Gay Marriage: Why the Supreme Court Might Disappoint Conventional Thinking

Truthdig Radio airs Thursdays at 4 p.m. Pacific time on 90.7 KPFK in Los Angeles. Check your town’s listings or ask your public radio station to carry Truthdig Radio.

Last week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The stock market plunges, Afghan author Qais Akbar Omar reacts to the news that direct talks between the United States and the Taliban have already broken down, Texas wages a war on high school kids and the Supreme Court threatens the happiness of gays everywhere.

(Trouble listening? Right-click to download the podcast here.)

Guests, in order of appearance:

Robert Scheer, Truthdig editor-in-chief, discusses the stock market and the Fed.

Adam Winkler, professor of constitutional law, UCLA School of Law, discusses the impending SCOTUS decision on DOMA and Prop 8. Winkler is a specialist in American constitutional law. His wide-ranging scholarship has touched upon a diverse array of topics such as the right to bear arms, corporate political speech rights, affirmative action, judicial independence, constitutional interpretation, corporate social responsibility, international economic sanctions, and campaign finance law. His work has been cited and quoted in landmark Supreme Court cases, including opinions dealing with the Second Amendment and with corporate political speech rights. His commentary has been featured on CNN, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, New Republic and numerous other outlets. He is a contributor to The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post.

Qais Akbar Omar, Afghan author, discusses the peace accord talks between the Taliban and the U.S. Omar manages his family’s carpet business in Kabul and writes books. In 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado. He has studied business at Brandeis University and is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Boston University. Omar has lectured on Afghan carpets in Afghanistan, Europe and the United States. He is the coauthor, with Stephen Landrigan, of “Shakespeare in Kabul.”

Joaquin Sapien, a reporter at ProPublica, discusses the stringent truancy laws being challenged in Texas. Since joining ProPublica in May 2008, Sapien has delved into criminal justice, military health care and environmental issues. In 2010 he partnered with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune to produce an award-winning series of stories about contaminated drywall. In 2009 he was part of a team whose work on natural gas drilling won the Society of Professional Journalists award for online non-deadline investigative reporting. From 2005 until 2008 he was a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, where he led a yearlong investigative project, “Superfund’s Toxic Legacy,” which received the 2007 Society of Professional Journalists award for non-deadline online reporting. Before joining CPI, Sapien wrote for Environmental Media Services. Read his ProPublica story on truancy here.