Talk of the Nation

A decade after news of the sex abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese of the Catholic Church broke, reports of abuse continue to emerge. The number of priests in the U.S. is in rapid decline, raising questions about who still chooses the job and how the work has changed after high-profile abuse scandals.

Nearly two years after the crisis in Syria began, the humanitarian situation in the country remains dire. Shinjiro Murata, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in northern Syria and NPR foreign correspondent Deborah Amos, discuss the efforts to address growing medical needs.

NPR's Neal Conan reads from listener comments on previous show topics, including reaction to the movie Django Unchained, Florida's python problem and rereading high school classics.

Recent unrest in Mali and Algeria point to the growing influence of al-Qaida in North Africa. Wall Street Journal Pentagon reporter Julian Barnes and Ret. Col. Thomas Dempsey, chair for security studies at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, explain the latest developments and the threat al-Qaida presents in the region.

In his second inaugural address, the president surprised many listeners by mentioning Stonewall in the same breath as Seneca Falls and Selma — giving the struggle for gay rights the historical weight of the fights for gender and racial equality.

President Barack Obama faces a number of pressing domestic and foreign policy issues as he begins his second term. A sluggish economy at home, regional conflicts and threats of terrorism abroad and a political stalemate in Washington all pose unique challenges for the president.

As President Barack Obama enters his second term, he leads a country that remains deeply divided on issues from fiscal policy to gun control. Despite the divisions, many Americans maintain a sense of hope for themselves, their towns and the country.

Data scientist Edward Tufte (dubbed the "Galileo of graphics" by BusinessWeek) pioneered the field of data visualization. Tufte discusses what he calls "forever knowledge," and his latest projects: sculpting Richard Feynman's diagrams, and helping people "see without words."

Transcript

FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Flora Lichtman, filling in for Ira Flatow today. Solar wind, geothermal - now there's a new renewable energy source to add to that list. It's free, completely reliable and totally unlimited: the force of gravity. Two British designers have invented a lamp that runs on gravity alone. Their GravityLight - yes, that's its name, aptly named - uses, you guessed it, the pull of gravity on a weight to generate up to 30 minutes of light.

In the Broadway play The Other Place actress Laurie Metcalf ("Jackie" on the TV show "Roseanne") plays a scientist suffering from the dementia she studies. Playwright Sharr White discusses the play and the challenge of presenting complicated science on a theater stage.