Should a candidate’s religious convictions  be off-limits to public scrutiny? Damon Linker doesn’t think so, and in The Religious Test, he outlines the various elements of religious beliefs that are simply incompatible with high office. Later, Rebecca Traister, whose coverage of the 2008 presidential election for Salon, offers a startling appraisal of what the campaign meant for all of us in Big Girls Don’t Cry. Even though we didn’t get our first woman president or vice president, the campaign was  transformative  for American women and for the nation.

In her new book, Disconnect, Dr. Devra Davis reveals untold stories of cell phone industry cover-up and explains what everyone needs to know and do about cell phone radiation-without giving up our cell phones. Later Judge Glenda Hatchett, host of her Emmy nominated syndicated show and author of Dare to Take Charge.

Mark Feldstein’s book, Poisoning the Press recounts not only the disturbing story of an unprecedented White House conspiracy to assassinate a journalist, but also the larger tale of the bitter quarter-century battle between the postwar era’s most embattled politician, Richard Nixon and its most reviled newsman, Jack Anderson. Then, Politics According to the Bible with theologian and author Wayne Grudem.

In arguably the most radical book published in decades, The Anti-American Manifesto, cartoonist/columnist Ted Rall has produced the book he was always meant to write: a new manifesto for an America heading toward economic and political collapse.

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country’s greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years in Bob Dylan in America.

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation has just released a report on “The State of Sexual Freedom in the U.S.” and executive director, Ricci Levy  will tell us what they discovered. Later, Boston University professor  Donna Freitas explores college students’ spiritual and sexual lives in Sex & the Soul.

Advocates of allowing gay Americans to serve openly in the armed forces were disappointed Tuesday by a Senate vote taking up a major military bill that would allow the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.  Trevor Thomas with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network talks about what’s next. Then, should it be illegal to work as a sightseeing guide without passing a test and getting a license? Robert McNamara a staff attorney with the Institute For Justice says it’s a violation of his clients constitutional rights.

The Governor of Virginia will not spare the life of a woman who is set to become the first woman executed in the state in nearly a century. James Rocap, the lawyer for Teresa Lewis will tell us about his attempts to save his client. Then Robert Scheer, editor of TruthDig.com tells us in The Great American Stick-Up that since the economic collapse happened on the watch of President George W. Bush at the end of two full terms in office, many in the Democratic Party were only too eager to blame his administration. But who is really to blame?

Since the election of  Barack Obama, the religious conversation in America has been dominated by calls for progressives to move beyond “partisanship” by reaching out to evangelicals in order to create a “big tent” on social issues such as abortion and marriage equality, despite the lack of evidence that such a strategy can or ever did work. In Changing the Script, Daniel Schultz, one of the leading progressive religious voices builds upon the insights of Old Testament scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann to identify five “scripts” that exercise unseen power in our society.

NPR’s Scott Simon talks about the joys of adoption and becoming a first-time father later in life in Baby,We Were Meant For Each Other. At the half, Jennifer Arnold with an inspiring book that has the power to change the way we understand and communicate with our dogs in Through a Dog’s Eyes. Arnold is the founder and executive director of Canine Assistants.