Jean’s Pick of the Week: As the host of Here on Earth, I relish every opportunity to bring great breakthrough stories in world news to the airwaves, so Tuesday’s program about the women of Liberia and their extraordinary success in ending a particularly brutal civil war and bringing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to power was a joy for me. That having been said, I also greatly enjoyed Wednesday’s program with British psychologist Adam Philips talking about the forgotten pleasures of kindness. It brought out so many wonderful responses from callers.
NB: Get ready on Tuesday for Ramadan: The Fast and The Feast, another program in our ongoing series Inside Islam.
Monday: Elle Es el Matador: Just when bullfighting per se is going out of fashion, along comes this POV documentary about Female matadors. In Elle Es el Matador (She is the Matador) Spanish filmmakers Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco discover a long and surprising history of women with a passion for this theatrical and bloody ritual.
Tuesday: *Inside Islam: Ramadan: The Fast and the Feast: Why is fasting common to almost all faiths? Why do Muslims the world over look forward with joy to a month of fasting? What are the special challenges that American Muslims face? And what are the Ramadan specials that Arab Muslims are watching on satellite tv? Guests: Naeem Randhawa, director of American Ramadan; Souheila Al-Jadda, producer of Ramadan Primetime. Don’t miss this fascinating and fun show.
Wednesday: Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories: In 2003 Anna Baltzer visited the West Bank to discover for herself the realities of everyday life for Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation. Apart from details about checkpoints, land settlements, etc. what’s new here is accounts of non-violent resistance that remain largely ignored by mainstream Western media.
Thursday: Permaculture Made Real: Mark Sheperd’s New Forest Farm: We talked with one of the gurus of permaculture in the Midwest during our broadcast from the Energy Fair earlier this summer. In this follow-up program we explore with Mark Sheperd what it’s like to be a permaculture farmer. Mark Shepard’s New Forest Farm in southwestern Wisconsin was one of the very first examples of permaculture farming in the United States. Can you design a farm to be as self-sufficient as a forest?
Friday: To be announced.
What’s YOUR pick of the week? We’d love to know. Please write to us at hereonearth@wpr.org or leave a message on our hotline: 1-877-GLOBE07. And thanks for listening.
Jean
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Aug 24-28 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the (Short) Week: I really enjoyed the mental workout on Wednesday’s program Into the Wild on international nature writing. There was a moment of real revelation when I surprised myself by blurting out, “There is no such thing as nature.” The fact is – and this is what emerged in the course of the conversation – what we call “nature” differs dramatically from culture to culture and is heavily influenced by religious belief. The transcendentalists looked to nature as a way to get beyond ordinary experience. But our Pilgrim ancestors thought of the wilderness as an evil place full of heathens and devils. I still think we need a new kind of nature writing, one that displaces Adam from the Garden of Eden, and comes to terms with the new evolutionary understanding that we are as much the product of evolutionary processes as trees and bats and wolves – all those things that we persist in thinking are “Out there.” There is no escaping nature or ourselves, and whatever fate lies in store for the planet - i.e. “Nature” - is entirely in our hands.
Next Week on Here on Earth:
Monday: Cold: With the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet, Bill Streever, author of Cold, takes us into places most people never venture : the coldest places on earth. In July, he immerses himself in 35 degree F. water on a beach three hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, to experience firsthand the laws of thermodynamics!
Tuesday: Pray the Devil Back to Hell: The amazing story of how Liberian women forced an end to a brutal civil war and brought Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to lead an African nation, to power. We’ll talk with producer Abigail Disney.
Wednesday: On Kindness: British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips argues that a life lived in instinctive, sympathetic identification with others is the one we should allow ourselves to live.
Thursday: We’ll be commemorating the 46th anniversary of the March on Washington—at which Marion Anderson sang—with composer Bruce Adolphe and librettist Carolivia Herron, creators of the one-act opera, Let Freedom Sing: The Story of Marian Anderson.
