This week, Annie brought us another great guest lineup to chat politics and current events. Joining us via Skype this week was Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X Prize Foundation. More on X Prize later in the show, and of course, the recap, but also joining us live in studio were actor/Huffington Post contributor Steven Weber who you may remember from several dozen top movies and TV series including Happy Town, Web Therapy, Brothers and Sisters, Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip, and Wings. Actress/model and former Miss USA Shanna Moakler also sat down with Annie to discuss today’s topics.

The show kicked off with Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation. Peter is considered a key figure in the development of the personal spaceflight industry, which swayed the discussion to Virgin Galactic’s future. Lucky guy has flights booked on several personal spaceflight journeys- we’ll have to have him back on the show after takeoff to see how they went! Moving on to Peter’s main gig; the X Prize Foundation is an educational non-profit prize institute. It’s a competiton based achievement award, encouraging entrepreneurial spirits to contribute to the betterment of industry and our society. The prizes are huge and the challenges are as you would imagine with $10 million at stake, pretty lofty. Current X Prize competitions include genomics, lunar, and progressive automotive categories. Peter stuck around for the panel debate even after losing power- extra props going to our great guest for sticking with us!

In the news today and the center of an animated discussion between Annie, the panel and Brian was the debate about a third political party. With mid-term elections just weeks away, extremists on both sides of the fence are talking timing; are we ready for a third party? The panel also discussed the Tea Party, and if they’re the right party to step up to task. This also took the discussion to another point; with more moderates speaking up about a third party, what direction will it take if it does come to fruition?

This week’s political Fast Facts for the panel discussion included:

1.  Modern third party movement began in 1980.

Most consider John Anderson’s 1980 presidential campaign as the first modern major third party movement (for those who don’t remember-Jimmy Carter wouldn’t do national debates with Anderson, effectively marginalizing his candidacy).

2.  Ross Perot’s ‘92 campaign showed third party viability.

Ross Perot’s 1992 campaign showed that a third party could be viable, as he received almost 19% of the popular vote and almost 20,000,000 votes. (or as we like to call them–20M wasted votes). Perot’s financial reform issues though were adopted by both parties, effectively hamstringing his 1996 campaign.

3. 2000 election might’ve been swayed by third party.

Of course, we can’t forget Ralph Nader. His Green Party some credit with taking votes away from Al Gore and helping elect George Bush.

4. And today, while not technically a third party, the Tea Party movement has shown yet again that people are looking away from the Repubicans and Democrats for answers.

Rounding out the show we discussed the potential NYC Food Stamp Soda Ban in And One Last Thing. NY is considering nixing soda as part of the current items welfare assisted individuals and families are allowed to purchase. Thoughts on this? Annie is all for it- broccoli is a food (and a messy live TV prop as it turns out), soda is not! Steven Weber says let them drink soda, while our chat room guests ponder if beer is also covered under the current welfare allowances. What do you think? Should soda be banned from food stamp purchases, or should we add beer to the budget?

That’s it for today’s wrap up. Tune in next Tuesday at 6pm for more of the Annie Duke Show!