Aug 30 - Sept 3 Programs

Jean's Pick of the Week: I was very pleased with the way our program about the so-called Ground Zero Mosque controversy turned out yesterday. The way Ed Linenthal and Moustafa Bayoumi complemented each other allowed for a rich diversity of responses, some of them downright inspiring. We talked about it at today’s editorial meeting and all agreed that we learned a lot from that program. Kudos to Here on Earth producer Saideh Jamshidi, our Iranian-American summer intern, whose last day was today.

Monday: Who we are in Antarctica: Lucy Jane Bledsoe is a science writer who's written a lot of award-winning fiction about Antarctica. In her latest book, a novel called The Big Bang Symphony, she describes the impact of Antarctica's extreme environment on three different women who go a long way to find their way home.

Tuesday: Remember Charlie Chan, that grammatically challenged, Chinese-aphorism slinging detective who became an icon of American film? More than just a discarded racial stereotype, his new biographer says we can learn a lot about American attitudes toward China from Charlie Chan.

Wednesday: Science, The Media, and the Public Debates: The debate about stem-cell research has flared up again since a federal judge put a halt to it last week. What are the cultural and political factors that influence such scientific issues? What makes them take a different course in different countries?

Thursday: Smaller Living Designs from Japan: Japanese architects may have a jump on the rest of the world in cultivating what is sure to become a top virtue of the 21st century: doing more with less. A new design trend in Japan -- kyosho jutaku -- is building creative houses on teeny tiny parcels of land. Architect Azby Brown will take us on a tour of the cutting edge in ultra-small living. He has lived in Japan for years and has written about sustainable living during Japan's Edo period, way before anyone was talking about global warming.

Friday: Eating Animals: Vegetarianism is nothing new, but for some reason Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2009 book, Eating Animals, sparked a nationwide conversation about how we eat. The paperback edition of this bestseller comes out this week and Jonathan Safran Foer joins us to continue the conversation he started, this Food Friday.

Now, isn't that a pretty great line-up? But it ain't nothin' without you!

I'm hoping to see some of you avid memoirists at the workshop I'm giving this weekend at Woodland Pattern Bookstore in Milwaukee.

Adios,

Jean