Friday, January 23, 2009
Jan 26-30 Programs
Jean's Pick of the Week: Reaching Out to the Muslim World. The fourth program in our Inside Islam series, broadcast just two days after Inauguration Day and featuring breaking news from the White House and three Muslim experts on what needs to be done to improve relations with the Muslim world. This program and all three that preceded it will be broadcast as a week-long series special Jan. 26 – 29, while I’m on vacation. We’d love to get your feedback. Does the series make sense as a series? Does it have a signature style and feel? Is it opening your mind and heart to a new way of thinking about Muslims and Islam? Does it make you want to learn more? Are there too many guests? What do you remember and take away from listening? Visit www.insideislam.wisc.edu to find out what’s coming up in future shows and how you can help us shape the programs. You can also leave a comment on our 24/7 hotline: 1-877-GLOBE07. And thanks you!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Jan 19-23 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Daniel Everett’s experiences with the extraordinary Pirahã people of the Brazilian Amazon who seem to be completely content with their way of life, live entirely in the moment, and lack any real curiosity about the rest of the world (i.e. they have no interest in being like us!) brought back my own experience in the Peruvian Amazon (which, frankly, blew my mind, and which I wrote about at length in my book, I Hear Voices).
Other highlights: Slumdog’s director, Danny Boyle talking about his enthusiasm for Mumbai; and Hannah Pool’s description of meeting her long lost Eritrean family. And although Tuesday’s program about Gaza was overbooked, we’ve had very positive feedback from Jews who appreciated our perspective.
We have a big week ahead of us, with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Inauguration, and another Inside Islam program. Here’s the dope:
Monday: The Business of Modern Slavery: While we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American civil rights movement, let’s also remember that slavery has once again reared its ugly head in the form of sex trafficking. For a completely original approach that strikes at the economic heart of prostitution, we’ll talk with Siddharth Kara, a former investment banker and author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery.
Tuesday: What Obama Means: Now this is a coup: directly following NPR’s live coverage of the Inauguration, Here on Earth gets to talk with (and this means you too!) celebrated cultural critic Jabari Asim, whose book The N Word made such waves. He’s the perfect guest coming at the perfect time on the perfect occasion. Join us!
Wednesday: Green Urbanism Down Under: city gardens in Melbourne; a koala-friendly housing development; solar lights that send electricity back to the city’s power grid – all transportable ideas that may hold a global solution to our environmental headaches. Guests: Timothy Beatley and Peter Newman.
Thursday: : On January 20, Barack Hussein Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. What is the state of relations between the United States and the Muslim world? How can the new president alter the course of the Bush administration and reach out to Muslims? What are the chances that dialogue and diplomacy will take precedence over a call to arms? What steps do Muslims think the new president should take to repair damages and rebuild trust?
Friday: Bagels Go Global! Boiled and baked, bagels as we know them originated in Poland, but just like the Jews themselves, you can find them all over the world – even in China where the Chinese break them into pieces and put them in their stir-fries!
I hope you’ll be listening – it should be a great week!
Jean
Other highlights: Slumdog’s director, Danny Boyle talking about his enthusiasm for Mumbai; and Hannah Pool’s description of meeting her long lost Eritrean family. And although Tuesday’s program about Gaza was overbooked, we’ve had very positive feedback from Jews who appreciated our perspective.
We have a big week ahead of us, with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Inauguration, and another Inside Islam program. Here’s the dope:
Monday: The Business of Modern Slavery: While we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American civil rights movement, let’s also remember that slavery has once again reared its ugly head in the form of sex trafficking. For a completely original approach that strikes at the economic heart of prostitution, we’ll talk with Siddharth Kara, a former investment banker and author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery.
Tuesday: What Obama Means: Now this is a coup: directly following NPR’s live coverage of the Inauguration, Here on Earth gets to talk with (and this means you too!) celebrated cultural critic Jabari Asim, whose book The N Word made such waves. He’s the perfect guest coming at the perfect time on the perfect occasion. Join us!
Wednesday: Green Urbanism Down Under: city gardens in Melbourne; a koala-friendly housing development; solar lights that send electricity back to the city’s power grid – all transportable ideas that may hold a global solution to our environmental headaches. Guests: Timothy Beatley and Peter Newman.
Thursday: : On January 20, Barack Hussein Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. What is the state of relations between the United States and the Muslim world? How can the new president alter the course of the Bush administration and reach out to Muslims? What are the chances that dialogue and diplomacy will take precedence over a call to arms? What steps do Muslims think the new president should take to repair damages and rebuild trust?
Friday: Bagels Go Global! Boiled and baked, bagels as we know them originated in Poland, but just like the Jews themselves, you can find them all over the world – even in China where the Chinese break them into pieces and put them in their stir-fries!
I hope you’ll be listening – it should be a great week!
Jean
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Jan 12-16 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week – which wasn’t everybody’s! – Godless Commies and Dirty Reds: When my friend Marcin Filutowitcz, who grew up in Communist Poland, tuned into Here on Earth last Tuesday and heard the all-too-familiar strains of the Internationale, he quickly switched us off. I can understand that. But for me it was a form of liberation to host a program about the American Communist movement with someone as unflappable and even-handed as Bob March who grew up in a Communist family in Chicago. I was also reminded in the course of the conversation that I myself have participated in at least two movements that I now recognize as heavily influenced by Marxism: Italy’s Slow Food Movement (founded by Carlo Perini) and the American Women’s Movement at its most strident. And now I say, so what if they are Marxist. It’s just another ‘ism’ like all the other ‘ismatic’ orthodoxies. As Satish Kumar is fond of saying, sooner or later all the ‘isms’ will become ‘wasms.’ Until that happens, the heretics will be kept busy.
Coming in February: (Can you tell I’m excited about this?) Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who once walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, joins us February 10th to talk about his astonishing feat, the subject of the documentary film, Man on Wire.
This Week on HoE:
Monday: Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes! Behind that sensationalized title is a truly original account of Amazonia written by a man, Daniel Everett, who went there as a Christian missionary expecting to convert the Pirahas, a tribe in Brazil, and was instead converted by them.
Tuesday: Gaza again, this time from the perspective of citizens affected. We’ll talk with moderates from both sides, explore their mutual frustrations, and what can be done to change the rationale for violence.
Wednesday: Slumdog Millionnaire, Danny Boyle’s highly praised film about an Indian boy from the slums who rises to fame and fortune by competing on a television quiz show. We’ll talk with the director and a Bollywood expert.
Thursday: Can you ever truly know who you are if you don’t know where you come from? Hannah Pool, a beauty editor for The Guardian, journeys to Eritrea to confront the poverty of the live that might have been hers in her memoir, My Fathers’ Daughter.
Friday: Science in the Kitchen: At the Stove, a Dash of Science, a Pinch of Folklore and something called "Molecular Gastronomy," a term coined by the French Chef Herve.
Check out our New HoE Hotline: In case you haven’t picked up on it, we have a new 24-hour hotline –- 1-877GLOBE07 –- that lets you respond to Here on Earth programs, suggest topics or guests for upcoming shows, or just sound off in general. Please let us hear from you. Your comment might just end up broadcast in our HoE mailbag.
