When Obama speaks to the nation (and Congress) about health care tonight, he needs to insist on a big and comprehensive plan that includes a genuine public option: “Medicare for all.”  JOHN NICHOLS will talk about what we want from Obama tonight.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: “THE LONG SIXTIES” – TOM HAYDEN argues that the movements of the sixties achieved deep reforms that made Obama’s election possible.  Obama, he says, in a “pure child” of the sixties – today caught between the social movements that propelled him to the presidency and the forces maintaining the present structures of power.  A commitment to the sixties goals of peace, justice and the environment could make Obama a great president.   Tom’s new book is THE LONG SIXTIES: From 1960 to Barack Obama.

Disasters can be  “a door back into paradise, the paradise in which we are who we hope to be, do the work we desire, and are each our sister’s and brother’s keeper.”  That’s the startling argument REBECCA SOLNIT makes; her new book is A PARADISE BUILT IN HELL: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster. I will be in conversation with Rebecca tonight/Wed. in the L.A. Public Library ALOUD Series, 7pm, downtown at 5^th and Flower streets.  Make a reservation HERE.

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FRIEDRICH ENGELS – “a foxhunting man, a womanizing, champagne-drinking capitalist” – and a lifelong revolutionary (and also collaborator of Karl Marx). Also, “far more adventurous than Marx when it came to exploring the ramifications of his and Marx’s thinking.” TRISTRAM HUNT explains – his eye-opening new bio is MARX’S GENERAL: THE REVOLUTIONARY LIFE OF FRIEDRICH ENGELS.

Plus: our political update: How bad are things going for the Obama health care plan?  JOHN NICHOLS will comment on Obama’s bruising august — he’s Washington correspondent of The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: HENRY FORD’s Amazon colony: Ford’s greatest success of course was the auto assembly line; his greatest failure was an attempt to build a midwestern small town in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest.  NYU historian GREG GRANDIN tells that story – his book is FORDLANDIA: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City.

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HAROLD MEYERSON talks about Ted Kennedy’s place in American politics — “He was, as he lay dying, new again,” Harold writes at The American Prospect Online — because “Kennedy outlived the Reagan-Thatcher conservative era to which for so many years he had led the opposition.”

Plus: Iraq: the Forever War.  DEXTER FILKINS  covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan starting 2001 for the New York Times.  Filkins describes “an arid, hopeless policy” in an unforgettable book: The Forever War.  It’s out now in paperback.  (first aired 9/17/2008)

And we feature a special Ted Kennedy edition of Your Minnesota Moment: Minnesotans remember Kennedy’s visits to the state.

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Two stories about health care in America: in LA, a week-long free clinic at the Forum in Inglewood brought thousands of people to camp out in the parking lot in the hopes of seeing a doctor or a dentist – dramatizing the problem of health care in America today. KIMI YOSHINO will explain – she was there, covering the story for the LA Times. The clinic was organized by the Remote Area Medical volunteer corps, an amazing organization.  More from Natasha Vargas-Cooper HERE

Meanwhile in DC, Obama first said he was willing to give up a public option for health care; then he said maybe not. Then liberals in the House said they would not vote for any bill unless it included a public option.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.

Also: The “State Secrets Privilege” allows the president to withhold documents and block civil litigation in the name of national security. It didn’t always exist – it was created in 1953. BARRY SIEGEL will explain how that happened — his book CLAIM OF PRIVILEGE is out now in paperback. (Originally broadcast 6/25/08)  Update on Obama and the State Secrets privilege from the NY Times HERE and ACLU HERE.

And  we’ll also listen to music from Les Paul — he died Aug. 13 at 94.  Playlist: “How High the Moon,” “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise,” “Bye Bye Blues.”

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BARBARA EHRENREICH asks: Is it a crime in America to be poor? “You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store,” she says, “but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life — like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering.” Barbara wrote about poverty for the New York Times op-ed page; her most recent book is This Land is Their Land.

Plus: JOHN NICHOLS on “the Cheney-like secrecy of the Obama White House.”  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

And MICHAEL POLLAN and his Eater’s Manifesto: he says “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly vegetables.” He will also provide his critique of the “Nutritional Industrial Complex.” Michael Pollan is the author of the number one-bestseller IN DEFENSE OF FOOD — it’s out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 2/13/08)

Also: who will serve on Obama’s death panels — the ones Sarah Palin says will give the thumbs-down to her baby Trig?  We’ll have a report.

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Are people really turning against Obama’s health care plan? That’s what polls say.  That’s what Republicans are working on.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.  Also: Gallup Poll shows only 5 Republican states.

And  JANE MAYER of The New Yorker talks about the “vast, secret regime of pain and torture” created by the Bush White house.  Her award-winning book The Dark Side is out now in paperback.  This is part 2 of my conversation with her in the downtown LA Public Library ALOUD series.  (Thanks again to Louise Steinman and the ALOUD staff for making this audio available for broadcast.)

And we’ll talk about bottled water: do you really need to drink bottled water?  Water from Fiji, or France, or the Sierras?  Do you really need nine glasses a day?  How bad is municipal tap water?  Elizabeth Royte has some answers – her book Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America’s Drinking Water is out now in paperback. (originally broadcast 7/30/08)

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“The Dark Side” – that’s where Dick Cheney said we would have to go to “achieve our objectives” in the White House’s war on terror. JANE MAYER has been investigating what “the dark side” really means.  I spoke with her before a live audience at the LA Public Library ALOUD series recently; we have the tape.  Her book is out now in paperback.  (Thanks to Louise Steinman and the ALOUD staff for making this audio available for broadcast.)

Also: Los Angeles in 1950 was a city known for freeway sprawl and unplanned growth.  But Los Angeles was NOT “unplanned” – there had been a battle between different utopian visions of what the city could be, starting in the 1920s. That story is told by Jeremiah Axelrod in his new book Inventing Autopia: Dreams and Visions of the Modern Metropolis in Jazz Age Los Angeles.

Plus: KATHA POLLITT is best known for her political columns in The Nation and her personal essays in The New Yorker, but she’s also an award-winning poet – her first book of poetry, Antarctic Traveler, won the National Book Critics Circle award, and her poems are published in The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Atlantic, and many other places. Now she has a second book of poetry out – The Mind-Body Problem. We’ll talk about poetry and politics, and she will read some of my favorites.

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TOM WAITS is the brilliant singer/songwriter with the growly voice and the haunting music.  Barney Hoskyns will talk about his life and music — he’s written the first bio, titled Lowside of the Road.  Playlist: “Jersey Girl,” “16 Shells from a 30 ought six,”  “I’m Big in Japan,” “Get Behind the Mule.”

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment; David Carr, the great New York Times columnist, talks about his days as a drug addict in Minneapolis.  His book, Night of the Gun, is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 9/10/08)

Also: Official government websites turn out to provide a treasure trove of insights into the uses of power and the possibilities of citizen political action — that’s what Elizabeth Losh says.  Her new book is Virtualpolitik: An Electronic History of Government Media-Making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes.  Liz blogs about electronic bureaucracy and institutional subversion on the Internet HERE.

For the record — my show today at 4pm will feature a guest host.