Lyle Denniston has been covering the Supreme Court for a half-century -- first as a newspaperman in Baltimore and Boston, and now for the invaluable SCOTUSblog. He joins the podcast this week to give an overview of the Supreme Court's term, a look at the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings, and a preview of what hot topics the court will be wrestling with next.

Topics covered in this podcast:

* Is this the year Chief Justice John Roberts put his stamp on the court?
* How has President Obama done with his first two Supreme Court picks?
* Have the big Constitutional questions already been settled?
* Has there ever been a nominee confirmation hearing that was substantive?
* How does the court change when one justice replaces another?
* Should Supreme Court oral arguments be televised?
* What's it like to make the jump to cyberspace reporting after a half-century in journalism?
* What topics will the Supreme Court use to make us angry next year and in coming years?

Music heard in this podcast:

* "Stop, In The Name of Love," The Supremes.
* "Breakin' The Law," Hayseed Dixie.
* "Supreme," Robbie Williams.
* "I Fought the Law," The Clash.

At 6:30 pm Thursday, July 8, Denniston will moderate a forum on the Supreme Court at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Check constitutioncenter.org for details.

Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis discuss the end of "Lost" with Macworld editor Jason Snell, who was kind enough to join us again for a wrap-up. We would have posted this a little sooner, but paying work seemed to get in the way. We recorded on Saturday, May 29, while there was still a warm glow about the series finale and the resolution. Well, Joel wasn't especially warm, as you will hear...

Among the questions we discuss:

• Did it work?
• Was Ben Linus's fate satisfactory?
• Was the "Lost" finale on par with the end of "Battlestar Galactica"?
• What can "faithless infidels" take from shows like "Lost"?
• Is long-form, episodic TV with a multi-season story arc even possible anymore? Was it ever?
• And much more!

Music heard in this podcast:

More of Michael Giacchino, naturally -- all from season one.

(Oh, and be sure to listen through to the very end.)

As ABC's "Lost" hurdles toward its thrilling Sunday night series finale, Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis discuss the show and its meaning with Macworld's Jason Snell. The podcast was recorded over the weekend, before Tuesday's episode, "What They Died For."

Among the questions we explore:

• Where does "Lost" rank in the science fiction pantheon?
• Are showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof giving their fans the finger?
• What do creators owe to their fans, anyway?
• What do "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" have in common?
• What do "Lost" and "Twin Peaks" have in common?
• Is the music in "Lost" like another character in the show?
• How should "The End" end?

Music heard in this podcast:

• Selections from Michael Giacchino's scores to "Lost," seasons 2 through 5.

As ABC's "Lost" hurdles toward its thrilling Sunday night series finale, Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis discuss the show and its meaning. But...something is missing. It's almost as if this podcast was recorded in a parallel timeline. (Or maybe Jason Snell forgot what time we were scheduled to record...) The podcast was recorded over the weekend, before Tuesday's episode, "What They Died For."

Among the questions we explore:

• Are the Others really the good guys?
• What do "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" have in common?
• Are showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof giving their fans the finger?
• Is Ben Linus a metaphor for George W. Bush?
• Is the music in "Lost" like another character in the show?
• How should "The End" end?

Music heard in this podcast:

• Selections from Michael Giacchino's scores to "Lost," seasons 2 through 5.

Ben and Joel are joined by Joyce Lee Malcolm to discuss McDonald v. Chicago, a Second Amendment case before the Supreme Court, and the history of the right to bear arms.

Malcolm is a professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. She is a historian and constitutional scholar. She is the author of seven books including To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right and Guns and Violence: The English Experience. Her work on the Second Amendment and the right to be armed has been widely cited in court opinions and legal literature including the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 opinion, District of Columbia v. Heller

This coming week -- on May 5 -- she'll appear in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center for a discussion about "RETHINKING THE SECOND AMENDMENT: THE CHICAGO GUN CASE AND THE FUTURE OF GUN RIGHTS." The event is 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and is free, but reservations required. Check constitutioncenter.org for details.