And, as always, thanks for listening!
Jean
Coming in February: (Can you tell I’m excited about this?) Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who once walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, joins us February 10th to talk about his astonishing feat, the subject of the documentary film, Man on Wire.
This Week on HoE:
Monday: Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes! Behind that sensationalized title is a truly original account of Amazonia written by a man, Daniel Everett, who went there as a Christian missionary expecting to convert the Pirahas, a tribe in Brazil, and was instead converted by them.
Tuesday: Gaza again, this time from the perspective of citizens affected. We’ll talk with moderates from both sides, explore their mutual frustrations, and what can be done to change the rationale for violence.
Wednesday: Slumdog Millionnaire, Danny Boyle’s highly praised film about an Indian boy from the slums who rises to fame and fortune by competing on a television quiz show. We’ll talk with the director and a Bollywood expert.
Thursday: Can you ever truly know who you are if you don’t know where you come from? Hannah Pool, a beauty editor for The Guardian, journeys to Eritrea to confront the poverty of the live that might have been hers in her memoir, My Fathers’ Daughter.
Friday: Science in the Kitchen: At the Stove, a Dash of Science, a Pinch of Folklore and something called "Molecular Gastronomy," a term coined by the French Chef Herve.
Check out our New HoE Hotline: In case you haven’t picked up on it, we have a new 24-hour hotline –- 1-877GLOBE07 –- that lets you respond to Here on Earth programs, suggest topics or guests for upcoming shows, or just sound off in general. Please let us hear from you. Your comment might just end up broadcast in our HoE mailbag.
And, as always, thanks for listening!
Jean
Saturday, January 03, 2009
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
"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
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Dec 29 - Jan 2 Programs
Hi, everyone!
This is Lisa Bu, the web producer of Here on Earth, sitting in a very quiet office. We staff had a couple of cheerful gatherings at the station and in Jean's house in the past several days. I hope you're having a good time, too, despite the weather. For the coming week, we have cooked up a few shows accompanied by a couple of best Here on Earth encores. Enjoy!
Monday: Gay Rights: A Universal Principle? In many countries, the taboo against homosexuality seems to be eroding even as the debate rages on: proposition 8, the UN and the Vatican are keeping the issue on the front page. Should gay rights be included under the Universal Declaration on human rights?
Tuesday: Best Books in Translation. While the whole world is busy writing great books, fewer than three percent of them get translated and make American bookshelves. This prompted the New York Times five years ago to declare that "America Yawned" at foreign fiction, but is it still true? Raid your library and join Jean Feraca as we share the world's best books in translation.
Wednesday: The Dead Beat: The Art of Obituaries (encore). How would you like to be remembered? What do obituaries say about our culture? This hour on Here On Earth: Radio Without Borders, join Jean Feraca for a talk with two leading obituarists.
Thursday: Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy (encore). Eric Wilson tried jogging, yoga, tai chi, Frank Capra movies, and finally decided to embrace his gloominess and write a diatribe against the quintessentially American pursuit of happiness -– buoyed up by Prozac and shopping malls, the mass of men lead lives of shallow happiness, the superior man exults in his gloom. Which one are you?
Friday: Lore of Whiskey. Want a remedy for your New Year hangover? Join us for the history and lore of Whiskey.
Happy New Year!
Lisa Bu
Web producer
Here on Earth
This is Lisa Bu, the web producer of Here on Earth, sitting in a very quiet office. We staff had a couple of cheerful gatherings at the station and in Jean's house in the past several days. I hope you're having a good time, too, despite the weather. For the coming week, we have cooked up a few shows accompanied by a couple of best Here on Earth encores. Enjoy!
Monday: Gay Rights: A Universal Principle? In many countries, the taboo against homosexuality seems to be eroding even as the debate rages on: proposition 8, the UN and the Vatican are keeping the issue on the front page. Should gay rights be included under the Universal Declaration on human rights?
Tuesday: Best Books in Translation. While the whole world is busy writing great books, fewer than three percent of them get translated and make American bookshelves. This prompted the New York Times five years ago to declare that "America Yawned" at foreign fiction, but is it still true? Raid your library and join Jean Feraca as we share the world's best books in translation.
Wednesday: The Dead Beat: The Art of Obituaries (encore). How would you like to be remembered? What do obituaries say about our culture? This hour on Here On Earth: Radio Without Borders, join Jean Feraca for a talk with two leading obituarists.
Thursday: Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy (encore). Eric Wilson tried jogging, yoga, tai chi, Frank Capra movies, and finally decided to embrace his gloominess and write a diatribe against the quintessentially American pursuit of happiness -– buoyed up by Prozac and shopping malls, the mass of men lead lives of shallow happiness, the superior man exults in his gloom. Which one are you?
Friday: Lore of Whiskey. Want a remedy for your New Year hangover? Join us for the history and lore of Whiskey.
Happy New Year!
Lisa Bu
Web producer
Here on Earth
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Dec 22-26 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Discovering the New Russia: I liked this program primarily because I learned so much from it. Jonathan Brent, Yale University Press’s editor-in-chief and the author of Inside the Stalin Archives, has been messing around the archives and talking with Russians for the last fifteen years and it shows.
Monday: The history of Jewish culture in America has been told in many ways - through vaudeville, through the movies, and through literature, but not until now has it been told through VINYL. Join us for a wacky, wonderful Hanukkah special with Roger Bennett and Josh Kun, co-authors of And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl.
Tuesday: Good Touch/Bad Touch: An article in Resurgence magazine inspired this program on cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward touch. The Asians are touch phobic; the Italians are touch-a-philiacs; and Americans don’t like it much either.
Wednesday: Navan, a Celtic music band, perform Celtic songs of the season. Sung in the original languages, the songs are mostly hair-raising, sometimes jazzy and mysterious that give fascinating insights into the pagan underpinnings of Yuletide.
Thursday: A Biography of Santa Claus: He hasn’t always been the jolly old elf we know today. He’s been a wanderer, a friend to prostitutes, a bishop, and a warrior, and his family tree goes back to Turkey.
Friday: Christmas in Auschwitz: Based on a true story by the great Italian humanist, Primo Levi, exquisitely delivered and interpreted by poet Ernesto Livorni, this is probably our best food show ever. Definitely worth another listen.
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Jean
Monday: The history of Jewish culture in America has been told in many ways - through vaudeville, through the movies, and through literature, but not until now has it been told through VINYL. Join us for a wacky, wonderful Hanukkah special with Roger Bennett and Josh Kun, co-authors of And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl.
Tuesday: Good Touch/Bad Touch: An article in Resurgence magazine inspired this program on cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward touch. The Asians are touch phobic; the Italians are touch-a-philiacs; and Americans don’t like it much either.
Wednesday: Navan, a Celtic music band, perform Celtic songs of the season. Sung in the original languages, the songs are mostly hair-raising, sometimes jazzy and mysterious that give fascinating insights into the pagan underpinnings of Yuletide.
Thursday: A Biography of Santa Claus: He hasn’t always been the jolly old elf we know today. He’s been a wanderer, a friend to prostitutes, a bishop, and a warrior, and his family tree goes back to Turkey.
