While each swipe of credit cards at the cashier’s checkout helps drive the nation’s economy, it’s also driving Americans into bankruptcy at alarming rates. The average consumer carries a fistful of cards, and thousands of dollars in debt. New research shows that the banks controlling those cards are becoming even more aggressive at charging late fees and other penalties you never knew you’d agreed to. Even the jump in interest rates comes as a surprise to most.

Guests:

Lowell Bergman, “Frontline” Correspondent and New York Times reporter

Tony Yezer, Economics professor at George Washington University

Linda Sherry, Editorial Director for Consumer Action

When asked to describe herself, poet C.D. Wright looks to the women of her native Ozarks: bony but strong as a weed, armed with a brutal honesty, and a humor that borders on the grotesque. From the beginning, Wright has set out to write the American landscape — be it the serene, rolling hills and back country creeks of Arkansas or the dehumanizing inside of Louisiana prisons. Armed with a recent MacArthur “genius” award, Wright is hoping to shake Americans out of their everyday routines of carpools and paying bills and television, to give a little more time to creativity and to reflection.

Guests:

CD Wright, poet, writer and winner of a recent MacArthur Award

Guests:

TBD

There’s a website called Iraq Body Count, and today it says the number of Iraq civilians who have died since the U.S. invasion began last year is 16,662. Earlier this month, a new study published in the British medical journal The Lancet claimed that the number of Iraqi civilians dead is 100,000.

Ever since General Tommy Franks said “we don’t do body counts” keeping track of the dead has been controversial. But with so much disagreement, people are left to decide on their own where the truth is.

Guests:

Sarah Sewall, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s JFK School of Government

Carl Conetta, Project Director for the Project on Defense Alternatives at the Commonwealth Institute in Cambridge, MA

Andrew Thomson, Medical Officer at United Nations Headquarters in New York, former coordinator of the Mass Grave Exhumations for the War Crimes Tribunal for the Balkans

Sudan has been ravaged by two-decades of civil war. The latest fighting has pitted rebel black Africans against government forces in Darfur. The government says it is trying to put down a regional uprising, but it also accused of sponsoring an Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed that has forced nearly two million people from their homes. We talk to BBC correspondent, Hilary Andersson, who went to Sudan to document the violence. Her documentary, “The New Killing Fields,” was broadcast on the BBC this week, and it tells the story of a country ravaged by violence, fear and death.

Guests:

Hilary Andersson, BBC Africa Correspondent

Nearly a decade after the GOP launched a campaign to oust Democrats from the coveted top lobbying jobs in Washington, its efforts are starting to pay off. Lobbying firms are being pressured to hire Republicans or else lose their place at the political bargaining table. And, like it or not, legislation is shaped by the shadowy players in the world of big time lobbying. Some call what’s going on the natural evolution of party warfare. Others say it’s reaching a tipping point, and the GOP is making the country’s traditional two party system look more like a one-sided parliament.

Guests:

Nicholas Confessore, Editor of The Washington Monthly magazine

Larry Noble, Director of the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, DC

Whit Ayers, GOP Pollster

Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Nigel Slater’s memoir sweeps readers back to his own 1960’s when the Cadbury mini roll was a treat and tinned beans and sausage was still thought to be food. The book by the popular columnist for the Observer newspaper in London, is a series of snapshots. Each chapter serves up a dish; each food a childhood memory. Sherry trifle reminds him of his father’s raging temper. Banana custard reminds him of his brother’s girlfriend. And toast reminds him of his mother, a woman who was a disaster in the kitchen but the person he loved most of all.

Guests:

Nigel Slater, food writer for London’s Observer newspaper. He is the author of numerous cookbooks including the award-winning “Appetite.” His new memoir is “Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger.”

Since Porter Goss took the reins at Langley, many have been complained about the abrasive even abusive tactics of Goss’ closest advisors. The head of the clandestine service and his deputy resigned earlier this week, and there are rumors that others are set to follow. It sent shivers down many spies at the agency, when Goss circulated a memo telling employees that they were to “support the administration and its policies.” Some say Goss is trying to take away the agency’s independence; others say he just trying to depoliticize the CIA so it can go back to the job of gathering intelligence.

Guests:

Michael Scheuer, former counterterrorism with the CIA and author of “Imperial Hubris”

Arthur Hulnick, professor of International Relations at Boston University and 27 year veteran with CIA

Since he was a small boy, Robert Lang has been taking single sheets of paper and transforming them through a myriad of different folds into figures, buildings — entire creatures. Lang’s interest in origami led him to search out the mathematical underpinnings of his art. He became a laser physicist and an engineer. But three years ago Lang made an unusual career change for a scientist. He left his day job and became a full time origami artist. He’s now considered one of the world’s leading masters.

Guests:

Robert Lang, Origami artist and laser physicist, author of eight books including “Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art”

Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in an Israeli prison after being convicted as a traitor and a spy. He was released earlier this year, but continued to thumb his nose at the Israeli government by speaking to foreign media, despite a gag order. But his hard line has cost him dearly. Last week, Vanunu was placed under house arrest. The government of Israel suspects he has more secrets to tell. We talk to the man considered by some as a whistleblower, a hero, and others who still see him a delusional traitor and we’ll explore how Israel’s nuclear ambiguity shapes the balance of power in the Middle East.

Guests:

Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli Nuclear Program Whistleblower

Daniel Taub, Spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Dr. Gerald Steinberg, Professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University

Duncan Campbell, Reporter at The Guardian newspaper