VANITY FAIR: As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. DONALD BARLETT and JAMES STEELE reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed. MORE
RADIO TIMES
Hour 1
It has been one year since the U.S. Congress authorized the U.S. Treasury Department to spend roughly 
$700 billion to stabilize the nation’s economy. In an article in the October issue of Vanity Fair, investigative journalists DONALD BARLETT and JAMES STEELE take readers behind the scenes to see how the deal was negotiated and where the funds went. Then, DAMON SILVERS who sits on the Congressional Oversight Panel which was created by congress to review the TARP program joins with us for an update.
Hour 2
Author and historian TAYLOR BRANCH recorded 79 oral histories with President Bill Clinton during his eight years in office. The conversations are detailed in Branch’s new book, “The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President.” He’s in the studio with Marty in this hour of Radio Times.
FRESH AIR
Max Cleland volunteered to fight in Vietnam, and was rewarded with the Silver Star for his “gallantry in action.” But he did not escape the brutality of the war; he lost both legs and his right arm when a fellow soldier accidentally dropped a grenade. When he returned home, he chose a life of public service and politics, serving 
variously as a Veterans Administration chief, a state legislator and eventually a U.S. senator representing his home state of Georgia. His public-sector career lasted until 2002, when he lost his U.S. Senate seat to Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss. During that heated campaign, Chambliss ran misleading and negative ads, using Cleland’s procedural votes on setting up the Department of Homeland Security to challenge the sitting senator’s national-security credentials and to question his patriotism. Cleland has said that politics and public service had long been the things that gave him purpose — they allowed him to “focus on something outside myself” — and that the end of that career left him “back dying on the battlefield.” After 9/11, the loss of his Senate seat and the invasion of Iraq, Cleland suffered a relapse of a long-dormant case of post-traumatic stress disorder and entered Walter Reed hospital for treatment. His new memoir — titled Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove — is his account of his idyllic Georgia childhood, his life-altering wartime experience and the dark days that followed the end of his Senate career. He joins Terry Gross for a conversation about those experiences.
THE WORLD CAFE
Following his critically acclaimed debut album, The Sun Is Always Brighter, Joshua James has released a new batch of intriguing folk-rock tunes. Though the 25-year-old singer-songwriter has been writing songs for only six years, his music exudes wisdom: The 13 tracks on Build Me This expertly weave together themes of spirituality, love and music. As on his debut album, he often turns to sparse and moody atmospherics to draw out the drama. But there’s more to be said about the albu’ms progression into electrified hard-rock territory. James has clearly expanded his style to include elements of world music and Southern rock. Between the fusion of folk-rock styles and his intimate vocals, James is frequently compared to the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young.