Friday: Christmas in Auschwitz: Based on a true story by the great Italian humanist, Primo Levi, exquisitely delivered and interpreted by poet Ernesto Livorni, this is probably our best food show ever. Definitely worth another listen.
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Jean
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Dec 15-19 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Al’ America! In spite of a few misgivings on my part about what looked on the surface like a flimsy premise propped up by pop culture, Jonathan Curiel managed to convince me that there are indeed deep Arabic and Islamic roots in American culture. It was a fun hour as well as an illuminating one. I was particularly fascinated by the connections he drew between Mississippi blues and the Call to Prayer. We forget that many of the slaves brought here from Africa were Muslim, some highly literate and deeply devout. So it’s not so much of a stretch, after all, to imagine that their Islamic influence would persist and survive, just as West African voodoo made its way to Haiti, and New Orleans, where it got mixed up with Jelly Roll Morton and Elvis Presley.
Monday: Cuba on the Threshold of its 5oth Anniversary: The speculation is that the election of Barack Obama opens the way to a thaw in Cuban-American relations. We’ll ask New York Times reporter Roger Cohen who wrote “The End of the End of the Revolution” in a recent issue of the Sunday magazine.
Tuesday: The Evolution of Faith: Parker Palmer traces his own journey with the Christian faith. Parker is unfailingly excellent in the way he delivers his message, and Jossey Bass has just re-issued his very first book, The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life.
Wednesday: Gay Rights: A Universal Principle? During the last ten years there has been a growing acceptance of homosexuality - at least in the "Western" world. France recently proposed that gay rights be added to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Vatican is opposed. There's a lot of public debate -- both for, against and in the fuzzy in-between. We’ll cover it all and get your views as well.
Thursday: The Winter Solstice Poetry Circle of the Air with Molly Peacock: Molly’s chosen a bright, upbeat poem for this darkest of times. Look for it on our website and join in with your favorite poem of the season.
Friday: Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love: It’s broccoli but it’s not really broccoli. It’s actually a collection of stories by the gorgeous Lara Vapnyar that links food to lonely, loveless dating among recent Russian immigrants – described by Publishers Weekly as a take on the poignant oddities of New York Russian émigré life that is universally palatable.
You can’t say we’re not eclectic.
Coming up in February: we’ve been promised a program with Philippe Petit, the crazy Frenchman who walked a tightrope between the twin towers of The World Trade Center –- one of my personal heroes and the star of Man on Wire, a documentary which has been nominated for an Oscar.
I’m outa here. Go crazy this weekend.
Jean
Monday: Cuba on the Threshold of its 5oth Anniversary: The speculation is that the election of Barack Obama opens the way to a thaw in Cuban-American relations. We’ll ask New York Times reporter Roger Cohen who wrote “The End of the End of the Revolution” in a recent issue of the Sunday magazine.
Tuesday: The Evolution of Faith: Parker Palmer traces his own journey with the Christian faith. Parker is unfailingly excellent in the way he delivers his message, and Jossey Bass has just re-issued his very first book, The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life.
Wednesday: Gay Rights: A Universal Principle? During the last ten years there has been a growing acceptance of homosexuality - at least in the "Western" world. France recently proposed that gay rights be added to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Vatican is opposed. There's a lot of public debate -- both for, against and in the fuzzy in-between. We’ll cover it all and get your views as well.
Thursday: The Winter Solstice Poetry Circle of the Air with Molly Peacock: Molly’s chosen a bright, upbeat poem for this darkest of times. Look for it on our website and join in with your favorite poem of the season.
Friday: Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love: It’s broccoli but it’s not really broccoli. It’s actually a collection of stories by the gorgeous Lara Vapnyar that links food to lonely, loveless dating among recent Russian immigrants – described by Publishers Weekly as a take on the poignant oddities of New York Russian émigré life that is universally palatable.
You can’t say we’re not eclectic.
Coming up in February: we’ve been promised a program with Philippe Petit, the crazy Frenchman who walked a tightrope between the twin towers of The World Trade Center –- one of my personal heroes and the star of Man on Wire, a documentary which has been nominated for an Oscar.
I’m outa here. Go crazy this weekend.
Jean
Friday, December 05, 2008
Dec 8-12 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Today’s Women and Shari’a with UW-Madison Law professor Asifa Quraishi, who can cut through the thickest Islamist patriarchal crap with her unfailing sense of equanimity and ever-ready razor sharp intellect. What a pleasure. I hope we changed some minds about the nature of Islamic law -- which actually favors women in its intention - and the reasons why Muslim women are so often subject to such cruel and barbaric practices. I am reminded of John Donne’s poem: “Ask not for whom the bell tolls…it tolls for thee.” Any woman’s death diminishes me.
Monday: The Goldman Sachs Foundation partnered with the Asia Society to encourage American high school students to study abroad. We’ll meet two of this year’s winners of the prize-winners for excellence in international education: a bouncy blonde from southern California who traveled to Nepal and found something underneath the poverty and privation that touched her deeply; and an African-American student from Atlanta who found deep resonances in South Africa with our own Civil Rights movement.
Tuesday: It’s not just Sarah Palin who thinks Africa is a country rather than a continent. To dispel ignorance and illuminate the hidden riches of the so-called "dark continent," join us with experts who really know the lay of the land and its peoples. It’s all part of Geography Awareness Week.
Wednesday: Al America! Think Muslims are only in the Middle-East? Think again. Jonathan Curiel, longtime staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written a fascinating cultural travelogue documenting America’s Arab and Islamic roots that incorporates everything from the Alamo to The Doors (Jim Morrison, that is.) Don’t miss this one.
Thursday: We've got the trailer, the tickets, and soon, we hope, Danny Boyle, the Irish director of Slumdog Millionaire, the movie about an Indian boy from the slums of Mumbai who’s in the hot seat in his country's version of the popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire? The film opens in Wisconsin next weekend.
Friday: Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe--it's knowing how to season ingredients to coax the greatest possible flavor from them. Join us with Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg for The Flavor Bible, drawing on dozens of leading chefs' combined experience in top restaurants across the country, and a chance for you to add your own flavor tips.
Oh, yes, and by the way, if you happen to pick up the current issue of New York magazine, check out the feature on indie music stores. Dominick Fernow, who operates Hospital Productions in the East Village (I’m headed there this weekend) just happens to be my son!
Ciao,
Jean
Monday: The Goldman Sachs Foundation partnered with the Asia Society to encourage American high school students to study abroad. We’ll meet two of this year’s winners of the prize-winners for excellence in international education: a bouncy blonde from southern California who traveled to Nepal and found something underneath the poverty and privation that touched her deeply; and an African-American student from Atlanta who found deep resonances in South Africa with our own Civil Rights movement.
Tuesday: It’s not just Sarah Palin who thinks Africa is a country rather than a continent. To dispel ignorance and illuminate the hidden riches of the so-called "dark continent," join us with experts who really know the lay of the land and its peoples. It’s all part of Geography Awareness Week.
Wednesday: Al America! Think Muslims are only in the Middle-East? Think again. Jonathan Curiel, longtime staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written a fascinating cultural travelogue documenting America’s Arab and Islamic roots that incorporates everything from the Alamo to The Doors (Jim Morrison, that is.) Don’t miss this one.
