Balancing the scales of medical justice. As doctors across the country hang up their stethoscopes protesting against the high cost of malpractice insurance, President Bush has a proposed a plan for reform. He says capping pain and suffering awards for surgeries gone wrong will eliminate those frivolous lawsuits that are inflating insurance premiums and forcing doctors to walk away from their practices.

But not everyone agrees the President has the right suspect on the stand. Consumer advocacy groups, trial lawyers and some Democrats say they hold the insurance industry liable for inflated rates, that’s it bad business decisions and losses in the stock market that are behind skyrocketing premiums.

Guests:

Dr. James Bean, a neurosurgeon

Sally Greenberg, senior counsel, Consumers Union

Dr. Thomas Falasca, has been practicing in Erie, Pennsylvania since 1986, and closed his clinic about six months ago.

Life is fleeting. And for the 30,000 Americans who end their lives every year, that’s 80 suicides a day, one every 18 minutes, life is also unbearable. Twice as many people in this country die at their own hand every year than are murdered. Twice as many are lost to despair than to HIV/AIDS.

Science already knows who: The addicted. The mentally ill. The distressed. The inconsolable. Now, important new research is helping to answer why. And if researchers at Columbia University are on the right track, the answers could help loved ones and medical professionals better understand how to identify, and help, those most at risk. Science, suicidal tendencies, and what the biology of the brain can tell us about self-destructive behavior.

Guests:

Dr. Victoria Arango, associate professor of psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University

Carol Ezzell, writer and editor, Scientific American

He came, he presented, but did he convince? Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered his highly anticipated speech on Iraq to the United Nations, complete with audio, visuals and vials. His goal: to persuade the Security Council that Iraq stands in material breach of Resolution 1441and should be disarmed sooner rather than later.

So far the response has been predictable. France, number one Security Council skeptic, insists that weapons inspectors need more time to do their work. Britain, the U.S.’s closest ally, believes that Baghdad has had its last chance, and that it’s time to act. And while Security Council members mull the evidence, the U.S. is insisting a UN permission slip to go into Iraq would be nice, but not necessary.

Guests:

Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s JFK School of Government

Peter Philipp, Chief Correspondent for Deutsche Welle Radio

Dr. Murhaf Jouejati, adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and professor of Political Science at George Washington University

Masha Lipman, deputy editor of the Russian weekly news magazine “Journal.”

Guests:

John Ruggie, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s John F.Kennedy School of Government, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations

Juliette Kayyem, Executive Director of the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness at Harvard’s Kennedy School

Elizabeth Neuffer, United Nations correspondent for The Boston Globe

Peter Philipp, Chief correspondent for Deutsche Welle World

Mustapha Kamel El-Sayed, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University

Guests:

John Ruggie, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s John F.Kennedy School of Government, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations

Juliette Kayyem, Executive Director of the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness at Harvard’s Kennedy School

Elizabeth Neuffer, United Nations correspondent for The Boston Globe

Peter Philipp, Chief correspondent for Deutsche Welle World

Mustapha Kamel El-Sayed, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University

Red, white…and black and blue. Franco-American diplomacy has long been a bit of an oxymoron. But the trans-Atlantic tweaking that’s been playing out in newspapers and news conferences on American and French soil has gotten…meaner. The phrase “cheese eating surrender monkeys” has found currency in the pages of a conservative American journal. So has “The Axis of Weasels,” an off-hand reference to France and Germany’s shared anti-war stance.

The potshots have put the French on the defensive. “Overseas press serves up the French for breakfast,” a headline in one Parisian paper reads. Caricatures and stereotypes have always filled the gaps in cross cultural understanding, but this time, the stakes may be too high for name calling. Sticks, stones, and the Franco-American fracas.

Guests:

Annie Cohen-Solal, professor, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and chair of American Studies, University of Caen in Normandy

Ezra Suleiman, professor of international studies and chair of European Studies at Princeton University.

Colin Powell may just be the most trusted leader in America. When asked who they trust more when it comes to U.S. policy on Iraq, President Bush or his Secretary of State, a Gallup poll released today says more than twice as many Americans chose Powell.

It seems appropriate, then, that he be the one to go before the United Nations Security Council and make that proverbial case against Saddam Hussein. Powell, after all, is regarded as the multilateralist, the moderate, the cautionary warrior on whom the Europeans count to bring a measure of restraint to a White House hell bent on war. Before September 11th, Powell was labeled the “odd man out” inside the Bush Administration. To the American public, however, he is now more “in” than ever.

Guests:

Johanna McGeary, Senior Foreign Correspondent for Time Magazine, author of Time’s September 10,2001 cover story, “Odd Man Out”

General Bernard Trainor, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, former military correspondent for the New York Times, co-author of “The Generals’ War.”

“The future matters,” says Bill Emmott of The Economist, “it cannot be avoided or ignored just because we are necessarily ignorant of what it will bring.” Emmott says that in order to understand what the next century will look like, we have to gaze back at the one just passed. The 20th century was marked by the first global war, as well as the rise of capitalism and the fall of communism. But its greatest signature, he says, was the ascension of America — over Britain — as the dominant force on the geopolitical stage. Now the most important question, he says, as the world moves into the next hundred years is: Will America stay on top? 20:21 Vision: – Twentieth Century Lessons for the Twenty First.

Guests:

Bill Emmott, Editor in Chief of The Economist, and author of 20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the Twenty-first Century.

“The Columbia is lost.” Those were the words of the President after the shuttle was last seen hurtling across the East Texas sky. The weekend newspapers were full of photographs and biographies of the shuttle crew. Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Dave Brown, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Mike Anderson and Ilan Ramon. They were outstanding people incredible personal and professional accomplishments. And they shared more than their time on Columbia. First and foremost, they were seekers, with a passion for scientific exploration. They believed that what is out there, has something important to teach us about life down here. What we learn when send people into space.

Guests:

Kelly Beatty, editor, Sky and Telescope magazine

and Albert Sacco, former mission specialist for Columbia shuttle and director of Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing at Northeastern University