Teddy Roosevelt and the Rush to War

In 1898, Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was anxious to test his mettle on the field of battle, William Randolph Hearst was eager to stoke the flames of conflict (and join in on the spectacle), and it took just an accident of engineering to start a war.

Evan Thomas paints a picture of enthusiastic imperialists and a American mindset in which "manifest destiny" seemed natural in his book THE WAR LOVERS, an account of the Spanish-American War.

LISTEN: EVAN THOMAS - THE WAR LOVERS

Evan Thomas on Obama and new media journalism

Newsweek senior editor Evan Thomas has won numerous journalism awards for the type of feature-style pieces that take weeks or months to research and write. Often Thomas would work under an "embargo," speaking to sources and gaining access to figures on the understanding that the story the writer was working on would not be released until after, for instance, an election.

With the rise of the blogs and the demise of the market-share for publications like Newsweek, does that mean that the style of journalism practiced by Thomas is also in danger?

Thomas discusses the future of Newsweek and gives his thoughts on the subject of one of his award-winning depth pieces, Barack Obama...

LISTEN: EVAN THOMAS - NEWSWEEK & OBAMA

History and Health Care

Mothers did not always hope their daughters would marry a doctor.

Dr. Ira Rutkow is eager to let people know that one of our nation's most esteemed professions was once just a sideline for many practitioners. In Rutkow's history of American medicine, SEEKING THE CURE, the author points out that for much of our country's history doctors were just as likely to kill their patients as cure them.

Rutkow talks about the slow path to science, smallpox, and a doctor who bled himself to death...


LISTEN: IRA RUTKOW - SEEKING THE CURE

Zakaria on the Innovation Race

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and host of the CNN program FAREED ZARIA: GPS, is optimistic about the economic crisis... but he doesn't pretend everything is going back to the pre-crash days.

At the Biotechnology International Organization conference in Chicago, Zakaria hosted a panel framed by the Scientific American Worldview magazine "scorecard" of global technology centers. During the panel discussion Zakaria prompted talk of America's strength based on higher education and also raised questions about our capacity to innovate.

Zakaria, who also penned the bestselling book THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD, discusses the changing face of technology, innovation and balance in a 21st century global environment...

LISTEN: FAREED ZAKARIA - BIO 2010

Bio-engineered Food & Politics

With an imbalance of agricultural resources throughout the world, genetically modified foods could likely be the difference between starvation and survival for countries without much of an agriculture industry.

Not all cultures and governments are comfortable with GM foods, however. Recently a heated debate in the fast-growing market of India erupted over the commercial release of a genetically engineered eggplant.

Dr. Bruce Chassy, professor of food microbiology and nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois argues that regulation, politics and public perception might stand in the way of feeding the world.

Chassy spoke at the Biotechnology Industry International conference in Chicago on biotech crops. When it comes to GM foods, Chassy says that safety isn't always the real issue...

LISTEN: DR. BRUCE CHASSY - THE PUSHBACK ON GM FOODS

The Naked Economics of Incentives and Health Care

Effective health care policy is all about changing incentives... and the current system is set up to incentivize more expensive care according to Charles Wheelan.

Wheelan compares the U.S. health care system to the mortgage crisis, talks about where the incentives to actually be healthy could be placed and explores the behavioral economic factors that may give doctors good reasons to order bad procedures.

Wheelan is a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and writes "The Naked Economist" column for Yahoo! Finance.

LISTEN: CHARLES WHEELAN - BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS & HEALTH CARE

Explaining Your Mistakes

The human brain is an amazing machine. The organ allows us to breathe, digest and -- after some practice -- engage in complicated procedures like driving a car without giving it much active thought. The trade-off for the operation of your amazing brain is that some seemingly illogical anomalies pop up. We call those anomalies mistakes.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joseph Hallinan has examined the neurological and psychological factors that play a role in our mistake-making. In his book WHY WE MAKE MISTAKES, Hallinan reveals that we make mistakes because, sometimes we can't help it and other times because we'd rather make a mistake than accept the truth.

LISTEN: JOSEPH HALLINAN - WHY WE MAKE MISTAKES