Friday, February 1
Radio Lab
9 -10pm
Beyond Time. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity may have implications on the concept of choice. Namely, that there is none. Do we choose what movie to see tonight? No. (It’s already been chosen, some say.) Do we choose to wiggle our finger? No. (Already wiggled.) This episode visits a particle accelerator where scientists are recreating the moment just after the beginning of time. Swedish producer Marcus Lindeen introduces listeners to an artist in Dublin whose life is a 19 century time-experiment. And producer Ben Adair tours the Mojave dessert while coming to terms with his own brevity in the face of geological time.

Friday, February 1
America Abroad
10 – 11pm
A Marriage of Inconvenience: The US and the UN. This program travels to Sudan to better understand how and why America is working with the UN to support a peacekeeping force in the war-torn region of Darfur; and to Geneva, to examine the first year of the UN’s Human Rights Council and the reasons why the US decided not to seek a Council seat. The show also looks back at the highs and lows of America’s tumultuous 62-year history with the UN from the idealism and effort of US leaders that helped found the United Nations to an increasingly hostile relationship between the American superpower and the world organization.

Friday, February 1
HEAT
11pm – 12am
The Doctor is IN. When the other late-night news programs covered the World Leaders Summit, we called the doctors: Piano man and composer Dr. John and the great hit songwriter (the late) Doc Pomus.

Tuesday, February 5
Super Tuesday Special Coverage
12 – 1pm
Special NPR news coverage of Super Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 5
The Takeaway: "Super Tuesday" Coverage
7 – 8pm
Fresh, fast and interactive election coverage hosted by Brian Lehrer, John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji. The show blends the insight of member-station reporters, the energy of the Hockenberry-Udoji election specials and the intensity of WNYC's coverage of the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. The Super Duper Tuesday coverage also introduces a special voter experiment, America’s Exit Poll. Using special voice-to-text technology and feedback analysis tools, hosts John Hockenberry & Adaora Udoji are able to interact with voters across all 22 primary states via phone, email and the Web. Every listener's contribution dynamically becomes part of the coverage in real time, altering the direction of the conversation.

Wednesday, February 6
State of the State
12 – 1pm
Governor Ted Strickland gives his State of the State address.

Friday, February 8
Radio Lab
9 – 10pm
Detective Stories. Forensics, archeology, genealogy, and genetics are devoted to figuring out what really happened. In this program, listeners hear surprising stories of playing detective, and find that what really happened in the past is not always what you’d expect. The show starts at a trash dump in Egypt, where we find Jesus, Satan, sissies, and porn. Next, the mystery of how hundreds of old letters written to the same woman were discovered on the side of Route 101. And lastly, a blood sampling tour of Asia reveals a prolific baby-maker and a potential world conqueror.

Friday, February 8
The Little Rock Nine
10 – 11pm
On September 25, 1957, nine black students entered racially segregated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Their goal was to receive the same quality education afforded their white counterparts. Who were the history-making, tradition-breaking Little Rock Nine? Most Americans only knew of the social and political upheaval their efforts caused — not Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Dr. Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed-Wair and Melba Pattillo Beals. Using radio drama and interviews, host Donnie l. Betts profiles these extraordinary students, and in the process, examines why they succeeded where others did not. He talks at length with Carlotta Walls LaNier, a member of the Little Rock Nine, considers whether American schools are now re-segregating and features music by jazz great Rene Marie.

Friday, February 8
HEAT
11pm – 12am
As changes are on the horizon in South Africa, John speaks with Ambassador Lindewe Mabuzeh, the cast of “Survival,” South African playwright and author Athol Fugard (“My Children, My Africa,” Oscar-winner “Tsotsi”) and his daughter, actress Lisa Fugard. John also gets reactions from young men in Harlem on the changes in South Africa and what it means to them.

Friday, February 15
Radio Lab
9 – 10pm
Musical Language. What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us? Why are some people better at it than others? This edition examines the line between language and music, how the brain processes sound, and meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work. The program also re-imagines the disastrous 1913 debut of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, through the lens of modern neurology.

