Talk of the Nation

NPR's Political Junkie Ken Rudin recaps the week in politics and reflects on some of the significant political moments of the year. He also faces off in a trivia battle with burgeoning political junkie Gabe Fleisher, a fifth grader who drafts a political newsletter everyday before school.

The Census Bureau projects that by 2043, the United States will have a majority-minority population for the first time in its history. In a piece in The New York Times, columnist Charles Blow writes that this demographic shift is one we should meet with "as much ease and grace as we can muster."

The Christmas season is a peculiar time for Jewish children, many of whom are drawn to Christmas specials like A Christmas Story. What should Jewish parents do? Guest host John Donvan talks to Slate senior editor Dahlia Lithwick about her Jewish parent's guide to Christmas specials.

Rita Betush and Judy Bottomley grew up with a sense that something was missing. As a child, Betush's mother told her she had a sister who'd been put up for adoption. This year, after decades apart, Betush and her long-lost sister, Bottomley, connected by phone, and in February, they'll finally meet.

Guest host John Donvan reads listener comments from past shows about witnessing tragic events, adoption in the Internet age and how to fill time while you wait.

For most of us, riding from floor to floor in an elevator is a completely mundane process. Lee Gray, an associate dean at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is known as the Elevator Guy. He spends a lot of his time researching the history of elevators and why we behave so oddly in the big metal boxes.

The holiday season is one of the busiest travel times of the year. However, we seldom think about the transit workers — bus drivers, train operators, air traffic controllers and tow truck operators — who help us reach our destinations.

President Barack Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for Secretary of State during his second term. In a piece in the Washington Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, lays out a number of key questions the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should ask the nominee.

How is it that some people are able to change their bad habits and reinvent themselves, while others try and fall short? As part of our annual series on the books we missed, New York Times investigative reporter Charles Duhigg discusses his book The Power Of Habit and about the science of habit formation.

The SciFri Book Club is touring the solar system, with Dava Sobel's 2005 The Planets. Call in with a review of the book. Plus Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, joins the club to give an update on what's happened planet-wise since the book was published.

The Audubon's 113th Christmas Bird Count is underway, and thousands of volunteers are taking part this year. Ornithologist David Bonter, and Gary Langham, Audubon's chief scientist, share tips on which species to look out for, and how even birding beginners can get involved.

Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, researchers write that neural stem cell implants were able to slow the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in mice. Study author Evan Snyder discusses the stem cells' protective effect, and why human trials may not be far behind.

The ancient Maya had many scientific accomplishments: they tracked the Moon and the planets, knew a solar year was 365 days, and even invented the concept of zero. As for the 2012 apocalypse? It's simply a misinterpretation of the Maya calendar, say archaeologists Marcello Canuto and William Saturno.

In a paper to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers identified five possible planets around the star Tau Ceti. One of these alien worlds is within the star's habitable zone. Study co-author Steven Vogt discusses whether life could exist on the planet.

Photographer Colin Legg makes time-lapse movies of celestial scenes, from auroras to eclipses. Photographing mostly in remote parts of Australia, where human-made light doesn't compete with starlight, Legg describes some of the challenges of this type of photography: from babysitting cameras for days and nights on end to running electronics in the backcountry.