State Healthcare Reform May Be Near; Alexander Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89; Why Athletes Dope; Obama's Veep: Who Should it Be?; The True Nature of Black Holes
State Healthcare Reform May Be Near
Governor Schwarzenegger and California lawmakers are apparently close to an agreement that would make health insurance more affordable for self-insured individuals. Larry Mantle talks with Daniel Zingale, Senior Advisor to Governorn Schwarzenegger, and Sara Rogers, health consultant to State Senator Sheila Kuehl.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89
Exiled Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn has died of heart failure at his home in Vermont. He was 89. Larry talks about the life and career of the Nobel prize-winning author with Edward Ericson, editor of The Solzhenitsyn Reader.
Why Athletes Dope
Most of us want to believe that our favorite athletes aren't guilty of doping. But these days, the convergence of evidence leads Skeptic magazine's Michael Shermer to conclude that in cycling, baseball, football, and track and field, most of the top competitors of the past 20 years have been using performance-enhancing drugs. He says the time has come to ask not if, but why? Shermer joins Larry in studio to discuss how game theory helps to explain why so many athletes choose to artificially improve performance.
Obama's Veep: Who Should it Be?
So many names have been bandied about in terms of who Senator Obama's choice or Vice President should be, but three have now floated to the top of his short list: Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. Larry talks about the strengths and weaknesses of each with NPR's Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving and Cal State University Fullerton political science Professor Raphe Sonenshein.
The True Nature of Black Holes
What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Three decades ago, a young English physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed that when something is sucked into a black hole, it disappears. Most scientists didn't recognize the importance of that claim, but Leonard Susskind and Dutch physicist Gerard't Hooft realized that if Hawking was right, then everything we know about the fundamental laws of the universe would have to be tossed out. Leonard Susskind joins Larry Mantle to talk about his battle with Stephan Hawking over the true nature of black holes, with nothing less than our understanding of the entire universe at stake.