In the heyday of hand drawn animation, when elephants soared and crickets did the soft shoe, they did so frame by painstakingly-rendered frame. But time and technology have created new characters, even colors. They’ve also found the keys to a new Magic Kingdom: the third dimension. Betty Boop wouldn’t believe her eyes. Now, some worry that by finding Nemo, we’re losing a cherished art form.

Guests:

Derek Lamb, Oscar-winning animator

Jerry Beck, animation historian and author, most recently, of “Outlaw Animation”

Eric Goldberg, independent director-animator whose film credits include Disney’s “Alladin,” “Pocahontas,” and “Fantasia 2000″

The images of the attack in Fallujah are among the most grisly of the Iraq war. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Baghdad, has said that the killings of four civilian U.S. contractors “will not go unpunished.” But while American political and military leaders promise retaliation, some say that public reaction to the Fallujah attacks is still very much in flux, and that seeing the images and anticipating the military response may be leading us to a pivotal moment in support for the war.

Guests:

Chris Gelpi, associate rofessor of Political Science at Duke University

General William Nash, Retired Army general, currently a fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations

Jon Lee Anderson, staff reporter for The New Yorker.

Quick now, pick your worst memory, perhaps a family death, an accident, for some it might be a moment of unimaginable embarrassment. If you could select and delete that memory in a flash, would you? The dream of creating a sort of mental erase button is still out of reach for scientists, but there is serious work being done on a drug which would at least dim the memories of severe trauma: the shriek and shattered glass of a car accident, a rape, trauma in combat.

Some scientists believe that those who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder should and someday could be relieved of those memories. Others say trauma has its place, and that the transformative power which pain delivers helps people become more empathic, compassionate, in short: human.

Guests:

Roger Pitman, Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

Steven Tice, formerly Director of the Post Traumatic Stress Treatment Program at the American Lake VAMC, and a casualty of the The Battle for Hamburger Hill during the Vietnam War.

In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush received loud applause when he announced $15 billion to fight AIDS, Malaria, and TB. Over a year later, only $350 million have been committed, and only a fraction of those infected in the world’s poorest nations are getting proper care.

Stalled funding, poor infrastructure, and a fight over the use of drugs is causing treatment efforts to fall behind, while 3,000,000 people die each year. U.N. Special Envoy Stephen Lewis says there are no excuses left. Somewhere around 40,000,000 people are infected worldwide, and while the U.N. and WHO plans go begging, wealthy nations plead their own economic priorities and do little to help.

Guests:

Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

Wafaa El-Sadr, Director of Global HIV Care and Treament Programs at the Columbia Mailman School of Health and Chief of the Division of Infectious Disease at Harlem Hospital

Poloholo Ramothwala, Assistant National Organizer for the Treatment Action Campaign, Johannesberg, South Africa