Questions discussed in this podcast:

* Didn't Heller settle the Second Amendment debate once and for all?
* How did the right to bear arms evolve, anyway?
* What happened when England withdrew the right?
* Does the Second Amendment make sense in an urbanized society?
* What mischief might legislators make through backdoor regulations to keep guns out of the hands of Americans?

Music heard in this podcast:

* "Happiness is a Warm Gun," Beatles.
* "Battle of New Orleans," Johnny Horton.
* "Bang Bang," Nancy Sinatra.

After a hiatus, the podcast returns at the tail-end of tax season and tea party mania. Ben Boychuk and Robb Leatherwood last month interviewed John O'Hara, author of A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes. We very much wanted to post this sooner, but paying work got in the way. Our apologies to O'Hara, who gave a great interview here.

Among the questions we explore:

• Who's running these tea parties?
• Are the tea parties really creatures of the Republican Party?
• Is there a coherent tea party platform?
• Aren't tea parties really just astroturf?
• Can the tea party movement move beyond street protests to shape political reform?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Anarchy X," Queensryche
• "Gun Battle," (From the "Billy the Kid" Ballet Suite), Aaron Copland/London Symphony Orchestra
• "New Avengers-Raw Deal Mix," Snowboy
• "Tax Free," Jimi Hendrix
• "Traitors (Verräter)," Peter Thomas
• "Always Tomorrow," The Shazam
• "Eyes of a Stranger," Queensryche

It's Academy Awards Weekend. Ben and Joel are joined once again by Christian Toto of What Would Toto Watch? and Matt Prigge of Philadelphia Weekly to talk about the 2009 nominees in the run up to Sunday's awards. (And if you are listening to this after the show, check out just how wrong -- or how right! -- we were.)

Among the questions we explore:

• Are 10 Best Picture nominations better than five?
• Or is expanding the nomination pool just a gimmick?
• Never mind what the Academy says: What movie really deserved the Best Picture Oscar?
• Is "Avatar" art -- or an embarrassment?
• What set "The Hurt Locker" apart from other recent war movies?
• Is it time for a gender-neutral “Best Actor” Oscar?
• Which movie released in 2009 should have been on the Best Picture list?
• Could there be a better Nazi zombie movie than "Dead Snow"?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Hooray for Hollywood," Geoff Muldaur
• "I See You (Theme from 'Avatar')," some cheap knockoff cover, not the Leona Lewis version from the "Avatar" OST
• "Slaughter," Billy Preston (from the "Inglourious Basterds" OST)
• "Julia's Theme," Alexander Desplat (from the "Julie and Julia" OST)
• "Up With End Credits," Michael Giacchino (from the "Up" OST)

Ben and Joel are joined by Will Bunch, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the author of "Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future."

Questions discussed in this podcast:

• What is this "Reagan myth" that Bunch speaks of?
• Is mythmaking so bad? Does it hurt our modern politics and discourse if Reagan is mythologized?
• Why do modern Republicans do such a bad and over-the-top job of paying fealty to the Gipper?
• Why isn't Ronald Reagan taking more of a hit for planting the seeds of the financial crisis? Why -- when he presided over an era of ballooning deficits and debt -- do Republicans have the rhetorical advantage on fiscal issues?
• Will torture advocate John Yoo keep his media jobs now that the Justice Department has decided not to punish him?
• What hope is there for newspapers in the future?

Music heard in this podcast:

• John Lennon, "Working Class Hero."
• David Bowie, "Heroes."
• Sonic Youth, "Massage The History."
• Mos Def, "History."
• Betty Iron Thumbs, "Free Like You."
• Ike and Tina Turner, "Crazy About You, Baby."
• The O'Jays, "When The World's At Peace."

Ben and Joel welcome Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America and the author of "Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press," out this month in paperback.