Friday: The Psychology of Wine: Writer/sommelier son and psychologist father, Evan and Brian Mitchell present their case with humor and verve: that wine has evolved to be a mirror of ourselves.
Nice line-up?
Have a great weekend,
Jean
Next Week on Here on Earth:
Monday: Cold: With the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet, Bill Streever, author of Cold, takes us into places most people never venture : the coldest places on earth. In July, he immerses himself in 35 degree F. water on a beach three hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, to experience firsthand the laws of thermodynamics!
Tuesday: Pray the Devil Back to Hell: The amazing story of how Liberian women forced an end to a brutal civil war and brought Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to lead an African nation, to power. We’ll talk with producer Abigail Disney.
Wednesday: On Kindness: British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips argues that a life lived in instinctive, sympathetic identification with others is the one we should allow ourselves to live.
Thursday: We’ll be commemorating the 46th anniversary of the March on Washington—at which Marion Anderson sang—with composer Bruce Adolphe and librettist Carolivia Herron, creators of the one-act opera, Let Freedom Sing: The Story of Marian Anderson.
Friday: The Psychology of Wine: Writer/sommelier son and psychologist father, Evan and Brian Mitchell present their case with humor and verve: that wine has evolved to be a mirror of ourselves.
Nice line-up?
Have a great weekend,
Jean
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Aug 17-21 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Well, you know me, I always go for the fun show. So, even though we had a lot of meat this week, what with Hooman Majd sorting out some of the complexities in Iran, and Christopher Caldwell dancing around Muslims in Europe, my pick goes to Paul Theroux. I’m taking my copy of Ghost Train to the Eastern Star with me to read to my husband on our road trip this weekend. And didn’t Joe do a great job finding the perfect train music?
Lori Skelton will be filling in for me on Monday and Tuesday of this week while I’m at a family reunion in North Carolina. Thanks Lori! Here are Lori’s notes for Monday and Tuesday’s shows:
Monday: Life Lessons from West Africa: Wisconsin graduate student Katie Krueger went to Senegal intending to improve her French and expand her knowledge of economics, but soon discovered that “Man plans, God decides.” In adopting the Senegalese way of life, Katie learned to replace efficiency with meaning, eventually creating a non-profit program to feed schoolchildren in Dakar. Her book is Give With Gratitude – Lessons Learned Listening to West Africa.
Tuesday: The S/V Denis Sullivan: In 1991, a small group of Milwaukeeans dreamed of building a tall ship to honor Wisconsin’s maritime heritage and work to improve the health of Wisconsin waters. Today, The S/V Denis Sullivan is a floating classroom and laboratory for freshwater exploration, science education and nautical training, sailing throughout the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean and the Carribean.
Wednesday: Into the Wild: International Nature Writing: Words Without Borders is devoting the first of two issues of the online mag to nature writing, but don’t expect to find any Wordsworths, Thoreaus, or Leopolds in this packet. It’s not nature writing in the usual sense that the editors are after, but rather the confrontation between humans and their environment. Interesting stuff. From lyrical reports about life in unfamiliar territories, both hot and cold, to brooding accounts of the fever that nature puts into the mind and work of writers around the world.
Thursday: We’re working on a program about Afghanistan's presidential election.
Friday: The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Too many tomatoes? (there can never be too many tomatoes). Tune in for classic and exotic recipes from around the world with Brian Yarvin, author of The Too Many Tomatoes Cookbook.
I hope you’re enjoying these lazy hazy last days of summer as much as I am.
Jean
Lori Skelton will be filling in for me on Monday and Tuesday of this week while I’m at a family reunion in North Carolina. Thanks Lori! Here are Lori’s notes for Monday and Tuesday’s shows:
Monday: Life Lessons from West Africa: Wisconsin graduate student Katie Krueger went to Senegal intending to improve her French and expand her knowledge of economics, but soon discovered that “Man plans, God decides.” In adopting the Senegalese way of life, Katie learned to replace efficiency with meaning, eventually creating a non-profit program to feed schoolchildren in Dakar. Her book is Give With Gratitude – Lessons Learned Listening to West Africa.
