a one-game playoff for the AL Central top spot.

A bomb exploded in the lobby of the offices of the United Nations' World Food Programme in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. At least three people have been killed and several others injured. We speak with the BBC's correspondent in Islamabad, Shoaib Hasan, for the latest news.

Read an official statement about the blasts from the U.N.'s World Food Programme.

We’re still getting responses to the conversation we had last week about "Driving While Distracted." Since that segment, the Obama administration banned all federal employees from texting while driving, and calls are growing for a nationwide ban. We hear some more of what our listeners had to say.

The director of the U.N. nuclear agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, says that Iran has set a date for inspectors to visit that country's newly revealed uranium enrichment plant, outside the city of Qom. That news comes as a relief to some analysts.

But a leaked report by the agency says that Iran possesses the data to make a nuclear weapon. Is Iran finally playing ball with the U.N., or is it just telling them what it wants to hear? We ask David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, for answers.

Less than one month before Tim Smith was supposed to be deployed to Iraq, he was discharged from the Marines under the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy when someone decided to tell. Last month, to protest that policy, he appeared on a billboard sponsored by the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center, next to the statement, “I’m gay and I protected your freedom.” Within days, vandals tore down the billboard. Tim tells us his story, along with Bianca Phillips, a journalist who’s been covering the story for the Memphis Flyer.