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Hollywood's biggest night --- the 81st Annual Academy Awards — is just around the corner. This year's nominees represent a broad range portrayals, from growing up in India's poorest areas and a man who ages backwards, to a mother who is facing an unthinkable family tragedy. Author and film historian Esther Iverem takes listeners inside the race for the Oscars, and looks at nominees of color.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama head into the Indiana and North Carolina primaries next month. Amy Walter, editor-in-chief of The Hotline daily political brief, talks with John Ydstie about which voters might give a boost to either Democratic presidential candidate.

Robert Siegel talks with one of the greatest right-handed pitchers ever to play in the big leagues, Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. Playing for the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s, Marichal was known for a huge windup kick -- and unhittable pitches. He is receiving a Hispanic Heritage Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.

In Iowa's large cities and small, Republican presidential hopefuls press the flesh, give speeches and host town meetings. Their accelerated campaigning comes less than eight weeks before the first official voting of the 2008 presidential contest happens in Iowa.

Five Republican presidential candidates square off for their final debate before New Hampshire voters go to the polls Jan. 8. At the Fox News forum, they spar on taxes, spending and the buzzword of this year's campaign: change.

Fighting in Darfur, in western Sudan, is on the rise. But there is now a new twist: One of the rebel groups that had been fighting the government and its janjaweed militias, has now joined forces with the government.

NPR's Sheliah Kast talks with Doyle McManus, Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times, about last week's presidential debate. They also look forward to the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday, and the second presidential debate on Friday.

2: Journalist STAN SESSER, who details the successful marketing of American cigarettes in Asian countries in a New Yorker article, (September 6, 1993). SESSER claims the continent of Asia consumes half the world's cigarettes. Of particular interest to American tobacco firms is China -- despite explict laws prohibiting the sale or advertising of foreign cigarettes -- because three hundred million people smoke (more people than the entire population of the United States). An official of the World Health Organization says deaths by cigarettes in China will soon wipe out gains made in preventing deaths from malnutrition and communicable diseases.

Before Katrina menaced the Gulf Coast, the president was suffering the worst job approval ratings of his presidency. Criticism stemming from the war in Iraq, rising gasoline prices and the government's slow response to hurricane relief are contributing to the low approval ratings.

Massive, scientifically accurate "dinosaurs" have begun stomping around U.S. sports arenas, thanks to the wizardry of 21st century puppetry techniques and robotics. The $20 million theatrical spectacle Walking With Dinosaurs, based on a BBC television series, travels to New York from Washington this weekend.