Tuesday: The S/V Denis Sullivan: In 1991, a small group of Milwaukeeans dreamed of building a tall ship to honor Wisconsin’s maritime heritage and work to improve the health of Wisconsin waters. Today, The S/V Denis Sullivan is a floating classroom and laboratory for freshwater exploration, science education and nautical training, sailing throughout the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean and the Carribean.
Wednesday: Into the Wild: International Nature Writing: Words Without Borders is devoting the first of two issues of the online mag to nature writing, but don’t expect to find any Wordsworths, Thoreaus, or Leopolds in this packet. It’s not nature writing in the usual sense that the editors are after, but rather the confrontation between humans and their environment. Interesting stuff. From lyrical reports about life in unfamiliar territories, both hot and cold, to brooding accounts of the fever that nature puts into the mind and work of writers around the world.
Thursday: We’re working on a program about Afghanistan's presidential election.
Friday: The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Too many tomatoes? (there can never be too many tomatoes). Tune in for classic and exotic recipes from around the world with Brian Yarvin, author of The Too Many Tomatoes Cookbook.
I hope you’re enjoying these lazy hazy last days of summer as much as I am.
Jean
Friday, August 07, 2009
Aug 10-14 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Apologizing for Slavery: What a head spinning show this was, with multiple perspectives coming from both guests and lots of great callers.
Here’s what’s in the works for the coming week on Here on Earth: What a line-up!
Monday: Imperial: William T. Vollmann’s latest blockbuster concerns the tragic and volatile U.S.-Mexico borderland of extreme southeastern California Imperial County, where he spent ten years talking with everyone from farmers to border patrolmen to prostitutes in his search for the fading American-Mexican dream.
Tuesday: Instability in Iran: As Iranian President Ahmadinejad is sworn in for a second term, the ceremony itself shows deep riffs in Iran’s ruling elite. Hooman Majd, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, joins us with analysis of the complexities of the current situation.
Wednesday: Travel writer Paul Theroux took a train from Europe to East Asia half a lifetime ago and wrote about it in the book now considered a classic, The Great Railway Bazaar. Thirty-three years later he retraces his steps and finds a vastly different world in Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.
Thursday: Muslims in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West: Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe has been called a how not-to book about immigration. P.J. O'Rourke says "Thanks to Caldwell’s careful reporting and keen analysis we know exactly what we shouldn't do when new people move to our country."
Friday: Here’s Julie!: Julie Powell joins us to talk about her misadventures with Julia Child. The New York administrative assistant wrote a 2003 blog about her yearlong effort to cook all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The blog inspired Julie and Julia, the new culinary movie starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child.
Is that enough for one week on Here on Earth? Does it make up for some of the goofs we’ve had lately? Tell us about your ideas for topics and guests on our show. August is a difficult month to book. We could use your help. Send your program ideas to hereonearth@wpr.org. And thanks!
Jean
Here’s what’s in the works for the coming week on Here on Earth: What a line-up!
Monday: Imperial: William T. Vollmann’s latest blockbuster concerns the tragic and volatile U.S.-Mexico borderland of extreme southeastern California Imperial County, where he spent ten years talking with everyone from farmers to border patrolmen to prostitutes in his search for the fading American-Mexican dream.
Tuesday: Instability in Iran: As Iranian President Ahmadinejad is sworn in for a second term, the ceremony itself shows deep riffs in Iran’s ruling elite. Hooman Majd, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, joins us with analysis of the complexities of the current situation.
Wednesday: Travel writer Paul Theroux took a train from Europe to East Asia half a lifetime ago and wrote about it in the book now considered a classic, The Great Railway Bazaar. Thirty-three years later he retraces his steps and finds a vastly different world in Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.
Thursday: Muslims in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West: Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe has been called a how not-to book about immigration. P.J. O'Rourke says "Thanks to Caldwell’s careful reporting and keen analysis we know exactly what we shouldn't do when new people move to our country."
