WAMU-FM: WAMU: The Diane Rehm Show Podcast

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords was injured in a mass shooting in Arizona three years ago. But gun control efforts have stalled at the federal level. Where the debate stands today.

This year, every baby boomer will have reached the milestone of age 50. As average life expectancies increase, many boomers are entering midlife with a different perspective on the future than previous generations — that there is much more to come. Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist Jane Pauley is one such baby boomer. After she stopped anchoring Dateline NBC, she knew she would still be working for decades, but doing what? In a new book, Pauley talks about how she reinvented herself. She interviews other boomers who found happiness in their 50s and 60s by launching a new company or switching careers. Join Diane for a discussion with Pauley about reimagining the rest of your life.

Congress begins 2014 with a full agenda, including a vote on extending unemployment benefits, negotiating the debt ceiling and prospects for immigration reform. Diane and her guests discuss what to expect from Congress this election year.

One hundred years ago, the last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. At the time of her death, she was a bit of a celebrity and the fact that the species was now extinct was shocking to the American public. Not long before Martha died, passenger pigeons flew in packs so large over the U.S. and Canada they could block out the sun for days. But starting in the 1600s, with the arrival of European explorers, humans began killing the birds. And as technology advanced, the killing became a slaughter. For this month's Environmental Outlook, Diane and her guest discuss the passenger pigeon's flight to extinction and what it teaches us about the importance of conservation.

In January 2010, the Supreme Court handed down their landmark Citizens United ruling, dramatically altering campaign finance in America. The decision allowed corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited money directly on politics and it created an explosion in so-called 501(c)(4)s, nonprofits named for where they fall in the tax code. As these organizations have become some of the biggest spenders in politics today, new questions are arising in D.C. and around the country about how — and whether — money in politics should be reined in. Four years after Citizens United: how we pay for politics and the state of campaign finance reform.

Adolescence is universally recognized as a trying time for parents and children. But new brain research suggests this period of immature and often reckless behavior is more than just a stage for parents and teens to endure. It is a vital time for adolescents to chart the course for the adults they will ultimately become. One brain researcher points out that it is during our teen years that we learn how to navigate the world outside the safety of home, how to connect deeply with others and how to safely take risks. He says that by understanding how the brain functions, teens can improve their own lives and those of their parents. Diane and her guests discuss the power and purpose of the teenage brain.

President Barack Obama faces a full agenda on his return to work today. One of the top items: reforming the National Security Agency. While on vacation, he considered the recommendations of a task force he appointed to improve operations at the NSA. The president is soon expected to announce possible changes to controversial spying programs — some of which have been in place since 9/11. While many privacy advocates have praised the task force recommendations, some say they don't go far enough. And others worry that tinkering too much with our nation's surveillance programs could pave the way for another attack. Diane and her guests discuss a rethinking of national security.

Russia arrests dozens after suicide bombings just weeks ahead of the winter Olympics. Fighting in South Sudan escalates while diplomats gather in Ethiopia to press for a cease-fire. Secretary of State John Kerry returns to Israel for Middle East peace talks. Two deadly bombs shake Beirut as factional tensions rise in over the war in Syria. Lebanon and Syria fire on each other in hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees. And the U.S. says an agreement on implementing limits on Iran's nuclear program is almost finalized. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.

Health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act begins. The new mayor of New York City promises to tackle income inequality. And state regulated marijuana sales begins in Colorado. Diane and her guests discuss the week in news.

Diane and her guests discuss the next frontier in space exploration, the future of NASA and private space ventures.

Health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act is slated to begin Jan. 1, 2014. Diane and her guests discuss the status of the program rollout and how sign-up deadline extensions and exemptions have affected insurers and consumers.

After 27 years of marriage and three children, Annie Oh has fallen in love with Viveca, her art dealer. Annie, a self-taught artist, and Viveca plan to wed in the family's hometown of Three Rivers, Conn., where gay marriage has recently been legalized. But the impending wedding provokes mixed reactions among family members and opens up a Pandora's box of painful secrets that have festered below the surface. In the latest novel by best-selling writer Wally Lamb, he details the lives of a troubled family struggling to find redemption in the aftermath of childhood trauma and abuse.

When the Obama administration selected 44-year-old Richard Blanco to be inaugural poet in 2013, he was the youngest person ever tapped for the honor. Blanco also became the first Latino, the first immigrant and the first openly gay man to address the nation on Inauguration Day. Still to this day, Blanco is not sure how he got the assignment. But that moment of reading his poem to the nation changed him in ways he never imagined. It renewed Blanco's faith in the power of words and set in him a mission to connect the American public to contemporary poetry. Richard Blanco joins Diane to talk about his new book, "For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey."

John Grisham's first novel was "A Time to Kill," a thriller about a young, Mississippi lawyer who successfully defends a black client charged with murder. Grisham wrote that book in his laundry room while practicing law in Mississippi. It remains one of the best-selling novels of all time. Now, 25 years later, Grisham returns to the same rural Mississippi town with a sequel: the story features many of the same characters and another controversial trial tinged with race. Attorney Jake Brigance is back and his client is a dead man who left behind a controversial will and a big family secret. Diane talks with best-selling author John Grisham.

A deadly firefight with Iraqi insurgents caught on video by Fox News has transformed eight U.S. soldiers into media stars. Nineteen-year-old Billy Lynn is the lead character in a novel about the surviving men of the "Bravo Squad" and their brief return home. As the squad mourns the death of a fellow soldier, they are sent on a two-week nationwide "victory tour" to drum up support for the war. But their painful reality is obscured as they are honored during a Dallas cowboys Thanksgiving Day game. A Readers' Review discussion of "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain.