Protesters take to the street on the eleventh day of unrest in Egypt. Journalists and foreign workers have been detained and attacked, creating an atmosphere of fear.

It's day eleven of Egypt's populast uprising. What began with relatively peaceful demonstrations turned into a standoff between anti-regime protesters and the Egyptian military. Thursday saw a turn for the worse, as violent Mubarak supporters joined the fray bringing with with them clubs, straight razors and Molotov cocktails.

We've seen a domino effect in the Mideast as protests in Tunisia sparked the continued unrest in Egypt. Over the past week opposition activists in Syria have gathered in small groups to pay homage to the protestors in Egypt, while a Facebook group, run mostly by Syrian expatriates, is trying to organize a "Day of Rage" in that country.

The New York Times has reported that the Obama administration is discussing a proposal with Egyptian officials for President Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately and hand over power to Vice President Omar Suleiman. Under this proposal, Suleiman would run a transitional government until elections are held later this year. Before being appointed to the vice presidency last week, Suleiman was the coordinator of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.

Copts are native Egyptian Christians who make up about 10 percent of the Egyptian population. Their history in the country is deep, and as a religious minority, Copts have experienced discrimination and sometimes persecution under Mubarak. However, amidst the current unrest, Copts fear that an unstable government might give way for to powers even more unkind to Christians.

The BBC's Jim Muir is in Cairo with the latest from the protests. He says the mood in Tahrir Square has improved since violence has susbsided. Journalists have been attacked and detained, but the situation is less tense on today's "day of departure."

This Sunday, football fans around the country will be cheering on two teams that have come to be known for their colors, their devoted fans, and their long history in the NFL. Of course, there’s at least one other thing the teams are also known for: their names, which are linked to proud professions and industries unique to each region.

As protests continue into an eleventh day in Egypt, we pose the question: When is a country ready for democracy?

Pro-democracy protestor, Mosa'ab Elshamy speaks to us from Tahrir Square, where he says the mood is jubiliant and yesterday's tension has subsided. He has been able to go home and get medical treatment, but has returned to the square everyday during the protests.

Omar Khalifa, the managing director at Egypt’s O Media told The Takeaway that, although he believes in freedom, he feels that his country is not yet ready for a Democratic government. But is a country ever ready for the messiness of democracy?

New data this week from the analysis group Hedgeye shows that some of our favorite breakfast items like orange juice and coffee are rising in cost so much that they could be considered “luxury items.” Some are blaming U.S. monetary policy for this inflation, but our guest Louise Story from our partner The New York Times says it’s more complicated than that. This story, she says, is a little bit global warming, a little bit economic recovery, a little bit politics.

This week we’ve been covering the rise in oil prices during the unrest in Egypt. Yesterday anxiety in the region sent the price of a barrel of oil above $100. Additionally, the combination of high global food prices and high unemployment is making the prospect of these countries returning to some sense of normalcy seem untenable in the near future.

A systemic crackdown on journalists by the Egyptian government has threatened reporters and news anchors - and in some cases, sent them fleeing for safety. Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, explains what's at stake if the news media are no longer there to bear witness to the increasingly volatile uprisings. 

Political demonstrations have swept across the Middle East this week, with protestors taking to the streets in Egypt, Yemen and Syria. In Yemen, the protests was hailed as the "day of rage;" in Syria it's being called the "day of anger;" and today in Egypt, protesters are calling for a "day of departure."

From Alexandria to Cairo, Egyptians have been joining in huge protests to fight for freedom in their country. To more fully understand the uprising, we've heard from journalists, protesters, and scholars all week. Here are some of their voices.

The labor department announced that the unemployment rate has dropped to 9 percent following four months of consecutive growth; 36 thousand jobs have been added to the economy. That was significantly fewer jobs than anticipated; economists had forecast a rise by 136,000 jobs. Kelly Evans, reporter for The Wall Street Journal puts these numbers in context.

Two great quarterbacks face off this weekend in Super Bowl XLV as Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger and Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers take to the field. Nando di Fino, sports writer for The Wall Street Journal highlights what to expect and gives us his prediction for who will take home the trophy.

Abdel-Monem Said Ali is a member of Egypt's National Democratic Party. He says the challenge is to "reconstruct the country legitimately with a new constitution." He is highly critical of the United States and says it's the last country in the world to give anyone advice in the Middle East after what it's done in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can there be fair elections in the fall, while at the same time respecting Mubarak's presidency until then?

This is the fourth edition of Wave of Change, a special podcast from The Takeaway, covering the mass protests in Egypt and the consequences for the wider Arab world, hosted by John Hockenberry with Celeste Headlee.