Thursday: We've got the trailer, the tickets, and soon, we hope, Danny Boyle, the Irish director of Slumdog Millionaire, the movie about an Indian boy from the slums of Mumbai who’s in the hot seat in his country's version of the popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire? The film opens in Wisconsin next weekend.
Friday: Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe--it's knowing how to season ingredients to coax the greatest possible flavor from them. Join us with Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg for The Flavor Bible, drawing on dozens of leading chefs' combined experience in top restaurants across the country, and a chance for you to add your own flavor tips.
Oh, yes, and by the way, if you happen to pick up the current issue of New York magazine, check out the feature on indie music stores. Dominick Fernow, who operates Hospital Productions in the East Village (I’m headed there this weekend) just happens to be my son!
Ciao,
Jean
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Dec 1-5 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Obama vs. Obama: I really enjoyed the muscular give and take between Dhuvan Shah and Doug MacLeod, and the callers. The perspective provided by Imam Talib from New York was truly illuminating.
Don’t miss the third program in our ongoing series Inside Islam: Dialogues and Debates coming up on Thursday, Dec. 4 on Women and Shari’a.
This is a short week and I’m rushing to get home to deliver a rabbit to a friend (!), so forgive the shorthand:
Monday: The Best of Italian Americana: I was part of a panel at this year’s AIHA conference in New Haven recently (AIHA stands for American Italian Historical Association) and once again, I found some very simpatico people – talented and clever writers – that I’m sharing with you in this program we’re calling Wild Dreams – the title of a new anthology of Italian writers. Guests: anthology editor Joanna Clapps Herman; performance artist Annie Lanzillotto (back again!); poet George Guida. Expect a good time.
Tuesday: Laser Monks! They live in Sparta, Wisconsin, and they’ve come up with a way to make ink cartridges that radically undersell the competition. Turns out monks are great entrepreneurs, basing their business acumen on the 15 hundred year old Benedictine rule.
Wednesday: It’s not just Sarah Palin who thinks Africa is a country. Lots of Americans do. The UW Geography Department is hoping to correct that by teaching kids all about the real Africa during National Geography week. We’ll find out how successful they’ve been.
Thursday: Women and Shari’a: You’ve probably been hearing some of the same horrifying stories about the fate of Muslim girls that we’ve been hearing: stonings, rapes, murders, even young Pakistani girls buried alive for opposing arranged marriages. We’ve invited Asifa Quraishi, a crack shot UW Law Professor to untangle what part of all this is Shari’a and what part tribal customs. And is there any way to separate them after all? Who speaks for Muslim women?
Friday: Olives and Oranges: a new take on Mediterranean cooking from a woman who’s been everywhere and loves it all.
I’m grateful to all of you,
Jean
Don’t miss the third program in our ongoing series Inside Islam: Dialogues and Debates coming up on Thursday, Dec. 4 on Women and Shari’a.This is a short week and I’m rushing to get home to deliver a rabbit to a friend (!), so forgive the shorthand:
Monday: The Best of Italian Americana: I was part of a panel at this year’s AIHA conference in New Haven recently (AIHA stands for American Italian Historical Association) and once again, I found some very simpatico people – talented and clever writers – that I’m sharing with you in this program we’re calling Wild Dreams – the title of a new anthology of Italian writers. Guests: anthology editor Joanna Clapps Herman; performance artist Annie Lanzillotto (back again!); poet George Guida. Expect a good time.
Tuesday: Laser Monks! They live in Sparta, Wisconsin, and they’ve come up with a way to make ink cartridges that radically undersell the competition. Turns out monks are great entrepreneurs, basing their business acumen on the 15 hundred year old Benedictine rule.
Wednesday: It’s not just Sarah Palin who thinks Africa is a country. Lots of Americans do. The UW Geography Department is hoping to correct that by teaching kids all about the real Africa during National Geography week. We’ll find out how successful they’ve been.
Thursday: Women and Shari’a: You’ve probably been hearing some of the same horrifying stories about the fate of Muslim girls that we’ve been hearing: stonings, rapes, murders, even young Pakistani girls buried alive for opposing arranged marriages. We’ve invited Asifa Quraishi, a crack shot UW Law Professor to untangle what part of all this is Shari’a and what part tribal customs. And is there any way to separate them after all? Who speaks for Muslim women?
Friday: Olives and Oranges: a new take on Mediterranean cooking from a woman who’s been everywhere and loves it all.
I’m grateful to all of you,
Jean
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Nov 24-28 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Every once in a blue moon it happens that a guest we’ve booked turns out to be a soulmate. That turned out to be true last Tuesday when I talked with Terry Tempest Williams about her amazing odyssey from Ravenna to Utah to Rwanda, described in her highly original book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World. This program was so moving to me that at times I found it difficult to talk.
Monday: Closing Guantanamo Bay: In his first televised appearance since the election, President-Elect Obama told CBS Sixty Minutes that he intends to close Guantanamo Bay prison and end the practice of torture. It turns out that’s not going to be so easy. There are 50 inmates at Guantanamo, some of them violent extremists. We’ll explore Obama’s options and look into the success rate of Islamist rehabilitation programs with Christopher Boucek in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Foundation.
Tuesday: Can the Coral Reefs Be Saved? There’s at least one success story in Apo Island in the Phillipines that suggests we can. It’s told in the Wild Reef exhibit currently at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We’ll talk with George Parsons, Director of Fishes at the Shedd about the Project Seahorse, an international group of marine biologists fighting to save the world’s underwater wonders.
Wednesday: Al Qaeda Insults Obama: A lot of people around the world are cheering Obama’s victory. Al Qaeda isn’t among them. Osama bin Laden’s top deputy went out of his way to insult the new President Elect with a racist remark last week, calling him a House Negro. We’ll talk with UW-Madison Journalism and Mass Communications Professor, Doug McLeod, about the implications of al Zawahri’s video.
Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! To celebrate, we’re featuring an encore presentation of one of our favorite holiday programs: Listening is an Act of Love with Story Corps founder David Isay.
Friday: Definitely worth hearing again at the open of the hunting season, our wild and woolly Food Friday program, Got Moose?
And once again, let me say that one of the things I most grateful for, not just this Thanksgiving, but for the last 25, is your ears!
Jean
Monday: Closing Guantanamo Bay: In his first televised appearance since the election, President-Elect Obama told CBS Sixty Minutes that he intends to close Guantanamo Bay prison and end the practice of torture. It turns out that’s not going to be so easy. There are 50 inmates at Guantanamo, some of them violent extremists. We’ll explore Obama’s options and look into the success rate of Islamist rehabilitation programs with Christopher Boucek in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Foundation.
Tuesday: Can the Coral Reefs Be Saved? There’s at least one success story in Apo Island in the Phillipines that suggests we can. It’s told in the Wild Reef exhibit currently at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We’ll talk with George Parsons, Director of Fishes at the Shedd about the Project Seahorse, an international group of marine biologists fighting to save the world’s underwater wonders.
