Today we consider higher education, youthful law-breaking and young adult novels. And of course the cleverest ape, Gabriel Spitzer, joins us to talk about that perennial obsession of children: dinosaurs.

Colleges:  With the cost of tuition heading into the stratosphere….is a college education worth it?  We’re joined in the conversation by personal finance columnist Terry Savage and author/philosopher Al Gini.

Clever Apes:  Gabe Spitzer fleshes out chunks of this week’s Clever Apes, where he dives into dino-flesh and gets stuck on shellfish.

Hactivist:  Chicagoan Jeremy Hammond has been charged by Federal prosecutors with three felony counts related to the computer hacking of Stratfor, a global intelligence firm in Austin, Texas.  Who is he, and who/what is this “Anonymous” group Hammond was a part of? We talk with Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson about his coverage of the saga.

John Green:  We talk with NYT bestselling author (and former Writers Block Party/848 Contributor) John Green (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns and his latest, The Fault In Our Stars).  In 2007, Green and his brother Hank ceased textual communication and began to talk through videoblogs posted to youtube. The videos spawned a community of people called nerdfighters and got Green more than 1 million followers on Twitter.