Today on the show:

  • Thanksgiving is upon us, and with it, five days of consumerism: Black Friday (which begins on Thanksgiving Day), Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday. We opened the lines to ask you: What is your take on Black Friday chaos? Do you head out to Walmart at 2 a.m. for a new Xbox, order deals online from the comfort of your laptop screen, or pass on all of it?
  • Food critic and Atlantic editor Corby Kummer joins us to discuss the real focus of the Thanksgiving holiday: the food.
  • Medical ethicist Art Caplan takes on an interesting ethical dilemma: Should you challenge your racist relatives around the Thanksgiving dinner table?
  • AAA says over 55 million people will travel this Thanksgiving, the busiest it has been since 2005. Boston Globe travel writer Christopher Muther joins us to offer up his traveling tips and tricks.
  • We’re living in a politically divisive time, with hate crimes on the rise and tension between Democrats and Republicans in D.C., but according to Harvard historian Nancy Koehn, this is nothing compared to the tensions during the Civil War.
  • Naturalist and author Sy Montgomery joins us for another edition of the Afternoon Zoo, her regular segment exploring the lives of animals.
  • We open up the lines again to ask you about the holiday foods that unite or divide us — canned cranberry sauce or homemade? Where do you stand on sweet potato marshmallow casserole?