wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

James Fallows discusses China’s plan to expand its airlines, build more airports, and jump-start its aerospace industry. In China Airborne, he shows the extraordinary scale of this project and explains why it is a crucial test case for China’s hopes for modernization and innovation in other industries.

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and author of China Airborne, discusses the Bo Xilai corruption and spying story in China, and the case of the dissident who has reportedly sought asylum in the U.S. embassy.

President Obama addressed journalists at an Associated Press luncheon and warned them against practicing “false equivalency” – pretending that both sides in a disagreement are equally at fault, even when they’re not. The Atlantic’s James Fallows talks to Bob about the President’s attempt at media criticism.

Chinese vice president Xi Jinping, the man expected to become China's top leader in the fall, is in Washington this week as part of a five-day trip to the U.S. The visit is expected to set the tone for bilateral relations over the next decade, particularly where economic ties are concerned. On Wednesday, he'll head to the city of Muscantine, Iowa, to reunite with a family he visited there in 1985 and to sign a trade agreement with soybean farmers there.

National correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, James Fallows discusses the significance of the UCDavis pepper spray incident in a moral context, and what lessons the incident has for other protests.

James Fallows of The Atlantic magazine is currently in Beijing, but he has lived and worked in Japan. He also witnessed the powerful earthquake that hit China in 2008. China, still scarred by the 2008 Sichuan quake, has expressed admiration for the way that Japan has responded to Friday's earthquake. Although the relationship between China and Japan strained, many Chinese have expressed compassion for the country.

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, looks at the uses and possible consequences of inflammatory political demagoguery.  Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY 17) joins the discussion.

→Read More and Join the Conversation at It's A Free Country

James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, on the planned "opt-out" day to decline to be screened by the new full body scans at airports.

Are you comfortable with body scans at airports? How do you balance security and privacy when travelling? Let us know!

James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, and Ryan Avent, online economics editor for The Economist, look at how then U.S. midterms are playing around the world and at how the election could affect a number of global policy concerns: from the debate over China’s valuation of its currency, to EU austerity measures, to the prospects for an arms reduction treaty with Russia.

The announcement that President Barack Obama would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year came as a surprise to many – including the president, apparently – and inspired criticism that his record thus far hasn't justified such an award. How can President Obama show from this point forward that he deserves the Peace Prize?  To help answer that is David Sanger, The New York Times chief Washington correspondent; and James Fallows, former presidential speechwriter and a contributor for the Atlantic.