Jan 25 - 29 Programs

Jean’s Pick of the Week: From Witnessing to Solidarity: We wracked our brains trying to come up with a Here on Earth angle for the crisis in Haiti, and thanks to our brilliant Here on Earth producer Carly Yuenger, I think we did it. Not just dead bodies and babies being born in the street and families with nothing more than a sheet over their heads, but some real solid information from experts in the new field of “Witnessing” to show us how to move from empathy to understanding and solidarity. We’ll continue this theme on Monday with a program about Haiti’s political history and legacy of vodou.



Monday: The Way We See Haiti: After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Vodou has once again become a part of the public discussion about Haiti. Pat Robertsons remarks are only one of many examples of how the Euro-American perception of Vodou influences the public opinion about Haiti and its people. We’ll talk to Gina Athena Ulysse, Haitian-born anthropologist at Wesleyan University, and to Kate Ramsey, historian of Haiti at the University of Miami, about the complicated relationship between Haiti’s history, vodou and the West.

Tuesday: Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters? The prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus in nineteenth-century France, known as the Dreyfus Affair, exposed misconduct at the highest levels of the French Army and left France painfully divided and disgraced abroad. Author, lawyer, and Holocaust survivor, Louis Begley, transforms this history into a lessons and warnings for the United States as it heals itself from the misdeeds of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

Wednesday: The Empathic Civilization. In this century, the human species will need to solve some very big problems, but does our changing world demand humans change, too? Bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin joins us to talk about his new book, The Empathic Civilization, which argues that beyond technological innovation, we need to change our consciousness and transform our idea of human nature itself.

Thursday: We're still working on it.

Friday: Winter Cooking. After the frenzy of holiday cooking, baking, and feasting, and with no major holidays until Easter, it often seems that winter cooking is an afterthought. Anne Bramley, a self-proclaimed lover of winter, disagrees. She'll show us that winter is full of inspiration in the kitchen, and that the holidays are not the only reason to look forward to a long cold snap.

Have a great weekend,

Jean