This weeks Got Docs is Throw Down Your Heart. Bela Fleck, in a documentary by Sascha Paladino, takes the banjo back to Africa to explore the roots of an instrument that, at least in America, is often associated with rural Appalachia. Fleck’s journey takes him to Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali where he finds that the banjo has had a long history.

Rebecca Traister, Michelle Goldberg, and Richard Kim on the media coverage of the past week.

Michelle Goldberg, Rebecca Traister, and Richard Kim on gender and sexuality in the news. Singer/songwriter Judith Owen talks about her new album Mopping up Karma, family, and politics. And this week's got docs: Throw Down Your Heart.

It's a tacky comparison, maybe, but in these times of double digit unemployment and more... it's perhaps worth remembering that sometimes a slammed door can herald an opening elsewhere.

Workers in one of the few growing parts of our economy --- namely import processing -- are organizing for a union. That would change the foundation of their economic house, they say. Greg Denier of Change to Win and Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research bring us up to date and discuss why warehouse workers may be at the center of the 21st century economy.

Chris Bowers of Open Left on the upcoming budget battle. Though Obama's $3 trillion dollar plan passed the House and Senate it is far from a done deal. What will be cut and what will remain? Bowers says that healthcare will be at the heart of upcoming deliberations.

How far does Obama’s budget go? With 1,000 jobs being lost every hour and a tax system that favors the wealthy, our guests discuss what’s in the new budget and the limits to progressive reform in the United States. David Cay Johnston former New York Times reporter and the author of Free Lunch:

Obama's budget, some have said, is a step in the right direction. So what's in it and what's bound to be cut? We talk to David Cay Johnston and others. Then Chris Bowers on healthcare reform and the budget battle. And Part II of the Uptake's documentary on the Minnesota Senate race.

Coming less than a week after a ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court that extended same sex marriage in that state, and with bills to follow suit under consideration in several other states, the arc of history feels as if it's tilting toward equal protection after all.

The Norm Coleman/Al Franken Senate race is still unresolved. If you haven't been following the case, the following documentary from The Uptake lays out the legal arguments and the possible outcomes. Part one of two.