Arts & Culture

Need To Know

Published April 29, 2010 at 1:40 PM PDT

Peabody Award-winning broadcast journalist Alison Stewart (left) and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham co-anchor this weekly primetime news and public affairs series.

Airs Fridays at 8:30 p.m. on KPBS TV - CANCELLED (last broadcast June 21, 2013)

This program is no longer airing Friday nights on KPBS - the last broadcast was June 21, 2013.

Slideshow: Steinbeck’s Salinas

John Steinbeck’s hometown came to worldwide notice through "The Grapes of Wrath." Not all city fathers were pleased by the portrait. Explore what has changed and what remains the same in Salinas.

This weekly current affairs series covers the issues being considered by candidates and voters — from immigration to education to health care, environment, jobs and economy — from Main Street’s point of view.

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The program also profiles up-and-coming political leaders and will report regularly from the road, hosting the program from key states whose issues are important to the national election. Essays, many from Jon Meacham and from a diverse group of other journalists and big thinkers, are a weekly feature.

A rotation of respected and experienced media professionals will both anchor the program and report from the field.

They include: Scott Simon, longtime host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition;” Maria Hinojosa, host and managing editor of NPR’s “Latino USA” and former senior correspondent of NOW ON PBS; Ray Suarez, co-anchor of the PBS NEWSHOUR; and Jeff Greenfield, a seasoned political, media and culture reporter and commentator who has worked for CNN, CBS, NBC, and was host of PBS’ CEO EXCHANGE.

Topics for May 24, 2013:

As the debate over immigration reform continues in Washington D.C., NEED TO KNOW offers an inside look at the lives of Latino farm workers. With the continuation of our “Main Street” series, correspondent John Larson reports from Salinas, California — home to John Steinbeck and some of the richest farmlands in the world. This episode was originally broadcast on March 1, 2013.

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This episode will be available for online viewing after the broadcast.

NEED TO KNOW is on Facebook, and you can follow @PBSNeedToKnow on Twitter.

Full Show: Need To Know: Down in the Salinas Valley

Preview: Need To Know: Border Patrol, Part 3 - May 17, 2013

Certifiably Employable

"NEED TO KNOW correspondent Rick Karr travels to the state of Washington to report on The National STEM Consortium – a program designed to target this type of structural unemployment by improving the scientific

Preview: Need To Know: American Gun Debate

Watch Behavioral economics at work on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

This week, NEED TO KNOW examines how behavioral economics is being used to encourage low-income workers to save for the future. Correspondent William Brangham reports from Vermont how workers who have repaid emergency loans through automatic paycheck deductions continue to take the lower amount in their paychecks and save the difference after the loan is paid off. Then, correspondent Brian Epstein reports about a plan put forth by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which offers incentives to low-wage earners who save their tax refunds. Finally, Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University speaks on how we think about money.

Watch Economic inequality and mobility on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

On this week’s NEED TO KNOW, Jeff Greenfield leads a round table discussion on economic inequality, mobility, debt, and the state of the American economy four years after the official end of the recession. We’ve invited three highly-respected economic thinkers from different perspectives, to see if there is some common economic ground, and whether that common ground tells us anything about how we can improve our economic health.