In Cup of Joe, HRC’s own Sultan Shakir joined us in-studio to talk about his number one priority in the fall – defeating notoriously anti-gay Senator Rick Santorum. He’s organizing HRC members and volunteers to help elect Bob Casey on November 7.

In keeping with our summer travel theme, Sally Rose, editor of the Provincetown Banner talked to Joe about the perennial favorite gay vacation spot. After that we got The Upload on new music from Luis Baro – XM’s program director for The Move (channel 80) and XM CHILL (channel 84).

Ethics was the topic in The Skinny with Randy Cohen, The Ethicist from The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Take a listen.

This week the hot gay series Noah’s Arc makes it second season debut on Logo. The show’s creator Patrick Ian-Polk joined us from New York and special guest Doug Spearman who plays Chance joined in the conversation. Listen here.

Since we looked at Provincetown in Cup of Joe, I thought it was a good idea to talk about an out of the way gay vacation spot – Eureka Springs, Arkansas. For more information on the Victorian mountain village in northwest Arkansas, visit two great websites – Diversity Pride and Eureka Pride.

Then in the second segment of The Upload we had Erik Range, the music director for Ethel, (XM channel 47) bringing us some hot alternative music.

Finally, this week’s call to action was a little lighter – Joe charged us all to stop one bad habit this week. Be it smoking, or drinking, or eating unhealthy – it’s best to start small. For my part, I’ve cut out cheese steaks from my lunch routine and replaced it with sushi as a healthier alternative. Next week Joe is going to quiz Jackie Warner of the hit Bravo series Work Out about other ways we can all be healthier.

Finally – don’t forget you can send us your feedback at TheAgenda@hrc.org. We welcome all of your comments, questions and suggestions.

This week on The Agenda with Joe Solmonese, a chat with executive producer Patrik-Ian Polk and actor Wilson Cruz of Noah’s Arc, which begins its second season on Logo on Wednesday. The DVD of the hit show’s first season will be released tomorrow.

Also ready to tackle listener dilemmas is Randy Cohen, The Ethicist from The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Before his Times gig, Randy was an Emmy-award-winning writer for the Late Show with David Letterman and the first head writer on the Rosie O’Donnell Show.

All that plus we’ll talk to Patricia Todd, the first openly gay state legislator in Alabama, and take a look at the unexpected gay getaway destination of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Tune in live from 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern tonight on XM channel 200.

One of the best parts about the show is what happens when you lock Joe Solmonese and Mary Breslauer in a room together and they get to chatting. Listen to the first segment of last night’s show to see what I mean.

In The News, the past couple of weeks have had some disappointing losses for marriage equality. Now advocates are turning their attention to winning victories in state legislatures. Stu Rosenberg, one of the Human Rights Campaign’s Regional Field Organizers, joined us on the phone to give a lay of the land. He talked about marriage moving forward in Washington state, but also how a slight tip of the scales in legislatures in Montana and Indiana could pave the way for big victories for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

For the first Cup of Joe segment, Joe sat down with Broadway and film star Anthony Rapp to talk about his role in the musical Rent, his new book and other projects he’s working on. Part two of Cup of Joe was a conversation with Nate Berkus, the super-cute (and according to Joe, “cucumber-smelling”) interior designer who’s a regular on “Oprah.” They talked about everything from whether or not the whole chocolate brown/baby blue combo was still in fashion to Nate’s experience losing his partner Fernando in the 2004 tsunami.

Then it was time for The Upload where XM’s own John von Soosten of On Broadway (Channel 28) brought us some hits from Avenue Q and the always classic anthem “I Am What I Am” from La Cage aux Folles.

The Agenda always tries to bring you the inside scoop on something so in The Skinny Joe and Mary talked to Kelly Anthony — an HRC field organizer who moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to elect fair-minded candidates and pass a citywide non-discrimination ordinance there. Listen to the segment where Kelly talks about what campaign life is really like.

Then it was my turn to give The Skinny on a fantastic new film, Quinceañera. The writers and directors — Wash Westmoreland (with his sexy British accent) and Richard Glatzer — joined me in-studio to talk about the film. Listen to the interview.

We had two big guests for Point of View. First Amy Walter, the senior editor at the Cook Political Report, was in-studio to talk about the midterm elections. She discussed electoral trends and how GLBT issues are playing in races across the country. According to her, issues like marriage equality may rally a small segment of the Republican base but the issue is turning off moderate voters that politicians need to win.

Last week, Joe’s Call to Action was to read The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. To put the book in a literary and political context, Ron Charles — a senior book editor at The Washington Post — was our guest. Charles said Roth used the book to make an important point about the influence of rhetoric in public discourse. To Joe, the salient message for the GLBT community is what happens when the president of the United States gives license to treat one group of Americans as second-class citizens.

Turning back to music, we got The Upload from Trinity of Watercolors — XM’s contemporary jazz channel. She played a great tune — “Do it Again” by Philippe Saisse. After that we had Open Mic where Bill from Phoenix called in asking how he could find out where candidates stand on GLBT issues. HRC has great resources like our biennial Congressional Scorecard available online. And to find out more about openly GLBT candidates check out the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

Finally in the Call to Action, Joe tasked us all to learn more about Rep. Sherrod Brown who is running for the U.S. Senate. Check out his campaign website.