Friday, February 15
Memories of the Movement
10 – 11pm
The years of the Civil Rights Movement are counted among the most volatile yet vibrant times in American history. The people and events that shaped this period range from charismatic preachers and actors to students and domestic workers. To celebrate the courage, conviction and commitment of the everyday people who made extraordinary contributions to American social progress, The Tavis Smiley Show presents “Memories of the Movement”. Introduced and narrated by Tavis Smiley, this special features the poignant, humorous, unheard, or little known stories and anecdotes from living civil rights icons like actors Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee, preachers like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Amos Brown, Editor Emeritus of “Ebony” magazine Lerone Bennett Jr., folk singer Odetta, Asian activist Yuri Kochiyama and a host of others.

Friday, February 22
Radio Lab
9 -10pm
Morality. Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? This program peers inside the brains of people contemplating moral dilemmas, watches chimps at a primate research center share blackberries, observes a playgroup of 3 year-olds fighting over toys, and tours the country’s first penitentiary Eastern State Prison. Also: the story of land grabbing, indentured servitude and slum lording in the fourth grade.

Friday, February 22
Intelligence Squared U.S.
10 – 11pm
America Should Be the World’s Policeman. The panelists arguing for the motion are Max Boot, Michael Mandelbaum and Douglas Murray. Arguing against the motion are Ian Bremmer, Ellen Laipson and Matthew Parris. The moderator for the evening is Morely Safer.

Friday, February 22
Swingtime
11pm – 12am
During the 1930s and 1940s, many black schools in the U.S. fielded traveling swing bands to keep their doors open during the Depression. Narrator Tonea Stewart profiles three of the era’s most famous bands in this hour-long showcase of the Bama State Collegians, the Prairie View Co-eds and the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Stewart weaves the era’s music around interviews with surviving band members, scholarly commentary and archival sound from now-deceased band members, including the great Erskine Hawkins. The traveling ensembles influenced mainstream music on a grand scale. Harlem’s top jazz orchestras pulled talent from these bands, whose members made enduring contributions to American culture. The program draws listeners in as band members describe what it was like for them as teens, many from poor homes, to travel the country as stars of swing.

Thursday, February 28
State of the City
TBD
Mayor Frank Jackson presents his State of the City address.

Friday, February 29
Radio Lab
9 – 10pm
Space. In the ‘60s, space exploration was an American obsession. But the growing reality of space has turned the romance to cynicism. This edition charts the path from then to now, and begins with Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, with a story about the Voyager expedition, true love, and a golden record that travels through space. For a dose of reality, astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson explains the Coepernican Principle and just how insignificant we are.

Friday, February 29
Justice Talking
10 – 11pm
The FCC’s New Rules for Media Ownership. In mid-December, the Federal Communications Commission approved new rules that affect ownership of the nation’s media companies. One rule change gave newspaper owners more leeway to buy radio and television stations in their markets. This program explores the effect of this new rule and asks whom it will benefit, if it’s fair and if it will survive a challenge in the courts. The show also looks at other ways in which FCC rules affect everything from what we see and hear to local programming and the regulation of indecency.

Friday, February 29
Max Roach: Drums Unlimited
11pm – 12am
Imagine a musician single-handedly redefining what an instrument can do, elevating it to a whole other level. That’s what the late Max Roach did for the drums. Whether it’s Jazz or rock or funk, there isn’t a drummer today who isn’t somehow influenced by what Roach played. But that’s only a part of Max Roach’s story, which spanned the Harlem Renaissance, the development of modern jazz, right up to hip hop and multi-media. Over a fifty-year career he blazed his way across genres as percussionist, bandleader and composer. Max Roach tells his story with frankness and a characteristic sharp wit, supported by “special guests” including Dizzy Gillespie, and noted drummers Paul Motion and Art Taylor.