NPR News

As the Iowa caucuses rapidly approach, faith and family values play big roles in how local voters determine their support for candidates. Host Michel Martin talks with evangelical Bob Vander Plaats, who heads the Iowa-based conservative group, The Family Leader. He recently announced his personal endorsement for Rick Santorum.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now it's time for BackTalk. That's where we lift the curtain on what's happening in the TELL ME MORE blogosphere. Here, once again, is Ammad Omar, editor at TELL ME MORE. Welcome back, Ammad. What do you have for us?

AMMAD OMAR, BYLINE: Well, Michel, we're digging really deep into the mail bag today for some of our best listener interaction of the year, but we're going to go into the virtual mailbox, take a look at some of those stories that got a big response on Facebook, Twitter, email and our website.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. We cannot say goodbye to 2011 without asking the Barbershop guys to give us their final thoughts on the year.

So, sitting in the chairs for the final 2011 shape-up are author Jimi Izrael, civil rights attorney and author Arsalan Iftikhar, Sports Illustrated reporter Pablo Torre and Republican strategist and former White House aide Ron Christie.

Take it, Jimi.

JIMI IZRAEL: Thanks, Michel. Hey, what's up? Welcome to the shop. How we doing?