Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Forty years after Watergate, President Obama cites executive privilege. Rubio's out that he's in again, and after baseball phenom Bryce Harper leads off, Harry Reid hits second. It's Wednesday and time for a...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: That's a clown question, bro...

CONAN: Edition of the Political Junkie.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.

VICE PRESIDENT WALTER MONDALE: When I hear your new ideas, I'm reminded of that ad: Where's the beef?

The latest round of high-level negotiations over Iran's nuclear ambitions ended Tuesday without an agreement. After the failure of talks that President Obama called Iran's "last chance," some wonder whether or not Israel or the United States may now opt for military force.

The results are in and it turns out most of you who voted in our mid-year poll really love Jack White's explosive and eclectic Blunderbuss. But the race was close: White's album beat-out the Alabama Shakes record Boys & Girls by less than 25 votes. Beach House's Bloom, one of the most popular records ever in our First Listen series, came in at third. The Shins' Port Of Morrow and Of Monsters And Men's My Head Is An Animal round out the top five.

A new survey of 38 former clerks of current Supreme Court justices and 18 attorneys who have argued cases before the high court found that most of them think the court will rule that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. The mandate is the centerpiece of the Obama administration's signature health care law and it is unknown whether the law can survive without that piece.

For Langdon Cook, a walk in the woods isn't that different from a walk through the produce section of the supermarket. He's a writer, blogger and all-around outdoorsy type, but in outdoorsy Seattle, he's made his name primarily as a forager.

When a woman drinks heavily during pregnancy, it can cause profound damage to her unborn child.

Nobody knows how much alcohol, if any, is safe, so the U.S. surgeon general and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise women to abstain from drinking throughout pregnancy to avoid physical and mental birth defects.

But here and elsewhere, even conscientious pregnant women have been known to have an occasional beer or glass of wine while carrying a child. How risky is that?

Contributions by acoustic and electric bass to Celtic music are subtle, imaginative and, with players like Alain Genty, firmly in the foreground.

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