Jan 5-9 Programs

For the first week of 2009, I've taken to heart the criticism we received from one Here on Earth listener who, in responding to our program on the Stalin Archives, had this to say: "I was raised with American Communists many of whom had the best morals of any people I have ever known. My own parents, of course, became disenchanted with Russian Communism but not its ideals. They paid a heavy price for their beliefs during the McCarthy years, but never gave up the fight for peace and justice for all people. Until their deaths, they worked in the communities and were well liked by the people who knew them and understood them to be the fine people they were. I have known many like them.

"But whenever, you do a show on this subject i feel that you are still having a knee-jerk and not very well informed reaction to the subject as if you are still suffering from the fifities when people were afraid they'd find the "dirty reds" under their beds. please consider getting better informed. One suggestion: You might try to talk to my friend and your friend, Bob March, on this subject. "

Bob March will be on the show this Tuesday to talk about "Reds."

Monday: Global Voices: an internet media newsroom for on-the-ground reporting from the developing world, Global Voices is a website run by volunteers that collects, translates, and disseminates all the blogs in the developing world -- an excellent source of citizen journalism, what some critics are calling the wave of the future. Find out what bloggers in the Middle East are saying about events in Gaza, and hear from other global voices in-the-know when we talk with 3 GV editors.

Tuesday: "Reds:" What attracted so many Americans to Communist ideals and what caused them to go sour on the Party? Bob March, UW Professor Emeritus of Physics, grew up in Chicago during the heroic period of union organizing in the thirties. His father was an agitator who served on the Central Committee of the Communist Party and got his son involved in the Youth Movement.

Wednesday: This one's still up for grabs.

Thursday: How do good ideas go "viral?" For 25 years, the TED conference has featured some of the world's most influential thinkers -- Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Al Gore. You may have seen their TED speeches on YouTube. We'll talk with TED curator Chris Anderson about "Ideas Worth Spreading."

Food Friday: Simon Says: Given the English reputation, the words "British" and "chef" put together might strike you as an oxymoron. But Simon Hopkinson is not just a first-rate chef whose recipes reflect all the great cuisines of the world, he's also a brilliant writer whose 2005 cookbook, Roast Chicken and Other Stories was voted "the most useful cookbook of all times." I first learned about Simon while in Beijing in the company of a mad Irishman who walked us nearly to death searching for an obscure Muslim restaurant that served first-rate eel.

I think I need an Irish coffee.

Happy New Year and let's keep talking!

Jean