Wednesday: Al Qaeda Insults Obama: A lot of people around the world are cheering Obama’s victory. Al Qaeda isn’t among them. Osama bin Laden’s top deputy went out of his way to insult the new President Elect with a racist remark last week, calling him a House Negro. We’ll talk with UW-Madison Journalism and Mass Communications Professor, Doug McLeod, about the implications of al Zawahri’s video.
Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! To celebrate, we’re featuring an encore presentation of one of our favorite holiday programs: Listening is an Act of Love with Story Corps founder David Isay.
Friday: Definitely worth hearing again at the open of the hunting season, our wild and woolly Food Friday program, Got Moose?
And once again, let me say that one of the things I most grateful for, not just this Thanksgiving, but for the last 25, is your ears!
Jean
Friday, November 14, 2008
Nov 17-21 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: The World According to Sesame Street!
Monday: Fred Ho, a one-of-a-kind Chinese-American musician, composer, writer, political activist and leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra, pre-views his upcoming performance of Revolutionary Earth Music…at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Nov. 22.
Tuesday:Finding Beauty in a Broken World: Starting from the mosaics of Ravenna, Italy, moving to her home in the American Southwest, and then to the rubble of the Rwandan genocide and elsewhere in the broken world, Terry Tempest Williams finds a way of making the world whole again using the metaphor of the mosaic.
Wednesday: The World in the Year 2033: Projections of the World Policy Institute in the next 25 years.
Thursday: The International Children’s Literature Conference is bringing Meshack Asare to campus this week. Born in Ghana, Asare is one of Africa's top children's writers and illustrators who has won numerous awards including the 1999 Unesco First Prize for Children and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance.
Friday: Everything we eat is burdened with social, political, religious, and even militarized meaning. Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States dishes out a saucy culinary feast of facts on ten controversial countries, their policies, and, of course, the food that unifies us all. Consider it a Dinner Party approach to international relations.
Tell us about your Pick of the Week on The Blog Without Borders: www.hereonearth.org.
And, as always, thanks for listening.
Jean
Monday: Fred Ho, a one-of-a-kind Chinese-American musician, composer, writer, political activist and leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra, pre-views his upcoming performance of Revolutionary Earth Music…at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Nov. 22.
Tuesday:Finding Beauty in a Broken World: Starting from the mosaics of Ravenna, Italy, moving to her home in the American Southwest, and then to the rubble of the Rwandan genocide and elsewhere in the broken world, Terry Tempest Williams finds a way of making the world whole again using the metaphor of the mosaic.
Wednesday: The World in the Year 2033: Projections of the World Policy Institute in the next 25 years.
Thursday: The International Children’s Literature Conference is bringing Meshack Asare to campus this week. Born in Ghana, Asare is one of Africa's top children's writers and illustrators who has won numerous awards including the 1999 Unesco First Prize for Children and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance.
Friday: Everything we eat is burdened with social, political, religious, and even militarized meaning. Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States dishes out a saucy culinary feast of facts on ten controversial countries, their policies, and, of course, the food that unifies us all. Consider it a Dinner Party approach to international relations.
Tell us about your Pick of the Week on The Blog Without Borders: www.hereonearth.org.
And, as always, thanks for listening.
Jean
Friday, November 07, 2008
Nov 10-14 Programs
Attention, all you boomer Beatles fans who want to "give peace a chance!" Chances are you’ll enjoy listening to Monday’s program with Philip Norman, who just published anew biography of John Lennon:
Monday: Peace activist, edgy artist, international icon. It’s hard to sum up John Lennon and his influence on fans worldwide. Biographer Philip Norman takes an unflinching look, casting light on a man who shaped a generation’s outlook on politics, religion and art.
Tuesday: Bruce Laine’s Togo Project: French filmmaker Brice Laine spent the best years of his childhood growing up in the tiny West African country of Togo where he witnessed firsthand the dramatic impact of a locally run development project that brought a dying village back to life. He made a movie about it called “The Dancing Forest” which movingly illustrates The Value of Women.
Wednesday: Feeding Haiti: Following her husband’s untimely death, Margaret Trost visited Haiti hoping to heal her broken heart through service. She partnered with a local community and together they developed a program that now serves thousands of meals to those in need. On That Day Everybody Ate tells the story of her remarkable journey.
Thursday: The World According to Sesame Street: In Germany, everybody swears Burt and Ernie are German, and you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Rubber Ducky sung in Mandarin!
Friday: Fry, Baby: It's no secret that Americans love doughnuts but it might surprise to learn that the rest of the world loves them too. The Italians have zeppole, the Mexicans have churros, and the Greeks have loukoumades.
That’s it! I’m outa here!
Jean
Monday: Peace activist, edgy artist, international icon. It’s hard to sum up John Lennon and his influence on fans worldwide. Biographer Philip Norman takes an unflinching look, casting light on a man who shaped a generation’s outlook on politics, religion and art.
Tuesday: Bruce Laine’s Togo Project: French filmmaker Brice Laine spent the best years of his childhood growing up in the tiny West African country of Togo where he witnessed firsthand the dramatic impact of a locally run development project that brought a dying village back to life. He made a movie about it called “The Dancing Forest” which movingly illustrates The Value of Women.
Wednesday: Feeding Haiti: Following her husband’s untimely death, Margaret Trost visited Haiti hoping to heal her broken heart through service. She partnered with a local community and together they developed a program that now serves thousands of meals to those in need. On That Day Everybody Ate tells the story of her remarkable journey.
Thursday: The World According to Sesame Street: In Germany, everybody swears Burt and Ernie are German, and you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Rubber Ducky sung in Mandarin!
Friday: Fry, Baby: It's no secret that Americans love doughnuts but it might surprise to learn that the rest of the world loves them too. The Italians have zeppole, the Mexicans have churros, and the Greeks have loukoumades.
That’s it! I’m outa here!
Jean
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Nov 3-7 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: What Do Vampires Eat? Really classy interaction between our Goth Prof, Neil Whitehead, and Charlaine Harris, the creator of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a sweet southern belle who was born in a cotton field and surely knows her vampires. The conversation ranged from the scary to the hilarious, from horror to glee. We even had our token Roumanian call in at the end of the hour thanking us for honoring his country! What more can you ask from a talk show? Thanks to Joe Hardtke for producing this show, and to Brian Dunbar for suggesting that we book Charlaine Harris.
Monday: While Americans are getting used to the idea that Barack Obama may become our first African-American president, what is the rest of the world saying about it? We’ll ask a group of international journalists who are here in the States studying the election and filing their reports back home.
Tuesday: The World of Children Awards: Dubbed the “Nobel Prize for Children,” the World of Children Awards program searches the globe to find and support those individuals who are pioneering life-changing programs to benefit children – and some of the honorees are children themselves!
Wednesday: She’s a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, a campaigner for young girls, fair trade and human rights. And, in her spare time, she still manages to record and perform beautiful songs with political fire. I’m Jean Feraca, join us with Grammy-Award winning singer Angelique Kidjo.
Thursday: Honor Among Thieves: I spent a glorious week on the island of Crete last summer and so, naturally, I’ve been wanting to do a program about it ever since. But I could never have imagined the turn it’s taken: Michael Herzfeld, a renowned Harvard anthropologist has been studying the politics and ethics of animal theft – something that’s been practiced in the mountain villages of Crete for eons. What does it have to do with the way we live today? Plenty.
