Talk of the Nation

Weekdays at 1pm C.T.

When Americans want to be a part of the national conversation, they turn to Talk of the Nation, NPR's live, midday news-talk program. Host Neal Conan leads a productive exchange of ideas and opinions on the issues that dominate the news landscape.

From breaking news, science, and education to religion and the arts, Talk of the Nation offers listeners the opportunity to join enlightening discussions with decision-makers, authors, academicians, and artists from around the world.

For two hours each Monday through Thursday, Talk of the Nation listeners weigh-in, share their thoughts and ask questions by calling, emailing, messaging through social media.

Visit the show's website.

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Environment
12:00 pm
Fri March 9, 2012

Can An Early Spring Confuse Nature's Clock?

It's been an unusually warm winter in some parts of the country, with springtime temperatures and very little snow. How is nature responding? Purdue entomologist Tom Turpin and horticulturalist Kristin Schleiter of the New York Botanical Garden discuss how an early spring affects flower buds, beetles and bees.

Around the Nation
12:00 pm
Thu March 8, 2012

Ethnic Mapping: Prophylactic Or Offensive?

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, some law enforcement agencies adapted crime mapping tactics into what is known as ethnic mapping. Some Muslims welcome ethnic mapping as a useful approach to preventing terrorism. Others say the surveillance amounts to domestic spying and racial profiling.

Africa
12:00 pm
Thu March 8, 2012

Fact Checking The 'Kony 2012' Viral Video

Kony 2012 is not your usual viral video. A thirty-minute film by the nonprofit group Invisible Children, it hopes to raise support for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. Freelance reporter Michael Wilkerson fact checks the film and explains the controversy.

On Aging
12:00 pm
Thu March 8, 2012

'Gray Divorce': Over 50, And Splitting Up

The divorce rate among people 50 and older has doubled in the past 20 years, according to research by Bowling Green State University sociologists Susan Brown and I-Fen Lin. Their paper, "The Gray Divorce Revolution," examines the factors driving the trend.

NPR Story
12:00 pm
Thu March 8, 2012

'Da Vinci's Ghost,' Manifest In The Vitruvian Man

Credit iStockphoto.com
A reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing of The Vitruvian Man.

Most people are familiar with Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man: A nude man, with his arms and legs stretched, inside a square within a circle.

Toby Lester tells the story behind the drawing and Da Vinci's zeal to create an image of the perfectly proportioned human in Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image.

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