Adam Hirsch

Rafer and Kristen discuss "Charlie St. Cloud" and the history of teen heartthrobs in movies.

After this weekend's release of 'Salt,' Rafer and Kristen discuss female action heroes from Jane Fonda to Angelina Jolie.

Rafer and Kristen discuss the pleasurable feeling of being outsmarted by this week's Christopher Nolan film, 'Inception.'

Rafer and Kristen on this week's "The Kids Are All Right," and the history of other movies with gay or bisexual main characters.

Rafer and Kristen come to one of their rare agreements on the latest entry in the Twilight saga: It's a comedy ... but it doesn't know it.

Todd talks with Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif) about the DISCLOSE Act - a campaign finance bill just passed by the House ... and why Lungren feels it should go no further.

Todd interviews Frank Maisano, an energy media relations specialist who works for Bracewell & Giuliani, while standing outside the Congressional hearing room in which BP CEO Tony Hayward had just faced a grilling.

Rafer and Kristen talk martial arts movies, including new ("The Karate Kid," 2010) and old ("The Karate Kid," 1984).

Rafer and Kristen talk with comedy legend Joan Rivers and Ricki Stern, director of the just-released documentary, "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work." 

Rafer and Kristen discuss live action animal movies, from this week's "Marmaduke" to older classics ("Babe," "Ol' Yeller"). No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast.

Tempers around the world have flared after an Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid convoy turned violent, and Israeli Defense Force troops killed nine activists after attempting to board the ships and inspect for weapons. Our listeners, too, are upset, both about the event and the circumstances around it ... and they come down on both sides of the issue.

Inspired by "Prince of Persia," Rafer and Kristen discuss the long history in the movies of white actors playing non-white characters.

As the House and Senate consider efforts to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Todd speaks with Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Penn,) primary sponsor of the House amendment to repeal; Rep. Bobby Bright (D-Alabama), who says the law's repeal is coming too soon; and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) who supports it, calling allowing openly gay service members "a common sense proposal."

If you had told me, 13 years ago, that Apple would one day be deemed more valuable than Microsoft, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. I wanted it to happen, mind you, but knew it would only come about in some science fiction world where the better product was actually rewarded by consumers and the markets worked as perfect dowsing rods for business acumen. I would have chuckled ruefully, and gone home through a Microsoft-dominated world to talk to my aging Mac Powerbook 520.

Today, at 4 p.m., the unthinkable happened: Apple Inc. finished the day worth more (in the eyes of those buying its stock) than its once-chief rival, Microsoft Corporation. As the markets closed, Apple's stock price put the company at $222 billion, just over Microsoft's $219 billion.

This ex-geek says: Booyah.

Inspired by Vanessa Redgrave's inexplicable presence in "Letters to Juliet," Kristen and Rafer talk about good actors in bad, bad movies.

Todd interviews newly-minted Rep. Mark Critz (D-Penn), who just won a special election to fill the late Rep. Jack Murtha's seat.

Kristen and Rafer look at rappers-turned-actors and the movies they pick to bridge those two roles.

Todd brings tape of Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) in the week when Solicitor General Elena Kagan became the next nominee for the Supreme Court.

UPDATED 7:30 p.m.

It's been a frenetic and fitful evening so far here on the the night shift. (Alex, here enjoying the excitement).

We cast a wide net on all the possible angles to the Arizona ethnic studies law (see below) and so we've already reached out to the Superintendent of the Tuscon School District who supports the law, and a person who wrote one of the books in the Mexican studies curriculum there. And it looks like we will add in Dolores Huerta's take in the morning so that should be a nice segment to check out. 

We also put out some feelers this afternoon to you all about third parties after we read of a new poll that found 31 percent of Americans support them. We asked: What third party would you support? - make up a name! This is, of course, especially interesting to anyone following the British election, which resulted in the first coalition government in 70 years. We've gotten so many of your thoughts already on Facebook and by phone that we're eager to carry the conversation over to the radio show tomorrow. We'll learn from an expert in third parties why they haven't taken off in America, even when enough people support them. You think you know the answer, don't you? Well, see if you are right: Call us at 877-8-MY-TAKE and tell us why. Then listen up tomorrow.

We're starting into the evening after a slightly intense afternoon. (Adam Hirsch, here, on the evening shift.)

From the "Politics Makes For Strange Bedfellows" file, we found out that Conservative David Cameron will be the U.K.'s next Prime Minister, after his center-right party and the lefty Liberal Democrats formed a coalition, leaving the center-left Labor party to lick its wounds after the last election. We'll be getting voices from the BBC and here in the U.S. to explain how this unusual configuration came about, and what each party is trading.

It's traditional for Supreme Court nominees (and their friends, and their associates) to clam up to the media in the period between their gracious acceptance speech and facing the harsh lights of a Senate confirmation hearing ... and it's just as traditional for the rest of the country to be very, very curious about who the person is who might sit on the highest court in the land for the rest of their lives. So there's been a tension for us in the press as we report on details about Solicitor General Elena Kagan. We'll talk with two former associates of Kagan's tomorrow morning.

We'll also have an intriguing story about approaches to immigration in a southwestern state that isn't Arizona. After the last several weeks, we were shocked – shocked, we say! – to discover that Arizona isn't the only state in the union to have concerns over illegal immigration ... but we'll hear about a very different response to it. Tune in!