Friday: Cinnamon – Everybody’s Favorite Spice: Where it comes from, why it’s prized, and how to work kitchen magic with it.
Happy Halloween!
Jean
Monday: While Americans are getting used to the idea that Barack Obama may become our first African-American president, what is the rest of the world saying about it? We’ll ask a group of international journalists who are here in the States studying the election and filing their reports back home.
Tuesday: The World of Children Awards: Dubbed the “Nobel Prize for Children,” the World of Children Awards program searches the globe to find and support those individuals who are pioneering life-changing programs to benefit children – and some of the honorees are children themselves!
Wednesday: She’s a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, a campaigner for young girls, fair trade and human rights. And, in her spare time, she still manages to record and perform beautiful songs with political fire. I’m Jean Feraca, join us with Grammy-Award winning singer Angelique Kidjo.
Thursday: Honor Among Thieves: I spent a glorious week on the island of Crete last summer and so, naturally, I’ve been wanting to do a program about it ever since. But I could never have imagined the turn it’s taken: Michael Herzfeld, a renowned Harvard anthropologist has been studying the politics and ethics of animal theft – something that’s been practiced in the mountain villages of Crete for eons. What does it have to do with the way we live today? Plenty.
Friday: Cinnamon – Everybody’s Favorite Spice: Where it comes from, why it’s prized, and how to work kitchen magic with it.
Happy Halloween!
Jean
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Oct 27-31 Programs
The BIG NEWS in the week ahead: Please join us for Young Muslims and the Media, the second program in our Inside Islam series coming up this Wednesday, Oct. 29th. Reza Aslan will be our main guest along with videoblogger Baba Ali and other savvy young Muslims trying to confront stereotypes and change the face of Islam. Question: Can you really fight terror with YouTube?
Monday: Life in a Jar: If it hadn’t been for three high school girls in Kansas, we might never have known about the work of Irene Sendler, an unsung heroine of the Holocaust. A Polish Catholic social worker, she saved about 2,500 Jewish children from the Waraw ghetto. We’ll talk with one of the girls, Sendler’s translator and the state of anti-semitism in Poland today.
Tuesday: My Father’s Paradise: Ariel Sabar is one of a handful of people on earth who speaks Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus. That’s because he is a Kurdish Jew. He tells the amazing story of his people who’ve managed to keep their faith, their language, and their culture alive over nearly three thousand years despite the greatest odds.
Wednesday: Young Muslims and the New Media: Way beyond Al Jazeera, the expansion of open media in the Arab world is changing the socio-political landscape of the region in dramatic ways. We’ll consider Noor - the Turkish soap opera likened to Dallas and dubbed into street Arabic that has become so wildly popular that imams in Saudi Arabia and Gaza have issued fatwas against anyone who watches it. Nobody pays attention. Or the work of Ali Ardekani, a 33-year-old videoblogger who cast as Baba Ali. He’s funny and hip and has a huge following. He’s one of a growing movement of young Muslims trying to change the face of Islam through new media. If Osama bin Laden were really smart, he’d be paying attention.
Thursday: Here on Earth Folklorist-in-Residence Harold Scheub joins us with his unique take on the folklore of Election 2008.
Friday: The fact that Halloween happens to fall on a Friday this year has not been lost on us. So our approach to food this week will be a bit deviant: You’re invited to join us at a table for the undead where you’ll find our favorite ghoul, Neil Whitehead. He can describe, with relish, just what vampires eat.
Jean
Monday: Life in a Jar: If it hadn’t been for three high school girls in Kansas, we might never have known about the work of Irene Sendler, an unsung heroine of the Holocaust. A Polish Catholic social worker, she saved about 2,500 Jewish children from the Waraw ghetto. We’ll talk with one of the girls, Sendler’s translator and the state of anti-semitism in Poland today.
Tuesday: My Father’s Paradise: Ariel Sabar is one of a handful of people on earth who speaks Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus. That’s because he is a Kurdish Jew. He tells the amazing story of his people who’ve managed to keep their faith, their language, and their culture alive over nearly three thousand years despite the greatest odds.
Wednesday: Young Muslims and the New Media: Way beyond Al Jazeera, the expansion of open media in the Arab world is changing the socio-political landscape of the region in dramatic ways. We’ll consider Noor - the Turkish soap opera likened to Dallas and dubbed into street Arabic that has become so wildly popular that imams in Saudi Arabia and Gaza have issued fatwas against anyone who watches it. Nobody pays attention. Or the work of Ali Ardekani, a 33-year-old videoblogger who cast as Baba Ali. He’s funny and hip and has a huge following. He’s one of a growing movement of young Muslims trying to change the face of Islam through new media. If Osama bin Laden were really smart, he’d be paying attention.
Thursday: Here on Earth Folklorist-in-Residence Harold Scheub joins us with his unique take on the folklore of Election 2008.
Friday: The fact that Halloween happens to fall on a Friday this year has not been lost on us. So our approach to food this week will be a bit deviant: You’re invited to join us at a table for the undead where you’ll find our favorite ghoul, Neil Whitehead. He can describe, with relish, just what vampires eat.
Jean
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Oct 20-24 Programs
Want to know what’s coming up next week?
Monday: Obama supporters may be justifiably horrified by the racism that’s been incited by the McCain campaign. But what about the potshots aimed at Sarah Palin? Richard Harwood says we are all in this together and nobody gets to higher ground unless we all hold ourselves accountable.
Tuesday: British geography teacher Daniel Raven-Ellison had an idea: choose a city, walk across it, and take a photograph every eight steps. He’s done it now in London, Mumbai, and Mexico City. He calls his project “Urban Earth.”
Wednesday: Raphael Kadushin, the editor of a new anthology of gay travel writing called Big Trips, says gays make the best travel writers because they don’t get sidetracked by tourism trivia but focus instead of the stuff that counts: love, adventure, and a new sense of place.
Thursday: Well, I expect to be preparing all week for this one: The New York Times recently profiled Alaa al Aswany, the Egyptian journalist who is also the world’s best-selling Arab-language novelist. His new novel, Chicago, is set in The Windy City with a cast of American and Arab characters “achingly human.”
Friday: (thank God) Marcella Hazan, the duenna of Italian cooking who single-handedly introduced Americans to Italian regional cooking, swore she would never write another book, but she couldn’t help herself. Borrowing from Fellini, it’s called simply Amarcord: Marcella Remembers. Don’t miss it.
Jean
Monday: Obama supporters may be justifiably horrified by the racism that’s been incited by the McCain campaign. But what about the potshots aimed at Sarah Palin? Richard Harwood says we are all in this together and nobody gets to higher ground unless we all hold ourselves accountable.
Tuesday: British geography teacher Daniel Raven-Ellison had an idea: choose a city, walk across it, and take a photograph every eight steps. He’s done it now in London, Mumbai, and Mexico City. He calls his project “Urban Earth.”
Wednesday: Raphael Kadushin, the editor of a new anthology of gay travel writing called Big Trips, says gays make the best travel writers because they don’t get sidetracked by tourism trivia but focus instead of the stuff that counts: love, adventure, and a new sense of place.
