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What does Invasion of the Body Snatchers have to do with the Cold War? Why do so many people know about Ayn Rand? These are just a few of the questions that Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman takes on in his new book, An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War. Hoberman sat down with Laura for a look at some of those 1950s movies--and some more recent ones--and to discuss the hidden ideology behind monster movies and the not-so-hidden ideology of Ayn Rand movies. They came to work, they didn't come to die. But 100 years ago this week, that's exactly what happened to 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women trapped in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Filmmaker and GRITtv contributor Harry Hanbury checked in on the status of workers safety today and found "Triangle's Echoes: An Unfinished Struggle for Worker Protection, Safety & Health." And Danny Schechter, News Dissector, has some thoughts on the continuing economic crisis, and why we won't see a real solution from centrist politicians. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Just what was it about Ayn Rand that attracted so many followers, and what is it about her books that keeps them flying off the shelves? We ask Corey Robin, Brooklyn College professor and author of a new piece on Rand at The Nation, and Eesha Pandit, feminist philosopher and Director of Advocacy at MergerWatch, to tell us what everyone sees in Ayn Rand. McKinley Nolan was a black GI who went missing in Vietnam forty years ago. The circumstances of his disappearance were never really figured out, but in 2006 someone thought they saw him on a busy street, still alive in Vietnam. The sighting touches off a search that leads Nolan's family from Texas to Vietnam and Cambodia, and this documentary follows their search for answers along with their lost family member, and while they're at it trying to understand deeper questions about life, loss, and war. Not long ago on GRITtv, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, recalled an example of Republican leadership very different from what we mostly see today. In the era of Glenn Beck and Karl Rove, would we ever see someone like Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Maine, who spoke out against Joseph McCarthy's Communist-hunts? ; We bring you part of that conversation with Katrina, and actress Lola Pasholinsky reads a portion of Smith's Call to Conscience, from June 1, 1950 on the Senate floor.