The Hindu life cycle dictates that a man’s first 25 years should be devoted to learning; and that the next 25 years are for raising a family. The writer Ved Mehta has his own rather loose interpretation of that timeline.

He was born in Lahore in 1934, was through the halls of Oxford, had published his first book, and started a career writing for The New Yorker by the time he turned 25. But it would be another 25 years before he got down to the business of raising a family, though not for a lack of trying.

Mehta chronicles part of that journey in the tenth installment of his autobiographical, “Continents of Exile” series. It is a book about the nightmares of building a dream house on an enchanted island; a book about what a blind man sees that the sighted never will.

Guests:

Ved Mehta, author of “Dark Harbor: Building House and Home on an Enchanted Island”

“The court has taken sides in a culture war.” That’s what Justice Antonin Scalia said after last week’s ruling that struck down sodomy laws in Texas and nationwide. The ruling has many declaring a definitive end to the culture wars, chalking up a smashing victory for the gay rights movement.

For some conservatives, it is recognition that using hellfire and brimstone to rail against a lifestyle that many Americans have come to accept may be the wrong way to go. For gay activists, it is a time to celebrate, to plot and plan next steps. While some think same sex marriage is the next frontier, others say most Americans are not ready to walk down that aisle and instead, gay activists should pick another fight, in the workplace for example.

So what’s next, are they going to the chapel? The future of gay rights in a divided America.

Guests:

E. J. Graff, author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution

Jonah Goldberg is the editor at large of the web magazine National Review Online

The purpose of a park, said Frederick Law Olmsted, is “to provide a feeling of relief…from the cramped, confined, and controlling circumstances of the streets and of the town.” That may seem obvious to any of us used to seeking relief from city stress with a stroll in the park. But in mid-19th century America, that was a revolutionary idea.

Parks in the Old World were mostly manicured playgrounds for the rich. But a hundred and fifty years ago, Olmsted devised Central Park as a place for all New Yorkers, almost eight hundred acres in Manhattan, and then he and his heirs went on creating green space across the country. Today, other cities are fighting for a piece of Olmstead’s vision.

Guests:

Robert Garcia, director, The City Project, Center for Law in the Public Interest, Los Angeles

Tupper Thomas, administrator, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York.

When it comes to the bloodshed, and political upheaval in Liberia, all eyes are on the US. Liberia, the West African nation, was founded by freed American slaves in the mid-19th century, and it is now caught in a downward spiral of chaos and killing.

President Charles Taylor is holed up in the capital of Monrovia. Rebel groups are trying to overthrow him. Caught in the middle are thousands of civilians with no running water, food, or medical care. Now, as President Bush prepares to leave for Africa next week, many are calling on the United States to send soldiers to make and keep the peace. But with boots on the ground already in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the shadow of Somalia still hanging heavy, America would first have to come to terms with its reluctance to interfere in Africa.

Guests:

William Reno, Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, author of “Warlord Politics and African States,”

John Prendergast, Co-Director of the Africa Program at the International Crisis Group in Washington DC.

Greg Barrow, UN correspondent for the BBC

Patrick Seyon, research fellow at Boston University’s African Studies Center, and former president of the University of Liberia.