Terry Gross

Washington Post reporter Michael Grunwald. His new book is The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. The Everglades were once considered a wasteland, worthy of being decimated.

Discussions of global warming and climate change often center around anecdote and cyclical analysis. Scientist Tim Flannery seeks to clarify current — and future — conditions in The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth.

Nixon adviser Kevin Phillips' book The Emerging Republican Majority was hailed as a visionary work of political analysis. But in American Theocracy, he argues that the Republican Party — and the country — is headed for disaster.