Celeste Headlee sits down for an after-air conversation about the first mass-market rap single, "Rapper's Delight," which was released by The Sugarhill Gang 30 years ago this week. She's joined by hip hop musician Paul Miller (better known as DJ Spooky) and Keith Shocklee, who produced Public Enemy with The Bomb Squad.

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the U.S. sending troops to Afghanistan. To help mark the occasion we get the personal stories of three veterans of that war: Joe Sturm, Marco Reininger and Genevieve Chase.

On Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that the U.S. military would be making strikes against al-Qaida targets and Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan. By November 2001, the U.S.-backed military alliance had taken Kabul. By December 7, the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar had fallen. Eight years later we are still there. There are currently 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, and 869 American lives have been lost since the beginning.

Conde Nast announced yesterday that it will close Gourmet magazine after nearly 69 years of taste making and recipe writing. The November issue will be its last. The decision came after a three-month study by McKinsey & Co., which looked at cutting the publishing company's costs. Along with Gourmet, Conde Nast is closing Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride. The magazine, headed by longtime editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl, has been a gourmet bible for many young chefs and foodies. Joining us to talk about the demise of the magazine is chef and author Mark Bittman.

The H1N1 vaccine is being slowly distributed around the country. We talk to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Disease, about when the vaccine will hit doctors' offices nationwide. Then, we turn to two practitioners who are also parents: Dr. Sandra Arnold, a pediatric specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, who was one of the first in the nation to get the vaccine. We also talk with Dr. Matthew Davis, a pediatrician and internal medicine doctor at the University of Michigan Medical Center, who just conducted a poll on whether parents will be vaccinating their kids. It turns out that less than half of parents polled are convinced that the vaccine is necessary for their kids.

Flu season starts officially on Sunday, and while the government has been urging schools to close only as a last resort in the battle against H1N1, there have already been at least 187 school closures since the school year started last month. Ross Hammond from the Brookings Institution discusses his new report that reveals that the true cost to the nation of closing schools and day care centers could be as much as $47 billion. Kathleen Murphy is a registered nurse and the health services coordinator for the Milwaukee Public Schools; she tells us what her school district is doing to prevent closings. We also speak to Dr. Faheem Younus, the medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at the Upper Chesapeake Health Center in Bel Air, Md., who has some practical advice for parents who can't take the day off of work.

The floodwaters in the Philippines are starting to recede now that Typhoon Ketsana (locally known as Typhoon Ondoy) has passed through, but the situation in Manila and the surrounding areas is still dire. The city is still recovering as 20 feet of floodwater begins to drain away and the government struggles to cope with 450,000 displaced citizens.

We talk with Stephen Anderson, head of the World Food Program in the Philippines, who talks to us from Manila; and Bing Branigan, Filipina American community liaison for the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, who is leaving for Manila on Wednesday to assist in the relief effort.

Last week close to a million New Yorkers received a special edition of the New York Post emblazoned with the giant headline: "We're Screwed!" Plausible as the headline seemed, the paper was not the work of the Post staff, but rather an elaborate prank by The Yes Men, a group dedicated to pranking for change. We talk to one of the two Yes Men, Mike Bonnano (his partner-in-pranks, Andy Bichlbaum, would have joined us, but is still in jail after being arrested yesterday) about their goals, their pranks and their agenda for the week. We also talk to Steven Heller, co-chair of MFA design at the School for Visual Arts, about whether such pranks change conversations in a positive way or just distract from important topics.

For more from the Yes Men, check out their movie, The Yes Men Fix the World, which opens nationally on October 23rd, or read their book The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization.

Lately the Yes Men have been touting the benefits of a new product, the Survivaball. Click through for more videos from the Yes Men:

President Obama added another TV appearance to his recent media tour last night. He stopped by the fabled couches of "The Late Show with David Letterman" and brought his bully pulpit with him. Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times joins us with a look at whether the president's policy goals were met by his late-night appearance. And Delaina Dixon, founder of delainadixon.com, brings us her thoughts on whether the president was more fun to watch than stupid pet tricks.

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Hot on the heels of a recently-released report in which Afghanistan commander General McChrystal said the U.S. mission in Afghanistan "will likely result in failure" without calling up additional troops, President Obama hit the talk show circuit expressing concern about sending more troops. How are these mixed messages playing out for those about to be deployed?

Kristen L. Rouse is a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard and recently found out she would be deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan. Mary Galeti's husband Russell is also soon to be deployed to Afghanistan. They join us with their thoughts on the continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan. We're also joined by Larry Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior advisor for the Center for Defense Information.

They can't wait for Amazon.com to ship it. They can't wait until 9 a.m. for Barnes & Noble to open. They are Dan Brown's biggest fans, and they can't wait even a minute past midnight to get a hold of his new book, "The Lost Symbol," on the day of its release. We speak to Tom Holbrook, the owner of River Run Bookstore in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who kept his doors open last night until 1 a.m.

President Obama set off a trade dispute on Friday when he announced that the U.S. would impose a 35 percent tariff on imported Chinese tires. China retaliated by launching an investigation into whether the U.S. is dumping cheap chicken and automotive parts into China's marketplace. How is all this playing out in the U.S. business scene? We talk to Mike Cockrell, the chief financial officer of Sanderson Farms in Laurel, Mississippi; and Ross Kogel, the president of Tire Wholesalers International in Michigan.

