The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Video)

Some see America as a very litigious society. It's favorite past-time, baseball, is a rule-laden sport. According to Albany Law School professor Paul Finkelman, this not a coincidence. He sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss the connection between baseball and the law.

Globally, cyber crime causes $114 billion in losses annually and it's growing. According to Ron Deibert, Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, the tools of cyber crime are increasingly being used on the battlefield, blurring the line between crime and war. He sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss his book, "Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace."

We are spending more of our lives in cyberspace, yet its inner-workings are largely hidden from us. Author Ron Deibert says we should fix that. He sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss what others (including our government) may know about us, and how we can balance the need for an open internet with increasing security concerns.

Information has exploded around us and it is all accessible with the click of a mouse. What does this mean for our former citadel of knowledge: the library? Harvard University head librarian Robert Darnton sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss the continued importance of the library in the age of Google Book Search, and the creation of the Digital Public Library of America.

In the United States, after cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy at 19 percent. Since the Nixon administration, federal food policies have succeeded in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda, until now. Author Michael Pollan sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss the rising food movement and why failing to reform the food system will hinder progress on the looming health care crisis, energy independence and climate change.

There are entire TV stations devoted to food and cooking, yet the average American spends only about 27 minutes actually cooking - about the length of a cooking show. Why? Michael Pollan, author of "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation," sees cooking as an act that holds an important place in the heart and history of humanity. He sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss how taking back the kitchen may be the single most important step to make our food system healthier and more sustainable.

By the turn of the century, one out of two Americans were overweight and a quarter of the population was classified as obese. In the battle for "stomach share," the processed food industry had already won the war. The only real battle left is waged daily in our grocery aisles: Prego or Ragu? Coke or Pepsi? The New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss sits down with Steve Paikin to talk about what exactly the terms "all natural" and "real fruit" mean, and the close relationship between the food lobby and the United States government.

Salt, sugar, and fat: a powerful trio deployed with sophisticated precision by the processed food industry. The result? The average American eats 33 pounds of cheese and 70 pounds of sugar annually, and 8,500 milligrams of salt each day. In industry terms, "mouthfeel" has been perfected and our sugary "bliss points" have been hit. The New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss sits down with Steve Paikin to talk about his book, "Salt, Sugar, and Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us".

As print and broadcast gives way to the digital age, the journalism industry is in upheaval. With an unprecedented amount of information at our fingertips, how can we know what is reliable and credible? Dan Gillmor, author of "Mediactive," sees this transition as a positive development as long as we make media serve us by becoming active consumers and participants. He sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss this future of journalism.

The Onion writer and stand-up comedian Baratunde Thurston has "over thirty years of experience being black." Through a series of satirical essays with such titles as "How Black Are You," "How to Speak for all Black People" and "Can You Swim," Thurston probes at the singular notion of "blackness" and readjusts the focus to simply "how to be." He joins Steve Paikin to detail once and for all, "how to be black."

Alison Wearing had a largely carefree childhood growing up in Peterborough, Ontario until, at the age of 12, her father came out as a gay man. In 1970's Peterborough, homosexuality was still a cardinal taboo and the idea of being both a father and gay man was almost unheard of at the time. Alison Wearing sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss her book, "Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter: Growing Up with a Gay Dad," and how she eventually came out as the daughter of a gay father.

Recent polling shows a majority of Americans now support gay marriage. As views on gay marriage change, how will this affect what it means to be gay in the 21st century? Author Andrew Solomon sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss the notion of gay identity and how much it could change in the future.

A recent poll finds a majority of Americans, 53%, support legal same-sex marriage, up from 40% in 2007. Views on gay marriage are clearly changing, the "why" and "if" are slowly being replaced by "why not" and "when." Behind this shift, how are views of what it means to be gay changing? Are we moving from condemnation to tolerance and finally to acceptance? Author Andrew Solomon sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss this shift and the possibility of gay marriage.

The internet breaks down barriers between organizations and the people they affect. With government, this offers the opportunity for a more direct mode of citizen engagement and transparency. Clay Johnson, former innovation fellow in the Obama administration, sits down with Steve Paikin to discuss applying open source principles to government and the need for a healthier "information diet" to create better informed citizens.

Born 18 days apart with blue eyes and a final height of 5' 6"', Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King embarked on a 50-year relationship that defined an era. Although they had their disagreements, they worked together during the most important war in the history of the world. Terry Reardon, author of "Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King: So Similar, So Different", sits down with Steve Paikin to talk about the war-time actions and relationship of Churchill and King.