Leftists are worrying about Obama’s national security team—is this the change we need?  JOHN NICHOLS will have our Washington-in-Transition update.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Peter Matthiessen won the National Book Award last week – he’s best known for The Snow Leopard, an account of his spiritual journey in the Himalayas.  PICO IYER will explain – he wrote an introduction to the new Penguin Classics edition of the book.

Your Minnesota Moment: Al Franken’s margin in the Senate recount may down only 13 votes – we’ll listen to more of our 2003 interview, where Franken talks about Rush Limbaugh.  “You’ve got to be compassionate,” he says.

Also: THE JAZZ EAR: jazz musicians not only play differently from others; they listen differently. BEN RATLIFF of the New York Times listened to music with a dozen jazz greats and talked with them about what they heard – we’ll focus on Dianne Reeves. Ben’s new book is The Jazz Ear.
PLAYLIST: Dianne Reeves, “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (2007); Aretha Franklin, “Mary Don’t You Weep” (1972); Sam Cooke, “Try a Little Tenderness” live medley (1964); Mary Chapin Carpenter, “Closer and Closer Apart” (2006); Shirley Horne, “Here’s to Life” (1991).

Listen to this show HERE.