Thursday: Well, I expect to be preparing all week for this one: The New York Times recently profiled Alaa al Aswany, the Egyptian journalist who is also the world’s best-selling Arab-language novelist. His new novel, Chicago, is set in The Windy City with a cast of American and Arab characters “achingly human.”
Friday: (thank God) Marcella Hazan, the duenna of Italian cooking who single-handedly introduced Americans to Italian regional cooking, swore she would never write another book, but she couldn’t help herself. Borrowing from Fellini, it’s called simply Amarcord: Marcella Remembers. Don’t miss it.
Jean
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Oct 13-17 Programs
My Pick of the Week: Go figure, but I have to admit that the most fun I had on the radio this week was with John Nichols who is an absolute wizard as a pitching partner. He managed to build so much momentum during yesterday’s program that, after setting an arbitrary goal of 50 calls, actually generated 74! By the end of the hour, we had raised altogether over $4000 which I didn’t think was possible. So thank you so much, all of you, for making Thursday a banner pledge day for Here on Earth.
We have an indigenous theme going next week:
Monday: Columbus Day, not such a big deal here in the Midwest, but a huge deal in New York where I grew up among Italian-Americans. Since coming to Wisconsin I have become sensitized to the way Native Americans think about Columbus Day, much like a Jew who discovers the Palestinian word for “The Catastrophe.” So we’re going to focus the program around the theme of Indigenous Intelligence and talk with the director of the film Whaledreamers, about an Australian aboriginal tribe fighting for its right to existence.
Tuesday: Uwen Akpan is a Jesuit priest from Nigeria who won a prestigious award for his first collection of short stories, Say You’re One of Them, which he completed while working on his MFA in creative writing at the University of Michigan.
Wednesday: Mami Wata (pidgin English for Mother Water) A major exhibit celebrating African water spirits is opening soon at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, honoring the essential sacred nature of water. We’ll talk with UW-Madison Professor of African Art Henry Drewell, curator and sailor.
Thursday: The gifted modern nomad Stephanie Elizondo Griest (Where in the World is Stephanie?) stopped her wanderings long enough to write a probing memoir titled Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines. She’s coming to Wisconsin to take part in next week’s Book Festival and she joins live on the air today at 3:00.
Friday: We’re working on a program with Chris Fair, a political analyst and the author of the intriguing (cook?) book, Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations.
As Bugs Bunny says, That’s all, Folks!
Jean
We have an indigenous theme going next week:
Monday: Columbus Day, not such a big deal here in the Midwest, but a huge deal in New York where I grew up among Italian-Americans. Since coming to Wisconsin I have become sensitized to the way Native Americans think about Columbus Day, much like a Jew who discovers the Palestinian word for “The Catastrophe.” So we’re going to focus the program around the theme of Indigenous Intelligence and talk with the director of the film Whaledreamers, about an Australian aboriginal tribe fighting for its right to existence.
Tuesday: Uwen Akpan is a Jesuit priest from Nigeria who won a prestigious award for his first collection of short stories, Say You’re One of Them, which he completed while working on his MFA in creative writing at the University of Michigan.
Wednesday: Mami Wata (pidgin English for Mother Water) A major exhibit celebrating African water spirits is opening soon at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, honoring the essential sacred nature of water. We’ll talk with UW-Madison Professor of African Art Henry Drewell, curator and sailor.
Thursday: The gifted modern nomad Stephanie Elizondo Griest (Where in the World is Stephanie?) stopped her wanderings long enough to write a probing memoir titled Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines. She’s coming to Wisconsin to take part in next week’s Book Festival and she joins live on the air today at 3:00.
Friday: We’re working on a program with Chris Fair, a political analyst and the author of the intriguing (cook?) book, Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations.
As Bugs Bunny says, That’s all, Folks!
Jean
Friday, October 03, 2008
Oct 6-10 Programs
Friday, October 3, 2008
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying goes. The gift this week is that only two out of our five programs will be devoted to soliciting your support for WPR during this Fall Membership Drive. So if you’re as grateful for that reprieve, as I am, and you enjoy Here On Earth, especially when the programming is uninterrupted, how about a show of gratitude by pledging your support on line at wpr.org or calling in a pledge to 888- 202-2552. We are oh so grateful for your support.
Monday: Creationism Goes Global: Is creationism contagious? For years, this peculiarly American movement seemed to be contained within our borders. But in the last several years, creationism had become a global phenomenon, as readily exportable as hip-hop and bluejeans. Science historian Ron Numbers joins us along with WPR’s Steve Paulson who just returned from a trip to Turkey, one of the country’s where creationism is taking hold.
Tuesday: Refusing to be Enemies: Twelve women living in Ann Arbor, Michigan – 6 of them Arabs and the other 6 Jews – manage to accomplish together what world leaders have thus far failed to do: make peace across the great divide.
Wednesday: Monique and the Mango Rains: Years ago, when we first launched Here on Earth, we did a program with Kris Holloway, a Peace Corps volunteer whose assignment in Mali led to an extraordinary friendship with a midwife named Monique. Ironically, after Kris came back home, Monique died in childbirth, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Kris joins us with an update.
Thursday: John Nichols: A Global Perspective on the US Presidential Election.
Friday: Will Allen, ex basketball star turned urban farmer, joins to talk about Growing Power, his urban farm in downtown Milwaukee and what he plans to do with his MacArthur genius grant.
Don’t touch that dial! And don’t forget to pledge to WPR – wpr.org.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Jean
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying goes. The gift this week is that only two out of our five programs will be devoted to soliciting your support for WPR during this Fall Membership Drive. So if you’re as grateful for that reprieve, as I am, and you enjoy Here On Earth, especially when the programming is uninterrupted, how about a show of gratitude by pledging your support on line at wpr.org or calling in a pledge to 888- 202-2552. We are oh so grateful for your support.
Monday: Creationism Goes Global: Is creationism contagious? For years, this peculiarly American movement seemed to be contained within our borders. But in the last several years, creationism had become a global phenomenon, as readily exportable as hip-hop and bluejeans. Science historian Ron Numbers joins us along with WPR’s Steve Paulson who just returned from a trip to Turkey, one of the country’s where creationism is taking hold.
Tuesday: Refusing to be Enemies: Twelve women living in Ann Arbor, Michigan – 6 of them Arabs and the other 6 Jews – manage to accomplish together what world leaders have thus far failed to do: make peace across the great divide.
Wednesday: Monique and the Mango Rains: Years ago, when we first launched Here on Earth, we did a program with Kris Holloway, a Peace Corps volunteer whose assignment in Mali led to an extraordinary friendship with a midwife named Monique. Ironically, after Kris came back home, Monique died in childbirth, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Kris joins us with an update.
Thursday: John Nichols: A Global Perspective on the US Presidential Election.
Friday: Will Allen, ex basketball star turned urban farmer, joins to talk about Growing Power, his urban farm in downtown Milwaukee and what he plans to do with his MacArthur genius grant.
