Adam Hirsch

Kristen and Rafer talk about 'Babies,' and other movies people will be shocked that you dislike.

Todd interviews Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, who considers whether the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher betters or worsens chances for Congress to pass a climate bill this year.

Each week, Newsday film critic Rafer Guzman and Takeaway producer Kristen Meinzer get in a heated, but friendly debate about the movies. This week, as a remade version of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" claws its way onto screens all over the country, Rafer and Kristen talk about slasher movies and how they've changed over time.

Each week, Newsday film critic Rafer Guzman and Takeaway producer Kristen Meinzer get in a heated, but friendly debate about the movies. This week, Rafer and Kristen consider shoot'em ups and romantic comedies after Kristen walks out of "The Losers" and into "The Back-up Plan."

Every week, our own Todd Zwillich walks the halls of power in Washington D.C. and brings back an interview for our podcast, "Power Players." This week, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) talks about the chances for bipartisan financial reform.

In this week's podcast, Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer are in a rare agreeable mood: on 'Kick Ass,' on the dearth of good female superheroes and whether or not one should watch movie trailers before seeing a film.

Every week, Todd Zwillich roams the halls of power in Washington D.C. and brings back his best interviews for Power Players.  Today, on Tax Day, Todd brings two: the first, an interview with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) about potential nominees for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' seat, and second, an interview with Fair Tax Advocate Jim Tomasik, the permit holder for the tax reform rally held at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. today.

Posted 6:48 p.m.: Catholicism during Holy Week; National education initiatives at the local level; Tailpipe and mileage standards; Tyler Perry's latest; Heroin from Afghanistan...

UPDATED at 5:10 p.m.  

Alex Goldmark here, coming up to speed for the night shift on a day of congressional hearings, winter sports and a Sea World tragedy.  

We have a producer mining the Akio Toyoda hearings for the best and most telling moments from today's congressional oversight hearings on Toyota and highway safety (see below). Since this is the first time the CEO of Toyota has testified on Capitol Hill we wonder what it might mean for him, his company or their share price back in Japan. So that's one thing we're looking into. 

Some Haitians are getting scammed here in the US as they seek help applying to immigrate to America. We're finding out who is doing it and who is cracking down, including the New York City District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, who will join us tomorrow. 

And my personal favorite, we continue our daily Olympic updates as the sports fade from the speed of skiing to the grace of women's figure skating, among other athletic treats. I am such a smitten fan on this. I have to stop. 

It seems like Superbowl season is barely over, the NASCAR season just began with the Daytona 500, and of course the Winter Olympics are in full swing. For those people who don't actually like sports, but are forced to live in a world where everyone else seems to... Chris Ryan [RollingStone.com, Spin] and producer Kristen Meinzer pulled together a list of their Top Ten Sports Movies for People Who Hate Sports. Take a look at their list and vote in the survey below:

• BUSINESS TAKEOUT:  The Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, is attempting to reassure the European Union that his country's deficit problems are largely under control, but New York Times finance reporter Louise Story tells us that not everybody is buying his story.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin takes a look at some possible moves that could happen before Wednesday afternoon's NBA trade deadline.
• DOGS TAKEOUT: After more than a hundred submissions and several days of voting, the listeners' favorite was clear: a chihuahua named Benny, photographed looking anxious between a pair of Siamese cats.  We spoke with the owner and her mother about Benny and the advantages of looking scared in a competition.

Sarah Montague has a keen eye for dogs, and took some time before covering the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for WNYC to pick eight of our many, many Takeaway Dog Show contestants and offer some trenchant commentary.

UPDATED 7:45 p.m. 

Alex Goldmark, Senior Producer here ... 

Blizzard shmizzard. We've got a great show set for tomorrow.

The Haitian government has been putting out some changing figures on death toll today. But by any account at least 170,000 people have been buried in mass graves already. It is almost certain that the final death toll will match or surpass the Asian Tsunami of 2004. On the occasion of this grim revelation, we going to check in with a United Nations official in Haiti about the scale and scope of the damage. Each time we have an interview like this we do learn of new hopes and new horrors, don't we? 

Besides that, most of the major interviews and planning laid out this morning has held up. (That usually means no breaking news during the day, so maybe the snow actually helped us by smothering the news cycle.) On a weather note, we have booked a snow expert. He literally wrote the history book on weather. But he's also stranded in his West Virginia house without power and no working phone because of the weather. So hopefully we'll get his stormy insight topped off with a touch of his personal snow saga. 

For you techies wondering what that new doohickey in gmail is, we're gonna give you the lowdown on Google Buzz. Rumors are already flying about some privacy concerns. 

During the week of the State of the Union, we asked our listeners for the song they thought best summed up the state of the nation. Our phones, email boxes and website comments all lit up, as our listeners have keen ears for appropriate music for any situation.  Here's a list what they sent, from indie-rockers to Motown classics to gospel to pop, in roughly the order they came in:

John Hockenberry walks through some moments from past State of the Union addresses, looking at the themes that always recur: the economy, health care, jobs, the deficit and changes big and small to our constitution and government.

UPDATE: Sunday 8:30pmEST

Alex here on the Sunday shift ... and credit to my friends from Friday. Much of what they planned is still as relevant now after the weekend's news. We'll still start our pre-State of the Union analyses as planned with a look at some possible changes President Obama may be preparing to announce on Wednesday. Our Haiti coverage will continue and shift to more forward looking as the grim rescue efforts end with a look at how they might begin to rebuild and compare the obstacles now with past disasters. 

The most surprising of our stories on tap for tomorrow may turn out to be our weekly family segment. This week we hear an unexpected but well researched theory on child sexual abuse. We might be understanding the notion of trauma all wrong. And if we get it right, maybe that would encourage more than just 5% of abused children to come forward. 

We're also following the rumblings around the re-confirmation of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, still hearing and receiving responses to last week's Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance and yes, we'll have a preview of the Superbowl and recap of the NFL championship games last night. 

11:58 a.m. —

We just finished our Wednesday all-staff meeting, and the room is in full swing, getting tomorrow's show set up.  This afternoon, John Hockenberry will be doing an interview with Adm. Mike Mullen, current chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  The interview will air on the radio tomorrow morning (and possibly Friday) but we'll get pieces of it up this afternoon on the website.

Adam, here, after the morning's editorial meetings.  We're looking at two main stories tomorrow: ongoing Haiti coverage, and the results of the Massachusetts election.

Here's what we're considering for tomorrow's show after the morning editorial meetings:

Tomorrow marks one week since the earthquake in Haiti, and a natural point to look at the initial responses to the event and how well they've succeeded.  We're looking to compare how humanitarian organizations reacted in Haiti and how they reacted to other natural disasters: the Indonesian tsunami being one fairly recent example.

We got this email on Sunday from Carol Fipp, an aid worker with The Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, Haiti. She is trying to coordinate an airlift of injured quake victims from Port-au-Prince to their full-service hospital in Milot, which is 75 miles north of Port-au-Prince. So far, the hospital has only airlifted four patients. The New York Times reports a similar story from the medical charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.