American diplomats and the CIA in Nigeria knew that the suspect in the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing had texted his father from Yemen, telling his father that he had found the "real Islam" and was never coming back.  Also the National Security Administration knew Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen were talking about using a Nigerian man for an attack. So did the National Counterterrorism Center, which is supposed to coordinate intelligence, have those two pieces of information and did it fail to link them? Mark Mazzetti, who covers the CIA for the New York Times, is our guest.

Cultural commentator Michael Hirschorn reflects on the past decade that started with the Y2K scare and ended with a financial implosion. He wrote about the Aughts for New York magazine.  Did you emerge from this decade a winner or a loser?  Hirshorn says that answer has something to do with how you view the internet.

Scientists say there are 20 million bubbles in a champagne bottle.  The bubbles come from the carbon dioxide (CO2) in alcohol, but it takes microscopic lint in your glass for them start working.  And each bubble is working to effect the taste, aroma, and experience of that sip.  We'll speak with Robert Lee Hotz, science columnist for the Wall Street Journal, who calls CO2 the drinkable greenhouse gas.

When Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr was asked to give his picks for the best films of the past decade, he came up with 33 .... and then was told to winnow it down to 10.  Ty joins us to review the long and short lists.