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Monday on All Things Considered, co-host Michel Martin speaks with former Defense Secretary Mark Esper about his book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times.

A survey by a group called The Catalogue for Philanthropy finds the poorest American states score the highest on their "generosity index" for 2004 -- an annual scorecard ranking states by how much their residents give to charities in proportion to how much they have. Hear NPR's Jennifer Ludden and George McCully, a trustee of the Ellis L. Phillips Foundation and project coordinator for The Catalogue for Philanthropy.

Nanotechnology is the science of designing materials, atom by atom. It promises revolutionary applications for everything from the military to sports. NPR's David Kestenbaum investigates whether nanotech products already on the market are all they're cracked up to be.

NPR's Sheilah Kast reviews the past week's developments in response to last Sunday's tsunami and plans by the Bush Administration and the world community to provide humanitarian relief. For a perspective on the week's events, Kast spoke with: former USAID administrator J. Brian Atwood; Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Walter Russell Mead; Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon; and J. Edward Fox, assistant administrator of USAID.

President Bush has tapped Laura Bush to lead an effort to help boys do better in school and stay away from street gangs and crime -- a response to grim statistics on the difficulties boys face. NPR's Michele Norris speaks with the first lady about the initiative.

The University of Colorado is under pressure to fire a professor over remarks he made in an essay on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Ward Churchill's essay described the attacks as retribution for the United States' foreign policy.

The weekly HBO program Real Time with Bill Maher begins its new season Feb. 18. Previously, Bill Maher created and hosted the late night political round-table show Politically Incorrect.

German heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling was publicly associated with the Third Reich but was not a Nazi and refused an award from Adolph Hitler. Commentator Frank Deford talks about the man and the conflicts that beset him. Schmeling, known for his classic fights against Joe Louis, died last week at the age of 99.

NASA announces it will probably cancel plans to send a robot to fix the Hubble Space Telescope. The president's proposed budget for the agency did not contain funding for the mission. An alternative proposal would send humans to repair the aging Hubble.

Musician and writer Miles Hoffman says the great composer, born 234 years ago this week in Bonn, Germany, is still revered for his forceful music — and admired for writing a share of it after losing his hearing.