Helping Soldiers Get Home

As Americans think about travel, we take a look at travel plans for the U.S. troops. We speak with Pam Lea-Maida, director of the Hero Miles program, that helps reunite soldiers with their families through donated frequent flier miles.

‘Up in the Air’

(Paramount Pictures)

A new film, ‘Up In The Air,’ tells the story of a corporate hatchet man who is hired by companies to come in and lay-off workers. Jason Reitman, of Juno fame, directed the film which stars George Clooney as the high-flying hatchet man. The film also features non-actors — people who had recently lost their jobs.

Prisoner Swap

Negotiations are still on for a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, though Israeli leaders are lowering expectations. Israel is considering the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including the man many think could unite rival Palestinian factions, in return for the release of an Israeli soldier. We’ll speak with Ethan Bronner, Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times.

Looking Back on the Mumbai Attacks

India is marking the one-year anniversary of the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people. The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumber, who visited some of the places where the gunmen struck on November 26, 2008, joins us to talk about how the city has recovered.

Octavian Nothing

We revisit our conversation with author M.T. Anderson about his follow up to the National Book Award winning young adult novel “The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation Vol. 1: The Pox Party”. In volume two, “The Kingdom on the Waves,” Octavian, a slave escaping colonial Boston, joins an all-black regiment recruited by the British to fight the colonists in return for a promise of freedom.

Music from the show

• The Lickets, “Meat City”
• Christian McBride, “Theme for Kareem”
• The Rolling Stones, “She’s So Cold”
• Paul Simon, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”