For Scientists, HIV Vaccine Is Proof That Infection Rate Can Be Reduced

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An experimental vaccine has successfully prevented infection with the AIDS virus. The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31%. Our guest is Dr Timothy Johnson is medical editor for ABC News and a contributor to Here and Now.

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Medicaid and Healthcare Reform

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As Congress debates healthcare reform, the Medicaid program, which provides healthcare coverage for the poor and the disabled, may end up playing a large role in covering the nation’s 46 million uninsured people. Karen Tumulty is senior political correspondent for Time; she explains how the program works now and how it might change under some of the Congressional proposals. We also speak with Michael Doonan of Brandeis University.

Camp Bucca

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A member of the US military stands by a gate at Camp Bucca, in Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP)

The US has detained more than 100,000 people since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Right now, there are still several thousand people in two large detention centers. A third, called Camp Bucca, has just been closed. The BBC’s Hugh Sykes visited Bucca on its last day.

Soldier’s Apparent Suicide Leaves Father Looking for Answers

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Army Private Keiffer Wilhelm was an upbeat, Ohio native who worked hard to get in shape for his deployment to Iraq this summer. He apparently committed suicide after being Iraq just over a week; and he reportedly called his mother to complain that he was being bullied. The Army launched an investigation that has led to charges of cruelty and maltreatment against four of Keiffer’s superiors. We speak with Pvt. Wilhelm’s father, Shane Wilhelm, who is trying to figure out what happened to his son.

• To donate money to the Keiffer Wilhelm Memorial Fund “Fight For Keiffer,” Contact First Merit Bank branch manager Cari McLendon, at (419) 935-0191 or any First Merit Bank

Webster’s Illustrations

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Where can you find a detailed diagram of the ear, an illustration of a beetle, and a picture of how to hit a tennis backhand? Your dictionary. And now artist and book binder John  Carrera has categorized and re-printed thousands of the illustrations used in the 19th century Merriam-Webster dictionaries and compiled them in a new book called “Pictorial Webster’s, A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities.”

• See photos of the wood blocks Carrera used in his book
• Enter to win a hand-bound, leather version of “Pictorial Webster’s”

Listener Letters

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Music from the show

• Kar-Kar Madison, “Boubacar Traore”
• Fred Hirsch, “Desafinado”
• Nathan Milstein, “Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin”
• The Lickets, “Meat City”
• Charles Mingus, “Pedal Point Blues”
• Radiohead, “How to Disappear Completely”
• Nybatteri, “Sigur Ros”
• Frank Sinatra, “Chicago”