A Game Changer Each Time

"He doesn't want to make just another movie," says Rebecca Keegan of James Cameron. Cameron's long-awaited film AVATAR is doing nothing to dispel the director's reputation for ticket sales. With TITANIC Cameron shattered box office records. With THE TERMINATOR he created a franchise; with ALIENS, he revived one.

TIME magazine contributor Rebecca Keegan got an on-set look at the making of the James Cameron film AVATAR. Keegan has written a book about Cameron called THE FUTURIST. Before the film's release, Keegan talked about the groundbreaking nature of the movie and the ambitious man who made it.

LISTEN: REBECCA KEEGAN - JAMES CAMERON, THE FUTURIST

An Unhealthy Mistrust?

In this age of seemingly limitless information, many people think they aren't getting the straight story. With the massive corporate control of the agribusiness and pharmaceutical industry, the modern-day science of public health is linked to a profit motive. Is the real data on modern day medical practices telling the full story?

Michael Specter is concerned there is a growing sense of mistrust of science and medicine. Specter writes on science, technology and medicine for The New Yorker. He recently has argued with those who believe that vaccines are related to autism and with a growing number of opponents to bio-engineered food. He thinks that skepticism of scientific data is growing to be a literally unhealthy trend.

LISTEN: MICHAEL SPECTER - DENIALISM

Beliefs and Big Questions by the Numbers

Do people really believe what they believe? The numbers indicate they often don't. Steven Landsburg says that mathematicians and economists can apply impartial models to a lot of the issues that get deep thoughts...and produce clear results.

Landsburg has applied his approach to such philosophical head-scratchers as "does it make sense to believe in God?" Landsburg, who is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester contributes to Slate.com and is the author of THE BIG QUESTIONS.

LISTEN: STEVEN LANDSBURG - THE BIG QUESTIONS

Huckster History

No scam is a new scam. Support for that statement is found in Pope Brock's book CHARLATAN.

Pope Brock tells the real-life story of the grandfather of Viagra: "Doctor" John R. Brinkley. Brinkley, a huckster, snake oil salesman, politician and broadcasting pioneer is the spiritual grandfather of Ron Popeil, Billy Mays and even Rush Limbaugh.

In his endless mission to push various miracle cures and dubious products, Brinkley had an inadvertent role in creating the American Medical Association and changed the face of radio broadcasting (and creating infomercials).

LISTEN: POPE BROCK - CHARLATAN

Soap Operas on CNN

It's the end of an era for popular and long-running daytime dramas like GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS. But the real-life serial dramas of scandal play out with greater emphasis on the 24-hour news networks and in the mainstream news.

Robert Thompson from the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture discusses the celebrity focus in the news. Thompson says that celebrity scandal is a kind of "cultural glue."

LISTEN: ROBERT THOMPSON - CELEBRITY CULTURE AND THE NEWS

Bubbles and Bad Fixes

Investment "bubbles" make a lot of people rich. When the bubbles burst a lot of people lose money. Most recently, many of the losers didn't even know they were part of an overinflated bubble. Or more accurately, many people did not realize that one bubble was related to so much else.

Economist Craig Thomas thinks that a true recovery to the system of markets in the U.S. will depend more on a natural balance of the system than incentives created by government fixes.

Thomas was Director of Research for Citi Property Investors, Citigroup's private equity real estate arm. Thomas talks with about how the housing market came to be such a mess, and what he sees as proper maintenance of the "econosphere."

LISTEN: CRAIG THOMAS - THE ECONOSPHERE