Friday: Here’s Julie!: Julie Powell joins us to talk about her misadventures with Julia Child. The New York administrative assistant wrote a 2003 blog about her yearlong effort to cook all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The blog inspired Julie and Julia, the new culinary movie starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child.
Is that enough for one week on Here on Earth? Does it make up for some of the goofs we’ve had lately? Tell us about your ideas for topics and guests on our show. August is a difficult month to book. We could use your help. Send your program ideas to hereonearth@wpr.org. And thanks!
Jean
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Aug 3-7 Programs
Friday, July 31, 2009 (Primo Levi’s 90th birthday!)
July is dust; here’s what’s coming up on Here on Earth on the first week in August:
Jean’s Pick of the Week: China Safari: Beijing’s Expansion into Africa: How refreshing to get a balanced view of China’s adventures in Africa from two European journalists. Paolo Woods’ photographs were particularly telling and so much fun to describe. Neocolonialism? Or China testing its master plan to take over the world – not militarily, but through capitalism at its most ruthless. Ouch!
Monday: Interested in coaching a kids’ soccer team in Senegal? Helping to protect sea turtles in Georgia? Monitoring climate change in the Arctic? Maybe work with AIDS orphans in Zambia? Pam Grout joins us to talk about the best of 100 Volunteer Vacations to enrich your life.
Tuesday: The Power of Apology: The recent arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates re-ignited the national conversation about racism. Not so, the apology for slavery that just went through Congress with hardly a whisper. What’s the purpose of such an apology and can it really contribute to racial healing? Join us to advance the conversation with Professor Roger Conner, and professional mediator Marvin Johnson.
Wednesday: Tracking the Global Gumshoe: In the last 20 years Noir has gone global, with Swedish fiction writer Stieg Larsson copping the number two place as best selling author in the US, and crime fiction showing up in countries like Algeria, Turkey, and India. Join us with Detectives Beyond Borders blogger Peter Rozovsky and Delhi Noir editor Hirsh Sawhney.
Thursday: Are we “wired” to cooperate? Primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy makes her case based on her study of the social and caretaking activities of our great ape ancestors. Join us as we discuss her latest book, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.
Friday: The Beer Summit and who the heck wants to drink Bud Lite? (And I thought he had class) . Join us on the eve of the Great Taste of the Midwest to find out about the latest innovations in the world of microbreweries.
All good?
Have a great weekend and don’t forget to tune in next week!
Jean
July is dust; here’s what’s coming up on Here on Earth on the first week in August:
Jean’s Pick of the Week: China Safari: Beijing’s Expansion into Africa: How refreshing to get a balanced view of China’s adventures in Africa from two European journalists. Paolo Woods’ photographs were particularly telling and so much fun to describe. Neocolonialism? Or China testing its master plan to take over the world – not militarily, but through capitalism at its most ruthless. Ouch!
Monday: Interested in coaching a kids’ soccer team in Senegal? Helping to protect sea turtles in Georgia? Monitoring climate change in the Arctic? Maybe work with AIDS orphans in Zambia? Pam Grout joins us to talk about the best of 100 Volunteer Vacations to enrich your life.
Tuesday: The Power of Apology: The recent arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates re-ignited the national conversation about racism. Not so, the apology for slavery that just went through Congress with hardly a whisper. What’s the purpose of such an apology and can it really contribute to racial healing? Join us to advance the conversation with Professor Roger Conner, and professional mediator Marvin Johnson.
Wednesday: Tracking the Global Gumshoe: In the last 20 years Noir has gone global, with Swedish fiction writer Stieg Larsson copping the number two place as best selling author in the US, and crime fiction showing up in countries like Algeria, Turkey, and India. Join us with Detectives Beyond Borders blogger Peter Rozovsky and Delhi Noir editor Hirsh Sawhney.
