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SARAH VOWELL talks about the “orgy of imperialism” that led to the Americanization of Hawaii.  She has one of the great American voices—first on “This American Life,” then in a series of wonderful books that became best-sellers. She’s been a frequent guest of Jon Stewart’s and David Letterman’s.  Now her newest book is out in paperback – it’s called Unfamiliar Fishes.

Plus: Islamophobia and its Discontents:  LAILA LALAMI talks about living with anti-Muslim bias.  Laila teaches creative writing at UC Riverside; her novel is  Secret Son,  and she wrote the recent cover story for The Nation on Islamophobia.

Also: “Mr. Satan Goes to Wall Street“: it’s a new street-theater musical comedy by the award-winning guerrilla-theater company the Imagination Liberation Front. Mr. Satan will perform this summer, for the Occupy Wall Street troops in Zuccotti Park – and in the streets outside of the Republican and Democratic national conventions.  Benefit Wed. 8pm at Sacret Fools Theater in E. Hollywood; info HERE; contribute HERE (to “Imagination Liberation Front”).

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The United States has never understood Afghanstan – and probably never will.  That’s what RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN says – he’s a Washington Post reporter who has spent years covering the wars Afghanistan and Iran.  Now he has a new book out – Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan.

And we will have our political update from HAROLD MEYERSON—he writes a column for the op-ed page of the Washington Post, and he’s editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame: from Gene Debs and Clarence Darrow to Bruce Springsteen and Michael Moore — PETER DREIER has a list.  He teaches politics at Occidental College, he writes for The Nation, the L.A. Times, and The American Prospect, and his new book about the 100 greatest Americans is out now from Nation Books.

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TERRY GROSS of NPR’s “Fresh Air” is heard by more than 4 million listeners on more than 400 stations.  She talks about what went wrong in her interviews with Hillary Clinton, Nancy Reagan, and Bill O’Reilly.  Her book, All I Did was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 2/2006)

Also: REBECCA SKLOOT talks about how racism, poverty and science came together in the case of  a poor black woman whose cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine.  Rebecca’s best-selling book is THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS.  (originally broadcast April, 2010)

And: Barack Obama’s mother, the amazing Ann Dunham: she married a black man – Barack Obama Sr. — when she was 18, then he left her after Barack Jr. was born; she got him into the best school in Honolulu, and then she left for Java and worked with poor women in the third world for more than a decade.  JANNY SCOTT of the NY Times tells that story – her book is A SINGULAR WOMAN–it’s out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast  July 2011)

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CHRIS HAYES of MSNBC and The Nation talks about the pervasive failure of our elites –which shows that it’s time to move beyond meritocracy, even though it triumphed with the election of Obama.  Our new goal, he says, should be equality.  His new book is Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy.

Also: how the market has taken over intimate life, from dating to marriage to childraising and even to death: Berkeley sociologist ARLIE HOCHSCHILD explains.  Her new book is The Outsourced Self.

Plus: GAIL COLLINS, the New York Times op-ed columnist, has been spending time in Texas, to see how the Lone Star state has hijacked our future.   She will report on her findings — alarming, and, of course, hilarious.  Her new book is As Texas Goes: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda.

LISTEN online HERE — SUBSCRIBE to iTunes podcast HERE
Growing up next door to a plutonium weapons factory: KRISTEN IVERSENtalks about her  “hauntingly beautiful memoir that is also a devastating investigation into the human costs of building and living with the atomic bomb” (Kai Bird).   The site is Rocky Flats, outside Denver; the book is Full Body Burden —  READ an excerpt in The Nation HERE.

Also:  HAROLD MEYERSON explains what happens if America loses its unions – a necessary question after Wisconsin.  Harold’s new piece for the Washington Post is HERE — and for The American Prospect HERE.

Plus:  LILLIAN HELLMAN was the most successful woman playwright in American history and a hero of the fight against HUAC – and also, ALICE KESSLER-HARRIS says, “A Difficult Woman” – that’s the title of her new bio on “the Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman.”   Alice is professor of American history at Columbia University and past president of the Organization of American Historians.