Terry Gross

For 25 years, author and journalist Ahmed Rashid has covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

He files for English language papers including the International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Telegraph. Based in Lahore, Rashid is the author of the bestselling books, Taliban and Jihad.

Journalist David Barboza covers business and culture in China as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He joins Terry Gross for a discussion of the recent string of recalls and product-safety scandals coming out of that country.

With the moderating, centrist voice of Sandra Day O'Connor now gone from the Supreme Court, a conservative counterrevolution that had been stymied for 20 years has now begun.

So says Jeffrey Toobin in his new book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. His book is about how this counterrevolution developed. It's also a behind-the-scenes look at the court, its recent decisions and the personalities of the justices behind them.