Talk Of The Nation on HD2

Agile quarterbacks like Michael Vick, Tim Tebow and Robert Griffin III are gaining ground on traditional players who sit in the pocket, timing the perfect pass. NPR correspondent Mike Pesca and Super Bowl-winning QB Joe Theismann talk about how quarterbacks and the game of football have changed.

A pair of new studies find that taking aspirin daily may significantly reduce the risk of many cancers and prevent tumors from spreading. Many experts view the findings as promising, but public health officials warn that the risks may still outweigh the benefits.

Sgt. Robert Bales is expected to be charged with murdering 16 civilians in Afghanistan. It raises questions about how the military screens troops. Former Surgeon General of the Army, Ret. Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, and Ret. Brig. Gen. Steve Xenakis talk about how the military tests mental fitness.

Bo Xilai, a Communist Party chief from Chongqing, was replaced by deputy prime minister Zhang Dejiang. A report released online details why he was pushed out. The scandal could the transition of power this fall when the executive committee of the Chinese Communist Party names seven new members.

After more than a week of grueling days on a dog sled, Dallas Seavey won 2012's Iditarod, beating his father and grandfather in the process. The race took off from Willow, Alaska, on March 4, Seavey's 25th birthday. Nine days, 4 hours and 29 minutes later, he crossed the finish line in Nome as the youngest musher ever to win the race.

Seavey talks with NPR's Neal Conan about the extreme conditions of the Iditarod, from freezing dogs to sleepless nights, and what it means to be in a legacy racing family.

When actor Wendell Pierce returned to his native New Orleans to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, he noticed a lack of grocery stores selling fresh food. Now, Pierce is opening Sterling Farms — a chain of stores in the Ninth Ward that will sell food at affordable prices for low-income shoppers.

NPR's Neal Conan reads from listener comments on previous show topics including the controversy over homeless hotspots, why some songs get stuck in our heads, and sober advice for former Illinois Governor Blagojevich as he begins a long sentence in federal prison.

In recent months, a swarm of controversies have erupted over issues of women's health — from the split in the Catholic church over employer coverage of contraceptives to the proposed ultrasound laws in Virginia and Texas to the uproar over funding for Planned Parenthood.

Three weeks after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, no arrests have been made in what critics are calling a case of racial profiling. Columnist Leonard Pitts says the incident exposes society's "blindness" to African-Americans.

Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi could face 10 years in prison and deportation to his native India after being convicted of bias intimidation. Ravi used a webcam to spy on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, having an intimate encounter with another man. Clementi killed himself several days later.