Thousands of people have stories about September 11th, eight years ago. For many of us these are stories that hang on the profound consequences of one life intersecting with another. Today we take a look at two of these stories, where the significance of a perfect stranger grows more pronounced with each passing year. We speak with Sarah Bunting. She’s a writer and publisher of the blog tomatonation.com. We also talk to Jim Dwyer, reporter for the New York Times and author of "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers," which he co-wrote with New York Times editor Kevin Flynn.

President Obama is addressing a joint session of Congress tonight. His mission? To sell health care reform. In what may be the pitch of his presidency, President Obama hopes to jumpstart the debate that has stalled over the summer while critics of his health proposals dominated many public forums and his approval ratings dropped. To help President Obama get in touch with his inner Willie Loman and sell health care reform to a seemingly skeptical audience, we have gathered a roundtable of experts: Ted Widmer is a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton; Lisa Schiffren is a former speechwriter for Vice President Dan Quayle; and Cindy Gallop, an advertising consultant and former chair of ad agency BBH.

One year ago, the collapse of financial giant Lehman Brothers was just the first domino in a string of banking failures that culminated in the financial crisis that has now reverberated around the world today. A new report [1.2 MB, PDF] commissioned by our partners, the BBC World Service, looks at the effect of this crisis on migration patterns around the world. One myth the report debunks is that immigrants are returning home in greater numbers than before the recession; instead, the MPI determined that immigrants are choosing to stay in their adopted countries despite the lack of jobs. For more myth-busting, we talk to the BBC's Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker, and Michael Fix, co-author of the Migration Policy Institute's report.

Takeaway Extra! Report co-author Michael Fix discusses the surprising lack of success with newly-implemented pay-to-go programs, where countries pay immigrants a fixed amount of money to return to their countries of origin.

For more, read the BBC article on the report itself, as well as several graphic highlights.

The Saturday night resignation of White House green jobs advisor Van Jones is as much a story of politics as it is about cable television, as well as the drive and magnetism of Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck. Beck's show on Fox News draws around 3 million viewers a night, and it was his targeting of Van Jones that lead to Jones’ resignation.

While President Obama seems to be struggling to get his message across, Glenn Beck has no problem being heard loud and clear. To understand Glenn Beck's popularity, we speak to Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers Magazine, the leading trade publication for the talking-head set, along with Robert Thompson, professor of Television, Radio and Film at Syracuse University.

Dust off your remote control and fire up the TiVo, because the fall television season starts this week. We talk to Kim Potts of tvscreener.com to find out what to watch, what to miss, and why show choir is on the tip of everyone's tongues.

Watch the director's cut of the pilot episode of Glee here or (if you can) wait until Wednesday when it airs on Fox. To watch previews of some of the other anticipated shows, click below:

Modern Family

Flash Forward

Eastwick

The Middle

Melrose Place

(click through for an extended clip from NBC comedy Community)

When Hurricane Katrina roared through Lousiana, the flood waters rose in New Orleans, costing lives and livelihoods. Lost in the devastation were some of the city's biggest tourist attractions and beloved restaurants. Four years after Katrina, we check in with a few of the city's institutions: famed fried chicken purveyor Willie Mae's Scotch House and classic New Orleans restaurant Commander's Palace. Both were closed for months after the hurricane, but with hard work and perseverance their doors have re-opened. We talk to Kerry Seaton, granddaughter of Willie Mae, who now runs the Scotch House, and Tory McPhail, the chef at Commander's Palace, about their experiences in rebuilding. We also have Tom Fitzmorris, a lifelong New Orleans resident and food critic who has made a new hobby of counting the restaurants in the Crescent City.

The resurrection of Willie Mae's Scotch House was a work of love for those involved and it was captured in a documentary produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance called Above the Line: Saving Willie Mae's Scotch House. Watch it below:

Saving Willie Mae's Scotch House from Joe York on Vimeo.

"Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed. Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty. A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions.”

Internet radio host Hal Turner wrote those incendiary words on his blog and landed himself in a large and very public pool of hot water. In a case that will once again test the limits of free speech protection, the Justice Department charged that the radio host had crossed the line into hate speech, and that his words were tantamount to death threats. Mr. Turner was already on trial in Connecticut criminal court for comments made against Catholic lawmakers. ...(continue reading)

Dancing with the Stars is gearing up for its 9th season and while it doesn't begin until September 21st, the drama has already started. Yesterday the show announced the latest contestants who will be vying for the treasured mirror ball trophy. Among the contestants are former teen heartthrob Donny Osmond, former Teenage Witch Melissa Joan Hart, and former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Here to talk about how Dancing with the Stars is a half-way house for fame-addicted celebrities is Andy Borowitz. He's a humorist who writes for New Yorker and at Borowitz Report. He also wrote Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison.

Health care, health care, health care. It’s all you see on the news, read in the papers, and hear on the radio. Will it pass? When? What will it look like if it does? What will things look like if it doesn't? We've been looking both at the broad strokes and picayune details of the various plans; today, we take a look at the potential ramifications of this debate on the political landscape.

The Democrats practically swept the 2006 elections and handily won the 2008 presidential elections, while the Republicans struggled with an identity crisis. But with this health care battle, has the G.O.P. found the grounds for a resurgence? Joining us with their take are Reihan Salam, from the New American Foundation, and Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University.