It’s Friday, and that means I (Mary! On the “Futures” desk!) am giving you a peek at what we’re excited about on next week’s broadcast. John will be back from Denver, and he and Celeste are in all week.

MONDAY:

IN THE NEWS: Congress returns to work after Easter break. Pulitzer Prize Winners announced at 3:00 PM ET. President Obama begins hosting a two-day Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC: Hu Jintao, Angela Merkel, Jacob Zuma, Manmohan Singh, and Yousaf Raza Gilani all attend. (Benjamin Netanyahu has just backed out.) One-year anniversary of the Maersk Alabama hijacking; Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse is in court for a pretrial conference today. Three months since Haiti earthquake. Conan O’Brien launches his "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour".

ON THE AGENDA: If you’re a loyal listener, you’ve heard our weekly "agenda" segment with Marcus Mabry each Monday. We’re welcoming a new voice to the table this week, Latoya Peterson. While Marcus gives us the lowdown on the news agenda, Latoya will fill us in on the cultural agenda for the week. Tell us what you think!

KIDS AND DEPRESSION: This past week, a six-year-old’s suicide in Oregon shocked parents. It even had Slate magazine asking “Do children commit suicide?” While this topic is dark, we wanted to take on the issue of kids and depression by checking in with Judith Warner, who wrote the new book “We’ve Got Issues”, about kids (and parents) confronting mental illness. We’ll also be joined by a parent who is struggling with their child’s mental illness.

BRANDING: How are political brands changing? At the recent Conference on World Affairs, Graham Button talked to John Hockenberry about how the world of advertising is affecting the political landscape.

TUESDAY:

IN THE NEWS: Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit enters second day. Michelle Obama visits Mexico City — her first solo trip as First Lady. 40^th Anniversary of explosion onboard Apollo 13. Kitty Kelley’s Oprah biography is published. “Glee” returns for its spring premiere.

GROWN UP BULLIES: Celeste caught this article about bullying at work — among teachers specifically — and an attempt to make better rules to combat it. We wanted to look into this a bit more with Justin Jones-Fosu. What makes someone a workplace bully, and how do you deal with bullying behavior at the office? We're starting the conversation on this now at (TheTakeaway.org).

THE LIFE OF PI, CONTINUED: "Life of Pi" author Yann Martel has a new book out now, “Beatrice and Virgil”. It's getting mixed reviews, even though Martel just got a thank you note from President Obama. We'll talk about the challenges of following up a smash literary hit.

COCO ON THE MOVE:  Monday night, Conan O'Brien launches his much-anticipated live show in Eugene, Ore. We're curious what Conan O'Brien 2.0 looks like, and are recruiting a local reporter to go to the show for us, gather sound with people who are going, and tell us about how Conan performs.

WEDNESDAY:

IN THE NEWS: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies to the Joint Economic Committee on the economic outlook; AG Eric Holder testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Department oversight. NBA regular season ends. Deadline to raise $12.5 million to save iconic “Hollywood” sign (the land is currently slated for luxury houses).

IN THE KITCHEN: Friend of The Takeaway Kim Severson has written a new book called “Spoon Fed” – it’s about her recovery from alcoholism and how she tried to connect with her dying Italian mother (Publisher’s Weekly calls it “brave and sincere”). But it is also about food, and the recipes that make Kim tick. She’ll let us in on the food that sustains her.

PERSONAL BAILOUT: We continue our DIY Bailout series. This week, Beth Kobliner wants you to know that EVERYTHING is negotiable. Your interest rate, your checking fees — even the cost of an appliance at the store. We're hoping she can get tape with a listener who is struggling with fees and needs some help. And she'll tell you how to advocate for yourself when you're facing stiff fees.

THURSDAY:

IN THE NEWS: Tax Day! Tea Party Express tour ends with DC rally.

GETTING TECHNICAL: We have a couple of ideas in the hopper for our weekly Tech segment. First, there's the author over at Slate who says he's giving up the internet; we’re reaching out to him. We've also been talking a lot about starting new businesses and fundraising online. New websites like Quirky and Kickstarter are changing how creative ideas go public. We're doing a bit more research; but you can check out our producer David’s video about Kickstarter right now!

OLDER AND WISER? We were intrigued by this research that came out last week, which posits that folks really do get wiser as they get older. We thought it would be a great time to take on that idea - by talking a bit about the science, sure — but also by getting some fabulous older folks on the show...like DJ Ruth Flowers, for instance – if she has time to squeeze us in to her busy schedule, of course.

FRIDAY

IN THE NEWS: Pope Benedict turns 83.

ON THE BIG SCREEN: We have a bunch of irons in the fire for our weekly movie segment — including a possible conversation with Roxana Saberi and her filmmaker fiance, Bahman Ghobadi, who have a new docudrama out called "Nobody Knows about Persian Cats" (Saberi co-wrote the script). It's about the secret lives of indie rockers in Iran. "Date Night" and "Kick-Ass" go into wide release this week, too — so you can count on us to talk about them.

... WATCHING OVER THE WEEKEND: Saturday: NBA Playoffs begin. Sunday: Iran Army Day. Space Shuttle Discovery due to land at Kennedy Space Center. Academy of Country Music Awards.