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What do birds sing, why and what does it mean? We'll explore those questions with author and scientist Donald Kroodsma. His new book "The Singing Life of Birds" explains how birds acquire their songs, what makes them unique, and how they evolve. We will also take a listen to actual recordings of some familiar and not so familiar bird songs throughout the show.

The role of judges came into the spotlight recently as the high profile Terry Schiavo story unfolded and with the comments of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on activist judges. We'll look at what it means to be a judge, the politics, pressures and preconceptions that range from the court of law to the court of public opinion. Laura's guests are Jeffrey Smith, Visiting Instructor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College who teaches classes on American politics, Joseph Nadeau, Senior Associate Justice with New Hampshire's Supreme Court who has travelled extensively speaking on the role of judges, and Buzz Scherr, Professor of Law and Director of the Trial Advocacy Program and the Intellectual Property Litigation Program at the Franklin Pierce Law Center.

With its powerful river and thousands of eager immigrants, New Hampshire's Queen City of Manchester was once the king of the world?s textile manufacturing industry. At one time 17 thousand men, women and children worked in Manchester's mills. We?ll learn about the rise, the heyday and subsequent fall of the Queen City's textile industry. Kevin Gardner guest hosts. His guests are George Comtois, an independent scholar specializing in New Hampshire's textile and industrial history and former director of the Manchester Historic Association and Robert Perreault, Historian, speaker and writer on Manchester's Franco American history.

With a new Pope, New England Catholics take a new look at their Church's future. Congregations are growing, but the number of Priests continues to decline, and there's a lingering distrust over the child sex abuse crisis. We're looking at the struggles and strengths of the Catholic Church in our region. Laura is joined by Sister Maureen Sullivan, Associate Professor of Theology at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, and Thomas Groome, Director of the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College and Professor of Theology and Religious Education. Other guests are TBA.

1905 was Albert Einstein's so called "miracle year" when he released four papers that changed our understanding of the universe. On the anniversary of his death this week, we'll look at Einstein the man, his theories, and how his work still surrounds us today. Laura's guests are Marcelo Gleiser, Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College who has contributed an essay to an upcoming book on Einstein called "My Einstein First" and is the author of "The Dancing Universe" and Stanley Deser, Ancell Professor of Physics at Brandeis University.