Michael Blanding

Antiquarian map dealer E. Forbes Smiley spent years stealing valuable maps—until he was finally caught.

While Russia annexed Crimea with scarcely a shot fired, the crisis has grown heated between cartographers. An editing war broke out on Wikipedia's map of Russia, and National Geographic sparked outrage by suggesting it would map Crimea as Russian territory once the Kremlin made it official. Bob talks with Michael Blanding, author of the forthcoming book The Map Thief, about how map-making by nature is a risky geopolitical game.

Coca-Cola has billed itself as the world's most popular beverage. Journalist Michael Blanding looks into the Coca Cola Company’s global impact. In Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World’s Favorite Soft Drink, he looks at how Coca Cola became one of the most profitable companies on the planet, and made "Coca-Cola" the world's second- most recognized word after "hello."