Russian American relations seem to be entering a whole new phase, yet one that is oddly familiar. There was a long time when the two super-powers circled each other warily, criticizing each other’s policies. Then the wall came down, and Russians began their shift to democratic rule. It was messy, controversial and bruising to Russian pride.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russians have seen a return to old days of an autocratic Kremlin rule, with a clampdown on press freedom and ideas of democracy; all this at a time when most of the former Soviet states have continued on their path to democracy.

Into this growing split this week steps President Bush, with his calls to freedom, and his most direct criticism of Russia since he took office. Where will this lead…we look at the uncomfortable future of US Russian relations.

Guests:

Susan Glasser, Staff Writer for the Washington Post and former Post Moscow Bureau Chief

Peter Baker, White House Correspondent for the Washington Post.;
Fred Weir, Russian Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor;

New York Times Columnist Bob Herbert says America is in serious trouble. For more than a decade, he has been following the struggles of ordinary Americans, often leaving his mid-town Manhattan vantage point, to tell their stories.

Herbert is sometimes called the moral conscience of the Times Op-ed page for mixing his role as editorial writer with his experience as an on the street reporter. He writes about low wage workers, victims of race crimes, and youngsters who can’t find work.

Herbert says he fears that the nation has grown indifferent to issues like social injustice — and the ideals of truth and freedom. But he continues to use his 700-word space to give a voice to those who are overlooked but who still want their shot at the American Dream.

Guests:

Bob Herbert, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times, and author of “Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream.”

Sixty years ago, America celebrated victory as the Nazis surrendered and the allies declared victory in Europe. Veterans of World War II came home to a country that was prosperous and powerful, and for a time, at peace.

World leaders are today gathered in Moscow to mark this anniversary with pomp and politics, as it is marked each year, but with the passage of time, the men and women who fought in the war are increasingly fading from view. The Greatest Generation is now well into its ’80s and the obituary pages are peppered with tributes to them.

Today we commemorate victory in Europe with two veterans who were there and hear how the lessons of World War II will be remembered when the veterans are no longer around to tell the stories.

Guests:

Francis Murphy and Thomas Materazzo, World War II Veterans

It is the end of the day and Irena Zaric wonders where to put her last bullet before she goes home. Irena is a sniper, a teenage girl caught in the middle of the Bosnian war. She is part fact, part fiction, created largely from the imagination and memories of NPR’s Scott Simon in his new novel “Pretty Birds.”

In the early 1990s, Scott spent a lot of time reporting from Sarajevo, covering the struggles of the people to survive, during the long and deadly siege of the city. “Pretty Birds” takes him a step beyond his work as a journalist.

After all the news reports and death tolls, and long after the world’s attention has moved on to the next hot spot, he says that fiction can be a way to both rekindle and give some permanence to the emotion and tragedy of a war zone.

Guests:

Scott Simon, author of “Pretty Birds,” and host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday

Guests:

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republcian Congresswoman from Florida

Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor Reporter;Susan Hill, CEO of National Womens Health Coalition;

It’s a bill with a name that stirs up images of kidnapped kids and late night getaways. The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, passed the House this week and it is now headed to the Senate.

The bill would require any girl under 18, who leaves her state to have an abortion, to tell her parents about her decision. The people who support the bill say it will help protect girls; it will reinforce the strength of the family and it will encourage those girls to consider all their options.

Critics say the measure is just one more way to undermine the foundation of Roe v. Wade, by denying young women the right to make choices on their own terms. What’s more they warn, it could force those girls to find an unlicensed abortion clinic. Pregnancy, privacy and deciding how old is old enough to choose.

Guests:

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL)

Susan Hill, CEO of the National Women’s Health Coalition

Alexis Hale Executive Director of First Choice Womens Centers

At age six, Charm Tong was sent to an orphanage on the back of a donkey. But her parents were still alive. It just seemed to be the best way to help them survive the fighting in Burma.

Charm Tong did avoid the violence and forced prostitution that was the fate of many women her age and she was able to go to school. So now at the age of 23, Charm Tong is an advocate for human rights. She has founded a school and she has documented the use of rape, torture and sexual slavery against women in her country.

Tong is now in the U.S. to receive Reebok’s Human Rights Award. Yet despite the international attention her work has received, little has changed in her country. The military is still in power. Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and women still face oppression.

Guests:

Charm Tong, one of the founders of the Shan Women’s Action Network and recepient of Reebok’s Human Rights Award

The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting wants to change the angle of public television. He, along with some conservatives in Congress and outside the beltway, is arguing PBS is just too liberal and that it is time to start balancing the programming with some red state perspectives.

They point to people like Bill Moyer as being decidedly anti-Bush and say its time to start balancing his voices with programs that feature conservative heavy weights.

Critics are rejecting these charges of bias and saying that any attempt to impose a political checklist on programming will erode the editorial independence that has been part of PBS’ charter since the beginning.

Guests:

Karen Everhart, Senior Editor, Current

Christy Carpenter, former board member, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.

If art imitates society then the contemporary art world might be getting emotional. From science to health to politics, the western world is making its way to the proverbial heart of things.

Neurological research is investigating the structure of emotion. The self-help and healing culture keeps reinforcing that mind-body connection; the post-September 11th landscape is often called a “culture of fear.”

Since the 1960s, artistic movements have sneered at all that was emotional — creating art which was described in more literal, detached terms: “what you see is what you see.” But a new exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, is re-framing emotion as a legitimate subject for the camera and the canvas.

Guests:

Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator of the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, MA and curator of the forthcoming exhibit, “Getting Emotional”

Christian Jankowski, contemporary artist based in Manhattan

Sales of Prada handbags and Armani suits are booming. The number of millionaires in America is now at a record level. This week, one of the country’s oldest upscale retailers, Neiman Marcus, was sold for the healthy sum of $5.1 billion.

The ability of Neiman’s to thrive while mid-scale retailers from Sears, to Macy’s flounder, raises interesting questions about just who is driving America’s growing appetite for luxury.

Is it the truly rich who can afford to spend $1,500 for a pair of Jimmy Choo sandals, or is it those lower down the income ladder who are trying to buy their way up one Chanel handbag at a time. And just what is this appetite for extravagance doing to the financial fortunes of already over-spent Americans?

Guests:

Robert Frank, Professor of Economics and Management at Cornell University;James Dimonekas, Vice President and Publisher of the Robb Report