Why do the Japanese hunt whales? Heike Vester, biologist, coordinator and founder of Ocean Sounds, a private organization that is dedicated to the research of marine animals, public education, and conservation of the marine environment talks about the economics of whaling and the research that is being done .

Did the Tea Party movement have any effect on Tuesday’s  primaries? Kate Zernike, a national correspondent for The New York Times and was a member of the team that shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting takes a surprising and revealing look inside the Tea Party movement—where it came from, what it stands for, and what it means for the future of American politics in Boiling Mad.

Was Sen. Harry Reid on target for saying during the 2008 campaign that Barack Obama may have had an advantage as a black presidential candidate because of his light skin? Washington Post science writer and author Shankar Vedantam’s book, The Hidden Brain suggests that Reid may have been on target.

Award-winning sociologist and historian James W. Loewen with co-editor, Edward H. Sebesta,  put in perspective the mythology of the Old South in The Confederate and The Neo-Confederate Reader.

New York Times reporter and columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy.

The controversy over building a mosque near Ground Zero is still simmering and a pastor in Florida has threatened to burn the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attack. Jay Wexler, law professor at Boston University and author of  Holy Hullabaloos will discuss the constitutionality of moving the mosque to state property. Later, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America will discuss religious intolerance and the need to protect the safety and civil rights of Muslims.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Geraldo Rivera delivers keen insight  in The Great Progression, a book on how Hispanics are revitalizing our declining economy, energizing our distressed troops, and invigorating our transitioning national government. Then CNN anchor and TV news social media pioneer Rick Sanchez cuts through the bull to share what Americans are really thinking in Conventional Idiocy.

Author Brad O’Leary is President of ATI-News and publisher of The O’Leary Report and he and Barry will discuss hot topics in the news. O’Leary is the author of Shut Up America. Later in the hour, conservative political commentator, Debbie Schlussel on the mosque controversy at Ground Zero and other issues in the news.

Jordan Flaherty is journalist and editor of Left Turn Magazine; his book Floodlines is a firsthand account of community, culture, and resistance in New Orleans in the years before and after Katrina. The book weaves the interconnected stories of prisoners at Angola, Mardi Gras Indians, Arab and Latino immigrants, public housing residents, gay rappers, spoken word poets, victims of police brutality, out of town volunteers, and grassroots activists.

A quarter of a million dollars is the going tab for four years at most top-tier universities. But why does it cost so much and is it worth it? Sociologist Andrew Hacker and his co -author, Claudia Dreifus say the we have lost sight of the primary mission in Higher Education?.