Questions addressed in this podcast:

• How has the Internet changed politics and the press?
• Do the "netroots" deserve credit for Democratic electoral victories in 2006 and 2008 -- or would the left have been victorious anyway?
• How did liberals get their online advantage? Are conservatives finally catching up?
• Why did Obama bypass the netroots during his campaign? Are they getting in the way of his governance now?
• What's all this Tea Party stuff about, anyway?
• Would today's National Review make Bill Buckley cry?

Music heard in this podcast, all by The Bad Plus:

• "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
• "Heart of Glass"
• "Barracuda"
• "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate"

Next week's podcast guest: Will Bunch, author of "Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future."

Steve HaywardSteve Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute and author of the Age of Reagan joins us again for something completely different. In addition to being a political historian, Hayward has also produced for 14 years the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators. (Soon to receive a J.J. Abramsian reboot, as Steve reveals.) So Steve agreed to doff his green cap to talk about the politics of climate change, cap-and-trade, and other enviro-follies. As a bonus, Hayward discusses some of the implications of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizen's United v. FEC.

(We recorded this a week ago, but some technical hurdles prevented us from posting it until now. Apologies. But it turns out that our timing may be better than we thought, especially with new revelations and questions about the International Panel on Climate Change.)

Among the questions we explore:

• What's the matter with Al Gore?
• What is the true significance of the "Climategate" controversy?
• Does Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts spell the end of cap-and-trade?
• Will California back away from its ambitious carbon-capping plans, too?
• How can casual observers make smart judgments in the climate change debate?
• What is the most important environmental challenge facing the world today? (Hint: It isn't warming, but it is real.)
• Why do corporations have free speech?
• Will the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United lead to more openness and transparency or much less of both?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Warmer Than Hell," Spinal Tap
• "Al for All (and All for Al)," The Political Ice Caps
• "Acid Rain," Timbuk 3
• "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)," Marvin Gaye
• "Hungry Planet," The Byrds
• "Free Speech in America," Blusion
• "Swarfiga," Kasabian

Ben and Joel are joined by the man Andrew Sullivan dubbed a "conservative contrarian," Conor Friedersdorf, a writer whose work has appeared all over this great big World Wide Web of ours.

He writes regularly for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily and is currently blogging at True/Slant and The American Scene -- the latter of which has given us a number of young conservative luminaries like Ross Douthat, Reihan Salaam, Peter Suderman and others. He's also written for The Atlantic, worked as a substitute blogger for Andrew Sullivan and was one of the key figures in the late and much-lamented Culture 11.

Topics discussed in this podcast:

• Are full-body scanners that can peer under your clothes a good idea to tighten airline security?
• Where do you draw the line between privacy and security?
• Can the United States ever be completely impervious to terror attacks?
• Should Americans be taking self-defense classes so they're ready to encounter terrorists?
• Why is Friedersdorf picking fights with Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Glenn Reynolds and other high-profile conservatives?
• Is Friedersdorf a conservative?
• Is editorial writing at a high-profile newspaper still a good career choice?
• What should we make of this populist moment in American politics?
• Who do you actually meet at Georgetown cocktail parties?
• What lessons can we learn from the demise of a smart and unpredictable journal like Culture 11?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "You've Gotta Be Insane To Fly In Small Private Planes," Mojo Nixon.
• "I'll Fight" Wilco.
• "How Am I Different?" Bettye LaVette.
• "Let Down," Lullabye Radiohead.
• "Living For The City," The Dirtbombs.

Ben and Joel are joined by Lisa Schmeiser, who writes the "Filthy Commerce" blog and is the "Dollars and Sense" blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle -- and contributes to a whole host of other print and online publications too numerous to list here.

Questions discussed in this podcast:

• Are Americans going to be frugal during this recession-stained holiday season?
• Are new credit card regulations a good idea?
• How about simply walking away from your debts?
• Can you save money by going to a cash-only budgeting system?
• What does the rise of Etsy mean for craft producers and buyers?
• Is the "Sons of Anarchy" the best thing about popular culture in 2009?
• Or is it "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"?
• Or maybe the new "Star Trek" movie?
• Or is the new "Star Trek" movie stuck in outmoded sexist thinking from the 1960s?
• And is this the nerdiest Ben and Joel Podcast ever?
• Yes.

