What Dinosaurs Would Look Like Today

Journalist Elaine Shannon's new book, Desperados, looks at the international impact of the illegal drug trade. She says that major banks and state governments have been complicit in drug trafficking by accepting bribes and laundering money. The U.S. government has faced difficulty curtailing these crimes, in part because of its desire to maintain diplomatic relations with the countries involved.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz just discovered pianist Tomsic Dubravka. He places her in the same category as masters like Glenn Gould and Artur Schnabel.

Guest critic Maureen Corrigan revisits Bel Kaufman's autobiographical novel Up the Down Staircase, about a rookie high school teacher who must contend with limited institutional support. Corrigan herself is a college instructor, and believes many of Kaufman's insights still ring true twenty years later