Thursday: Are we “wired” to cooperate? Primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy makes her case based on her study of the social and caretaking activities of our great ape ancestors. Join us as we discuss her latest book, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.
Friday: The Beer Summit and who the heck wants to drink Bud Lite? (And I thought he had class) . Join us on the eve of the Great Taste of the Midwest to find out about the latest innovations in the world of microbreweries.
All good?
Have a great weekend and don’t forget to tune in next week!
Jean
Saturday, July 25, 2009
July 27-31 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: I was very happy with the way this week’s Inside Islam program about Aisha, the Prophet Mohammed’s favorite wife, turned out. Kamran Pasha is Hollywood’s only Muslim producer and writing the historical novel, Mother of the Believers , was a labor of love for him. In general, I’m not much of a fan of historical novels, but I did learn quite a bit about the origins of Islam from reading it and Aisha was a genuine little spitfire – my kind of woman, and Pasha has a such a cinematic imagination, I kept seeing the book as a movie. Alas, that will never happen since portraying the Prophet is forbidden in Islam. Jennifer Heath provided a great counterpoint to Pasha and the callers – a convert, a Jew, and a young woman – contributed quite a bit. Check it out if you haven’t heard it already.
We got quite a bit of feedback from our show on Reforming Health Care last Wednesday, and you’ll notice that we’re continuing the theme this week:
Monday: Will to Live: Aids Therapies and the Politics of Survival: Success stories about HIV-AIDS are scant, but we found one in Princeton University anthropologist Joao Biehl’s moving account of how Brazil got its act together and became the first nation to provide free treatment to all, in spite of inequities.
Tuesday: China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing’s Expansion in Africa: China's growing investment in Africa is causing both excitement for those who see better trade, infrastructure, and resources finally being invested in the continent, while others worry about corruption and exploitation. Author Serge Michel is former West Africa correspondent for Le Monde; we’ll also talk with photo-journalist Paolo Woods.
Wednesday: Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, is being considered by the Obama administration to head up USAID. Since 1987, his NGO has been highly successful in delivering health care in poor countries like Haiti. We'll talk with PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl.
Thursday: Primo Levi: I’m a great fan of the Italian humanist Primo Levi, best known as a memoirist of Auschwitz, but he was also a scientist, fiction writer, and poet: in short, a Renaissance man. Primo Levi’s Universe by Sam Magavern, published to coincide with Levi’s 90th anniversary on July 31st, gives us a chance to find out what made this great humanist tick.
Friday: We’re hoping to book Bittman to talk about his new book, Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express, featured this week in the New York Times article, “The Minimalist: 101 Simple Salads for the Season.”
It’s been a long week. Have a great weekend, everybody!
Jean
We got quite a bit of feedback from our show on Reforming Health Care last Wednesday, and you’ll notice that we’re continuing the theme this week:
Monday: Will to Live: Aids Therapies and the Politics of Survival: Success stories about HIV-AIDS are scant, but we found one in Princeton University anthropologist Joao Biehl’s moving account of how Brazil got its act together and became the first nation to provide free treatment to all, in spite of inequities.
Tuesday: China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing’s Expansion in Africa: China's growing investment in Africa is causing both excitement for those who see better trade, infrastructure, and resources finally being invested in the continent, while others worry about corruption and exploitation. Author Serge Michel is former West Africa correspondent for Le Monde; we’ll also talk with photo-journalist Paolo Woods.
Wednesday: Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, is being considered by the Obama administration to head up USAID. Since 1987, his NGO has been highly successful in delivering health care in poor countries like Haiti. We'll talk with PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl.
Thursday: Primo Levi: I’m a great fan of the Italian humanist Primo Levi, best known as a memoirist of Auschwitz, but he was also a scientist, fiction writer, and poet: in short, a Renaissance man. Primo Levi’s Universe by Sam Magavern, published to coincide with Levi’s 90th anniversary on July 31st, gives us a chance to find out what made this great humanist tick.
Friday: We’re hoping to book Bittman to talk about his new book, Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express, featured this week in the New York Times article, “The Minimalist: 101 Simple Salads for the Season.”
