News & Politics
Weekend America on News & Politics
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Letters: Loser Candy, Religious Guilt and Scary Movies
We open the Weekend America mailbag and hear your responses to recent stories, including a defense of "loser" Halloween treats and questions about religious guilt and P-O-R-N. Finally, we speak with Dr. Joanne Cantor, a former professor of Communication Arts, about the neurological reasons why scary movie memories stay with us forever.
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Prop 8 Revisited
This week, the buzzword was "hope" for many voters around the country. But not for gay and lesbian couples in California, where the electorate passed ballot Proposition 8 - a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Three lawsuits have already been filed to overturn the ban. While the presidential campaign is finally over, the fight over the definition of marriage still has a long way to go.
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Alaskan Politics
We still don't know the result of Alaska's senate or congressional race. But as it stands now, Senator Ted Stevens is hanging on by a thread despite his recent conviction in federal court. If he wins, he'll be the first convicted felon to serve in the Senate. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is back home after a failed bid for the vice presidency. These are interesting political times in the Last Frontier State.
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Statements By Buildings
The Supreme Court is in session. Next week, the justices will hear from a religious group that wants to put their "Seven Aphorisms" next to the Ten Commandments in a public square in Utah. The group says the government can't pick and choose religions to sanctify, and that monuments are "government speech." We got to thinking about all the things monuments have to say around the country.
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Obama's Win, Palin's Blunders, and a New Chief of Staff
Our panel of non-experts weigh in on this week's news events in a parlor game to gauge what kind of week America had. Joining us on this week's panel are: Nancy French, author of "A Red State of Mind"; comedian Dana Gould; and John Ridley, editor in chief of www.ThatMinorityThing.com.
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This Election Year
To have closely followed the 2008 campaign that culminated in the election of Barack Obama is to have read a million articles. But now that it's the weekend, let's look at the proceedings from a bird's eye view: How did we get here and what does it mean? To help answer those very daunting questions, host John Moe is joined by author David Rakoff. We also check in with Claire Petersky, a former college classmate of Obama's at Occidental College.
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Obama and Chicago
On Tuesday night in Chicago, nearly a quarter million people filled Grant Park to celebrate the election of Barack Obama. They laughed, they cried, the danced, and they stayed up all night partying like it was the weekend. Now that it actually is the weekend, we wondered if the party was still going. To find out, we got Ben Calhoun on the line. He's the political reporter for Chicago Public Radio.
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Memories of the Great Depression
This week marked the anniversary of the great stock market crash, Oct. 29, 1929. It got a little more attention than usual in light of our current economic crisis. The $700 billion bailout was designed to avert another "Great Depression." We were curious to hear from people who lived through the Depression--how they pulled through such a time. Here's what we heard back.
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Campaign '68
The presidential campaign is in its last few suspenseful days. Forty years ago, Richard Nixon enjoyed the benefit of an "October surprise" in his campaign against his opponent, Democrat Hubert Humphrey. The 1968 election was a turning point in contemporary American politics. Stephen Smith of American RadioWorks speaks with host John Moe about his new documentary "Campaign '68."
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Obama Infomercial, Joe the Plumber, Candy Cutbacks
Our panel of non-experts weigh in on this week's news events in a parlor game to gauge what kind of week America had. Joining us on this week's panel are: Luke Burbank, host of the radio show "Too Beautiful To Live"; Nancy French, author of "A Red State of Mind"; and David Rakoff, whose latest book is "Don't Get Too Comfortable."
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The Last Weekend
It's the last weekend for crucial campaigning efforts before the election. Both presidential campaigns are pushing hard in places where the going is tough in a game of electoral math. For John McCain's campaign, that means a huge focus on Pennsylvania, whose 21 electoral votes could help him secure the presidency. Barack Obama's campaign has been concentrating on the tightening race in Arizona.
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Conversations with America: Julia Alvarez
For a few weeks now, we've been bringing you essays from folks around the country about what they think should be on voters' minds this election. We're calling it "Conversations with America." In the final days before the election, our last piece comes from Vermont writer Julia Alvarez.
