Friday, February 14 – Friday, February 21

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama announced a White House initiative, called “My Brother’s Keeper”, to pair foundations and corporations with young men of color to help them reach their full potential. Kenneth Braswell, executive director of Fathers Incorporated, a nonprofit agency that works to develop support and services for fathers, shares his thoughts on the initiative and what the president needs to do to ensure its success.

This week, China and Taiwan held their first direct government-to-government talks since the two countries split in 1949. The talks represent an historic move towards harmony between the longtime bitter rivals. But are the talks largely symbolic, or will they mark the start of a new era in Asia and beyond? Bonnie S. Glaser, senior adviser for Asia in the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, offers her insights.

In this week’s installment of “Five Things You Should Know About…”, Heather Jarvis of AskHeatherJarvis.com offers five tips for navigating the student loan process from beginning to end.

Listeners respond to last week’s interview with Bill Fletcher Jr., senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies. He discussed his experience on a fact-finding trip through Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories with a small delegation of African American artists, scholars, and professionals.

In his 3-minute sports drill, 0ur commentator George Johnson offers his take on NFL prospect Michael Sam’s decision to come out of the closet, and Oklahoma State basketball player Marcus Smart’s confrontation with a fan.

Singer LiV Warfield hasn’t merely been endorsed by Prince—he’s the executive producer of her new album, and he wrote the title track, “The Unexpected”. It’s just the right title, since the unexpected is exactly what you should expect from Warfield. She describes her style as “alternative R&B soul with a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll”. She joins us to share her new release.

The years of the civil rights movement are counted among the most volatile, yet vibrant, in American history. In our Black History Month special, “Memories of the Movement”, we celebrate the courage, conviction, and commitment of the everyday people who made extraordinary contributions to American social progress.

“Memories of the Movement” features poignant, humorous, unheard, or little-known stories from a number of well-known civil rights icons. This hour features stories from Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, Danny Glover, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Dr. Raye Richardson, Yuri Kochiyama, Rep. John Lewis, Dorothy Tillman, Rev. Robert Graetz, Harry Belafonte, Andrew Young, Elizabeth Eckford and Jefferson Thomas of the “Little Rock Nine”, and Dick Gregory.