Music heard in this podcast:

• "White Winter Hymnal," Fleet Foxes.
• "Where the Hell's My Money," Mojo Nixon.
• "Cash on the Barrelhead," Gram Parsons.
• "Making Up for Lost Time," TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb.
• "Enterprising Young Men," Michael Giacchino.

Perilous TimesIt's the holidays. Hanukkah is just about over and Christmas is just a few more shopping days away. So what do we decide to talk about? Sedition and liberty during wartime, that's what.

Joel and I had the great pleasure of interviewing University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone about civil liberties and dissent for the latest podcast. Stone takes us on a brief history of seditious libel law and wartime dissent. He compares and contrasts earlier efforts by the government to bend the Constitution in service of war fighting with recent policies by the Bush and Obama administrations. Stone is author of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism, War and Liberty: An American Dilemma, and Top Secret: When Our Government Keeps Us in the Dark.

Among the questions we discuss:

• Is it fair to say Fox News is guilty of sedition?
• Is there a difference between seditious speech and seditious action?
• How does Barack Obama's record on civil liberties compare to George W. Bush's?
• Should John Yoo go to jail?
• Should Yoo be fired from Berkeley?
• What does the War on Terrorism have in common with McCarthyism?
• Which is better: Jailing dissenters or wiretapping phones?
• Is the right to privacy doomed?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Tradition" - Fiddler on the Roof OST
• "For Beginners" - M. Ward
• "Gut Feeling" - Devo
• "I'm Free" - The Rolling Stones
• "Every Breath You Take" - The Bad Plus
• "Freedom of Speech (Watch What You Say)" - Ice T

Ben and Joel are joined this episode by Dan Weintraub, a newly independent journalist and columnist for the Bay Area edition of the New York Times. Weintraub, who's covered California politics for more than 20 years, is author of Party of One: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of the Independent Voter (Polipoint Press). And until about a month ago, Dan was a senior editor and columnist for the Sacramento Bee -- where he and Ben briefly (very briefly) crossed paths. He's currently working on a nonprofit health care policy news site, which is scheduled to launch in February 2010.

Among the questions we discuss:

• Is nonprofit journalism the future, or a future, of journalism?
• What can a nonprofit news site do that a traditional media organization cannot?
• What is the New York Times doing in the Bay Area?
• Is Arnold Schwarzenegger a failed governor?
• What's the deal with Jerry Brown?
• Is California governable?
• Does California need to be governed so much?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Land of Soul" - Shawn Lee
• "We're Not Gonna Take It" - Twisted Sister
• "California Dreamin'" - The Bald Eagles
• "California Uber Alles" - Iquattrocentocolpi
• "California Here I Come" - Al Jolson
• "Chancer" - The Von Bondies

Ben and Joel are joined in this episode by National Review columnist and contributing editor John Derbyshire, author most recently of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism (Crown Forum). Derbyshire is nothing if not candid and doesn't skirt controversy in this wide-ranging interview about his book.

Among the questions we discuss:

• Are we doomed?
• Can politics save us?
• Should women have the right to vote?
• Is the culture irredeemable?
• Should people conceal their biases?
• What's this business about Ice People and Sun People?
• Can religion save us?
• Should conservatives be anti-war?
• But seriously... are we absolutely, positively doomed?

Music heard in this podcast:

• "Bad Times Are Just Around the Corner" - Noël Coward
• "I'm Against It" - Groucho Marx
• "Nineteen fifty-three: Ha ha ha ha... (paper chase)" from the opera "Powder Her Face" - Almeida Ensemble/Thomas Ades
• "Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999" (J.S. Bach) - Andres Segovia
• "Symphony No. 6 in A minor: First movement" (Mahler) - San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas
• "Beautiful World" - Devo