The super committee has just 10 days left to make a deal. Co-chairman of the committee, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, says a two-step process will have the committee agree to an overall tax revenue number, with other congressmen to come up with the actual taxes. Also, the Republican candidates debate foreign policy over the weekend.
Just hours ago, police in Oakland began clearing out Occupy Wall Street protestors from the city's downtown plaza. So far the raid on the encampment has been mostly peaceful, but dozens of protestors have been arrested. Across the country, police cracked down on protestor camps over the weekend. In Portland, riot police used fences topped with barbed wire to hold back demonstrators as they cleaned up encampments. 50 people were arrested there.
Meghan Daum joins the program to discuss her take on Joan Didion's new memoir, "Blue Nights," and how Didion has influenced a generation of writers. Daum wrote an essay on "Blue Nights" for The Los Angeles Review of Books, called "Having, or Making, or Thinking About Making a Drink."
For the past several years, California has attracted world attention as a leader in stem cell research. And with half its voter-approved stem cell research funds committed to dozens of new projects, the focus now is on results.
Teenagers and sex are a controversial subject in America. But not in the Netherlands, according to Amy Schalet. Schalet just authored a new book called "Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens and the Culture of Sex". She compared the different attitudes parents have towards teenage sex and found some surprises. Schalet tells Madeleine that the Netherlands focus on preventing pregnancy and disease, and have a teenage birthrate eight times lower than American teens.
Luke Burbank, host of the podcast "Too Beautiful to Live," joins Madeleine in his new time slot. This week in awesome-ness: "Cluster balloonist" Kent Couch will attach a lawn chair to dozens of balloons and ascend 25,000 feet over the Green Zone in Iraq. He'll be setting a record in ballooning while raising money for Iraqi children. What could possibly go wrong? Luke updates us on beard cutting in an Ohio Amish community and the unusual centerpieces at the MOCA gala this weekend.
