Conservatives in Congress are using the budget standoff as a pretext for pushing legislation that would restrict abortion rights and family planning funds. Reproductive justice groups point out that this attack on reproductive health programs hurts not just women, but poor communities of color who rely on service providers like Planned Parenthood for basic medical care. To explore the politics surrounding the assault on women's health and how it may impact the Asian American community,we talk with the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

Recently, renowned activist and former Afghan member of Parliament Malalai Joya came to New York to raise awareness about the human rights crisis in Afghanistan, which she documents in her book A Woman Among Warlords. Tonight she discusses the consequences of the US occupation, the challenges she's faced as a woman and a rights activist, and her thoughts on the revolutions in the Arab world.

In acclaimed writer Jessica Hagedorn’s new book, a young Hollywood actor turns up dead in New York's East Village, a horror-film director struggles to balance a wayward daughter with the disappearance of her drug-dealer boyfriend, and an aging literary star mourns the death of her lover by indulging an addiction to cocaine and alcohol. Hagedorn, a Guggenheim-award winner and National Book Award nominee whose previous works include Dogeaters and Gangster of Love, will join us in the studio to discuss her latest novel, Toxicology(Viking, 2011). We’ll also speak with Luis Francia, author of Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago, and A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos, who will read from his new chapbook of poems, entitled The Beauty of Ghosts.