Don’t touch that dial! And don’t forget to pledge to WPR – wpr.org.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Jean
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sept 29 - Oct 3 Programs
It’s been a challenging and eventful week: If you didn’t get a chance to listen to “Heavy Metal Islam,” the first program in our new series, Inside Islam: Dialogues and Debates, please check it out and let us know what you think. We’re producing this series in a whole new way, asking for direct feedback and help in shaping it through our interactive blog: insideislam.wisc.edu.Our October Membership Drive begins this week but before you start groaning, here’s the good news: Here on Earth gets a reprieve. We will only be actively pitching your support in three out of eight hours. Mercy.
Here’s the line-up:
Monday: WHEN JUDGES MAKE FOREIGN POLICY, Noah Feldman describes the sharp rift in the US Supreme Court that has emerged since 9/11 on international law. The justices, writes Feldman, “are doing as much as anyone to shape America's fortunes in an age of global terror and economic turmoil.”
Tuesday: Hooman Majd, born in Tehran and grandson of an ayatollah, serves as translator for Iranian President Ahmadinejad. He unravels the conundrums of his native country in his book The Ayatollah Begs to Differ.
Wednesday: The Sugar Creek Morland Project: An Anglo-American mission of friendship and understanding uniting children who share a common language but are separated by an ocean. Verona, Wisconsin meets Ipswich, England.
Thursday: Refusing to be Enemies: Twelve women living in Ann Arbor, Michigan – 6 of them Arabs and the other 6 Jews – manage to accomplish together what world leaders have thus far failed to do: make peace across the great divide.
Friday: We’re trying to get Will Allen, ex basketball star turned urban farmer to join us on the air to talk about Growing Power and what he plans to do with his MacArthur genius grant.
N.B. We could really use your help in lining up some great food programs with an international focus in the coming weeks. Mushrooms? Truffles?
Jean
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Sept 22-26 Programs
BIG BANNER NEWS OF THE WEEK: HERE ON EARTH LAUNCHES BLOCKBUSTER NEW MEDIA SERIES: INSIDE ISLAM Starts this Thursday, Sept. 25!
Monday: You won't want to miss this one either: For this year’s Fall Equinox Poetry Circle of the Air Molly Peacock has chosen a really edgy poem written by the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam in 1918, on the heels of the Bolshevik Revolution. Very hard-hitting; has much to say about our own sense of sturm und drang in this highly pivotal political year. Check out the poem on our website: www.hereonearth.org.
Tuesday: We discovered a true Here-on-Earthian in Jon Miller, Executive Producer of the NPR series "Worlds of Difference," and "Think Global," the 2005 Public Radio Collaboration on globalization.
Wednesday: Daughters of India: A program that will make you reassess your impressions of Indian women, not as victims of repression, but as spirited and self-empowered professionals competing in a male society, entering the marketplace, and breaking with centuries-old traditions.
Thursday: You've heard tales of the Mujahababes, and the Girls of Riyadh on Here on Earth. Now get ready for Heavy Metal Islam! This premier program in our year-long new media series we’re producing with UW-Madison Global Studies, (and lots of help from our friends– check out our blog: insideislam.wisc.edu) features scholar/musician Mark Levine who jams with Moroccan bands, members of a heavy metal Bagdad band, and Allah only knows who else.
Food Friday: The Big Apple Family and what we all owe to the bears!
It wouldn't be worth doing any of this without you!
Please join us with your ears, minds, and hearts wide open.
Thanks so much,
Jean
Monday: You won't want to miss this one either: For this year’s Fall Equinox Poetry Circle of the Air Molly Peacock has chosen a really edgy poem written by the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam in 1918, on the heels of the Bolshevik Revolution. Very hard-hitting; has much to say about our own sense of sturm und drang in this highly pivotal political year. Check out the poem on our website: www.hereonearth.org.
Tuesday: We discovered a true Here-on-Earthian in Jon Miller, Executive Producer of the NPR series "Worlds of Difference," and "Think Global," the 2005 Public Radio Collaboration on globalization.
Wednesday: Daughters of India: A program that will make you reassess your impressions of Indian women, not as victims of repression, but as spirited and self-empowered professionals competing in a male society, entering the marketplace, and breaking with centuries-old traditions.
Thursday: You've heard tales of the Mujahababes, and the Girls of Riyadh on Here on Earth. Now get ready for Heavy Metal Islam! This premier program in our year-long new media series we’re producing with UW-Madison Global Studies, (and lots of help from our friends– check out our blog: insideislam.wisc.edu) features scholar/musician Mark Levine who jams with Moroccan bands, members of a heavy metal Bagdad band, and Allah only knows who else.
Food Friday: The Big Apple Family and what we all owe to the bears!
It wouldn't be worth doing any of this without you!
Please join us with your ears, minds, and hearts wide open.
Thanks so much,
Jean
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sept 15-19 Programs
Hello Here-on-Earthlings!
I hope you have listened to our program on last Thursday about Nation Beat. They are such a joyful band to listen to that all of us in the studio were clapping and dancing with them. Pure fun.
Jean is coming back on Monday and we have prepared the following programs for the next week.
Monday: Being Young and Arab in America. How does it feel to be a problem? W.E.B. Du Bois first posed this question in his classic, The Souls of Black Folk, and now, over a century later, Moustafa Bayoumi explores the same question through the first-hand accounts of seven young Arab and Muslim Americans.
Tuesday: Field Guide to the British. Sarah Lyall is a London correspondent for the New York Times who has written in the words of critic Malcolm Gladstone, "an exquisite, hilarious, and devastating dissection of the British psyche."
Wednesday: Prescription for Survival. 87-year old Dr. Bernard Lown is a cardiologist who invented the defibrillator before cofounding the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He joins us to talk about his Prescription for Survival.
Thursday: Beatrice's Goat is a children's book that tells the story of a little girl growing in Uganda too poor to go to school. The gift of a goat named Luck changed her life. Beatrice is now working on her masters degree at the Clinton School for Public Service in Arkansas.
Friday: We are still looking for a food program. Any suggestions?
Lisa Bu
Web Producer
Here on Earth
I hope you have listened to our program on last Thursday about Nation Beat. They are such a joyful band to listen to that all of us in the studio were clapping and dancing with them. Pure fun.
Jean is coming back on Monday and we have prepared the following programs for the next week.
Monday: Being Young and Arab in America. How does it feel to be a problem? W.E.B. Du Bois first posed this question in his classic, The Souls of Black Folk, and now, over a century later, Moustafa Bayoumi explores the same question through the first-hand accounts of seven young Arab and Muslim Americans.
Tuesday: Field Guide to the British. Sarah Lyall is a London correspondent for the New York Times who has written in the words of critic Malcolm Gladstone, "an exquisite, hilarious, and devastating dissection of the British psyche."
Wednesday: Prescription for Survival. 87-year old Dr. Bernard Lown is a cardiologist who invented the defibrillator before cofounding the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He joins us to talk about his Prescription for Survival.
Thursday: Beatrice's Goat is a children's book that tells the story of a little girl growing in Uganda too poor to go to school. The gift of a goat named Luck changed her life. Beatrice is now working on her masters degree at the Clinton School for Public Service in Arkansas.
Friday: We are still looking for a food program. Any suggestions?
Lisa Bu
Web Producer
Here on Earth
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