Britain's reported move to cut defense spending; the military and diplomatic tussling between the American and British forces over the UK's departure from Basra in 2007; the Senate debate in California between Sen. Barbara Boxer and ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina; author Meredith Maran about her book "My Lie," on the danger of recovered "memories"; the discovery that a planet 20 light years away might be Earth-like enough to have water on its surface; and journalist Bob Woodward about his latest book, "Obama's Wars."

The rise of the middle class in India and China; teaching religion in schools; potential tension between American and U.K. military forces over cuts in British defense spending; Americans' fascination with celebrity; signifiers of the middle class among African Americans; political races in California and Nevada; novelist Emma Donoghue's new book, "ROOM." 

Todd Zwillich guest hosts for Celeste Headlee.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il begins handing power to his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un; listeners respond to middle-class indicators; Army specialist Jeremy Morlock to face charges of premeditated murder in Afghanistan; training returning veterans for job placement; a new survey finds most Americans don't know as much about religion as they think they do; why people still believe in alien visitations; Obama administration wants to make it easier for the government to wiretap the internet; Ingrid Betancourt on six years of captivity by the FARC.

Todd Zwillich guest hosts for Celeste Headlee, who is off for the day.

What it means to be middle class in America today, and how that definition has changed over the decades; the American forces still in Iraq and their official non-combat roles; President Clinton in Connecticut campaigning for Conn. Attorney General Blumenthal; NFL round-up; the week's agenda; author Jeff Sharlet on the secret happenings in a fundamentalist Christian clubhouse on Washington DC's "C Street."

Anti-Muslim discrimination suits on the rise; Facebook CEO's $100M donation to Newark's public schools; what music the Chilean miners have asked for, deep underground; commodities trading and food prices; bringing "Howl" to life; how billionaires spend their money; fact checking "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"; checking in with Colorado voters; Florida court rules ban on adoption by gay people is unconstitutional; NAACP reaches out to LGBT community in New York City.  Celeste Headlee hosts from KUVO in Denver, Colo.

Three key provisions of health care reform take effect today; artist Christo on his latest project; an unlikely eco-tourist campaign along the Iran/Iraq border; GOP releases its "Pledge to America"; the weird world of author Roald Dahl; staff changes in the Obama White House; "S!@T My Dad Says"; voters recalling unpopular local politicians; Titanic mistakes and human error; analyzing why humor works. Celeste Headlee hosts from KUVO, in Denver.

The risks and rewards of relying on helicopters in Afghanistan; the slow progress on the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals; inmates in North Carolina challenging their death penalty due to racial bias; actress Julianne Moore on her life, projects and acting career; diplomatic wrangling over the oil-rich Arctic; implications of testing athletes for sickle-cell anemia; Robert Reich on the economy; listeners respond to our segment about testing fetuses for Down Syndrome; frustration from some gay service members at Lady Gaga's methods of advocating for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Todd Zwillich fills in for Celeste.

What will it take for small businesses to start hiring again?; the U.N's Millennium Development Goals, five years from deadline; former Car Czar on lessons learned from the collapse and rebirth of the U.S. auto industry; the coming defense appropriation bill and Don't Ask, Don't Tell; the costs and benefits of Social Security Disability insurance; problems resolved and unresolved from the BP oil spill; asking where the oil has gone; the lingering real world impact of the spill; BP's corporate future; local politics on the Gulf of Mexico; engineering lessons learned from the spill.

Violence and accusations of election fraud in Afghanistan; the week's agenda; a listener's family story of the Great Migration; one mother's decision not to screen her third pregnancy for Down Syndrome; President Obama campaigns in Pennsylvania; after last week's pipeline explosion, looking at PG&E's safety record; lessons learned in the thirty years since eradicating smallpox; ethical challenges inherent in clinical trials of cancer treatments.

Rise in poverty in the U.S. projected higher than in the 1960s, when the War on Poverty; Congressional agenda during campaign season; Afghanistan's parliamentary election on Saturday; forty years since Jimi Hendrix's death; Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan on their new film, "Jack Goes Boating"; wealth and the changing definition of "rich"; a new gold rush?; Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) on Tuesday's primary results; Katherine Schwarzenegger's book on the pressures on teenage girls.

