May 12-16 Programs

Dahlings, (And by the way, didn’t you love Neal Kernan’s take on Yiddish? Who knew?)

We have a stellar line-up stacked up for you this week – I’m almost sorry I won’t be here for most of it. I’ll be hosting Monday’s program on The Counterfeiters, then heading west for a romp in the California wine country. Veronica Rueckert will be lighting up the airwaves in my place.

Monday: If you haven’t yet seen this year’s Best Foreign Film, The Counterfeiters, you’ve missed a great film experience. It’s the story of a Jewish master counterfeiter who gets sent to Auschwitz where the Nazis force him to head up a counterfeiting operation to help them win the war. It’s based on a true story, and we’ll be talking with Lawrence Malkin who wrote the book behind the movie, Krueger’s Men. I think the movie might still playing at Sundance.

Tuesday: The Man Who Loved China. Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, its long and astonishing history of invention and technology Here is a tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

Wednesday: When in Rome, do as the Romans. But what if you can't figure out what the Romans are doing? Wednesday we'll crack the code on international culture and tradition with the author of the book Going Dutch in Beijing.

Thursday: A Feminist Version of the Qur’an? The Qur'an is said to be untranslatable, and has so far been the domain of male translators. This hour we'll meet the woman who's tackling the Qur'an with a translation highlighting messages of inclusiveness and tolerance. (The Sublime Qur'an translated by Laleh Bakhtiar, a celebrated scholar of Sufism, a writer, translator, and the only woman to have translated The Qur'an.)

Friday: Remember Paris by Pastry? It was one of our favorite programs last spring, worthy, we thought, of another go. Sink your teeth into the sweets of Paris patisseries as we follow a metro stop guide to pastry shops and the deliciousness of April in Paris with Joyce Slayton Mitchell.

And yes, how sweet it is, this Mother’s Day stuff, these apple blossoms and lilacs, this chardonnay…

See ya…

Jean