National Public Radio's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon is a morning mainstay in many homes around the U.S., including Seattle. Today, program host Scott Simon returns, sharing a bit of his own life with readers, as he tells the story of him and his wife adopting two girls from China. Baby We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption (Random House) is a joyful, exuberant account, both of his family's experiences and those of authors. The author doesn't shy away from some of the challenges, terrible circumstances, and sadness that are also sometimes part of adoption. "Simon's unvarnished portrait is an ode to adoption and the joy it can bring to both parent and child. It's clear that each family Simon highlights, including his own, is bound by a strong sense of generosity, empathy, and love." - The Washington Post.

Co-presented with the TOWN HALL CENTER FOR CIVIC LIFE. Markos Moulitsas, liberal pundit and founder/publisher of Daily Kos, argues that on tactics and issues there is little distinction between the Taliban and the American Radical Right: "Both embrace militaristic zeal, elevation of brute masculinity, disdain for women's rights, outright hatred of gays, aversion to science and modernity, and staunch anti-intellectualism. Both movements are dedicated to the unbridled pursuit of power at all costs, have little patience for the trappings of democracy ..." His new book, American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right (Polipoint Press), delivers a wry, searing broadside to the conservative movement. $5 tickets are available at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. or in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com (1-800-838-3006). Town Hall Seattle is at 1119 Eighth Avenue (entry downstairs on Seneca). Preferred seating for Town Hall members. For more information on this evening, please call Elliott Bay at (206) 624-6600, Town Hall Seattle at (206) 652-4255, or see www.townhallseattle.org.