Victories by Tea Party-endorsed candidates over moderate GOP contenders; U.S. poverty rate jumps higher; Civil Rights-era photographer Ernest Withers was also informing for the FBI; author James Ellroy's latest, "The Hilliker Curse"; flood relief in Pakistan and an improvement in U.S./Pakistan relations; reactions to Tea Party victories; the Pope travels to Britain; new HBO documentary, 'The Fence,' on the $3 billion fence between the U.S. and Mexico.

Analyzing primary results from Delaware and New Hampshire; flood waters still receding in Pakistan; two years since Lehman Bros' collapse; economic haiku; national implications from state races; a reporter seeks asylum across the Mexican border; Isabel Wilkerson's book on black families moving north during the Great Migration.

Voters' attitudes going into the midterms; "peak oil" and the 50th anniversary of OPEC's founding; independent voices on Wall St; campaigning for the Afghan parliament; new credit card regulations requiring co-signers for young cardholders; the politics and economics of tax cuts; Mexican bicentennial clouded by ongoing drug violence; the science behind 'rogue waves.'

Delaware's GOP primary and Tea Party influence; the week's agenda; Russia confiscating opposition groups' computers with the pretext of pursuing pirated Microsoft software; Martin Landau on his career in film and his latest, "Lovely, Still"; Farai Chideya looks at Florida political races; update on Chilean miners; national pipeline safety in light of Thursday's explosion in California; Florida news anchor Charles Perez and his husband temporarily relocate out of Florida to legally adopt their daughter.

Florida pastor Terry Jones calls off his "Burn a Quaran" day, is this really a victory?; listeners tell us what America's greatest moment is; a US Open update heading into the final weekend; more with Dan Johnson and the need for moderate voices; Martin Landau discusses his career and new film "Lovely Still"; unpacking the delicate politics of persuasion; listeners respond to Pastor Jones calling off the Quran burning; Arianna Huffington, and the death of the middle class; on patrol with the men and women of the 101st Airborne in southern Afghanistan; what Mexic can learn from Colombia's experience with drug cartels.

The Park51 Center debate and how American stories spin out into international debates; NYPD-sponsored cricket league attracts many Muslim youth; checking the president's math on tax cutting proposals; the Taliban goes underground in Afghan's Kandahar city; books to help people understand war; the president's visit to battleground state Ohio; America's finest moments; why the NFL is so lucrative; evangelical leaders react to the planned "Burn a Koran Day" by a small church in Florida.

President Obama's proposed tax write-off for businesses; previously untold stories of rape from the women of the civil rights movement; a history of presidential popularity slumps in the second year in office; what America's place in the world will be; repacking the school lunch; women in Afghanistan; native language as the lens through which one sees the world.

President Obama calls for $50 billion in infrastructure spending to create jobs in the slow economy; new research on the surprisingly weak correlation between money and happiness; imagining letting the housing market collapse; paying for placement in internships; race and discriminatory language in the much-traveled court case of John Hithon; tongue-in-cheek "Mexploitation" flick "Machete"; Robert Reich on the president's spending proposal; lack of clarity on bisphenol-A's effects; Terry McMillan and the long-awaited sequel to "Waiting to Exhale," "Getting to Happy."

Attacks in Baghdad over the weekend kill twelve Iraqi security forces and wound dozens; financial recovery from a world perspective; U.S. Open weekend wrap up; the week's agenda; a couple preserves their own IVF-enabled embryos with which to get pregnant later in life; a fall election preview; the unfinished and contentious Interstate 69; a summer news roundup.

Bureau of Labor Statistics release jobs report and photography from a 1993 factory closing in North Carolina; Israeli ambassador to the U.S. on the Middle East peace talks; the eastern seaboard prepares for Hurricane Earl; update on the U.S. Open; George Clooney's latest thriller, "The American";  listeners' jobs reports; Justice Department sues Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio; Leonard Nimoy's latest photography exhibit.

President Obama convenes peace talks with Middle East leaders; the hostage taker at the Discovery Channel building; Pakistani attitudes towards the U.S. since the peak of flood aid; tennis legend Andre Agassi; study showing young men make less money in jobs than young women; former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld testifies before a U.S. Senate committee; former climate-change skeptic Bjørn Lomborg changes his opinion on global warming.

President Obama's speech on the end of major combat operations in Iraq; rise in Caesarian sections in the U.S.; the fan-friendly U.S. Open; origins of China's 60-mile traffic jam and jams around the world; the creator of "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony"; Israeli ambassador on Obama's speech; the southeast prepares for Hurricane Earl; Chilean rapper Anna Tijoux.