On a very special episode of Foreign Entanglements, Laura and Steve discuss their legendary final confrontation in Twitter Fight Club 2013. They next talk about the academic job market: liberal arts colleges vs. large research universities, the role of luck and timing, and advice for graduate students. They close with a discussion of secession and irredentism in Africa.

On a special in-person edition of The Glenn Show, Glenn and Bruce enjoy some libations while discussing crime and punishment. How did America become such an outlier on imprisonment? Is race the answer? Bruce argues that poverty, not profiling, is key. They examine what exactly race is, with reference to poor whites in Boston, the Roma, and Pulp Fiction. Bruce argues that in the case of most urban crime, what’s violent isn’t the person, it’s the situation—and that the “tough on crime” movement just doesn’t get it. They close by casting a critical eye on the criminology work of Mark Kleiman and the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policing.

On The Posner Show, Sarah talks to Kathryn Joyce, author of a new book on evangelical adoption, The Child Catchers. Kathryn describes how adoption has developed as an expansion of anti-abortion politics. Who is responsible for making adoption go viral among evangelicals in the past decade? Is there really an “orphan crisis?” Kathryn recounts an episode of adoption fraud from Ethiopia, and explains the trouble with adoptions from Liberia. Finally, has the evangelical community reassessed some of the systemic problems with international adoptions?

On The DMZ, Bill and Matt react to the bombings at the Boston Marathon. They discuss how the attack brought out the best and worst of Twitter, and consider the unseemliness of certain punditry in the face of senseless violence. Bill argues that the obsession with whether Obama labeled the attack “terrorism” is absurd. Turning to the Gosnell murder trial, are charges from conservatives that the media ignored the story valid? Matt says the Gosnell story screams “newsworthy,” and senses a subtle media bias at work.

On Fireside Chats, Mike speaks with Monica about her reporting on poverty. Monica talks about intergenerational poverty in Kentucky, as well as working-class families living in motels in Denver. How can there be both a glut of foreclosed homes and a lack of rental apartments? They discuss how these families see themselves in the Great Recession, and why it’s expensive to be poor. Monica describes her experience on the ground reporting these stories, and explains the “last-mile problem” of designing effective welfare programs.

On The Glenn Show, Glenn and Harold, inspired by a recent NPR series, discuss the startling rise in the number of Americans on disability insurance. They ponder the best way to define disability, and use the parable of the “dog bone economy” to examine the position of marginal workers. How should Medicare deal with the divergence in longevity between rich and poor? Glenn offers a libertarian rebuttal to Harold’s arguments about the moral claims of less productive members of society. Finally, they examine the retirement savings mess and explain why you probably shouldn’t listen to your investment adviser.