It’s been a long week. Have a great weekend, everybody!
Jean
Sunday, July 19, 2009
July 20-24 Programs
Jean is returning on Monday! Here's our lineup for next week.
Monday: Best Volunteer Vacations. Pam Grout is author of several travel books and in her new book, The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life, she has compiled everything you need to start planning your first (or second) "feel good" vacation. Join our conversation about how to bring added value to your vacations through volunteer work.
Tuesday: Mother of the Believers. Kamran Pasha will join us for our next Inside Islam program to talk about his book, Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam. This novel tells the story of the rise of Islam through the eyes of Aisha, the Prophet Muhammad’s youngest wife and one of the most influential women in Islamic history. As Mother of the Believers shows, Aisha is more than the controversy around her age; she was a teacher, political leader, a warrior, and, with her incredible memory, an invaluable source of information on all aspects of the Prophet Muhammad’s life.
Wednesday: Global views on healthcare. A healthcare bill is slated to be up for a vote in the House by the end of the month. Wednesday we speak with doctor, educator, and international healthcare advocate, Cynthia Haq, about her work to increase access to healthcare both here in the United States and abroad and the lessons she’s learned about public healthcare in China, Mexico, Uganda, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Thursday: President Obama stopped in Moscow on his recent trip abroad to discuss nuclear proliferation, hoping to find an opportunity for the two nations to finally move away from a Cold War mentality. But what does civil society look like in Russia and does Russian youth really represent a turn away from old ideologies? We’ll speak with UW-Madison sociology professor and Director of the Center for Russian, East Europe, and Central Asia who participated in a meeting between the President and civil society leaders in Moscow.
Friday: Have you ever wished you could experience an historical period first hand? What do you know about the Ottoman Empire? This Food Friday, professional chef and food historian Channon Mondoux invites us to Sarayi in Turkey to relive an ancient feast in the palace of Suleyman the Magnificent. Join us for the history, food, and music of this culturally distinct time and place.
Happy listening,
Here on Earth team
Monday: Best Volunteer Vacations. Pam Grout is author of several travel books and in her new book, The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life, she has compiled everything you need to start planning your first (or second) "feel good" vacation. Join our conversation about how to bring added value to your vacations through volunteer work.
Tuesday: Mother of the Believers. Kamran Pasha will join us for our next Inside Islam program to talk about his book, Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam. This novel tells the story of the rise of Islam through the eyes of Aisha, the Prophet Muhammad’s youngest wife and one of the most influential women in Islamic history. As Mother of the Believers shows, Aisha is more than the controversy around her age; she was a teacher, political leader, a warrior, and, with her incredible memory, an invaluable source of information on all aspects of the Prophet Muhammad’s life.
Wednesday: Global views on healthcare. A healthcare bill is slated to be up for a vote in the House by the end of the month. Wednesday we speak with doctor, educator, and international healthcare advocate, Cynthia Haq, about her work to increase access to healthcare both here in the United States and abroad and the lessons she’s learned about public healthcare in China, Mexico, Uganda, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Thursday: President Obama stopped in Moscow on his recent trip abroad to discuss nuclear proliferation, hoping to find an opportunity for the two nations to finally move away from a Cold War mentality. But what does civil society look like in Russia and does Russian youth really represent a turn away from old ideologies? We’ll speak with UW-Madison sociology professor and Director of the Center for Russian, East Europe, and Central Asia who participated in a meeting between the President and civil society leaders in Moscow.
Friday: Have you ever wished you could experience an historical period first hand? What do you know about the Ottoman Empire? This Food Friday, professional chef and food historian Channon Mondoux invites us to Sarayi in Turkey to relive an ancient feast in the palace of Suleyman the Magnificent. Join us for the history, food, and music of this culturally distinct time and place.
Happy listening,
Here on Earth team
Sunday, July 12, 2009
July 13-17 Programs
Jean will be on vacation next week. But the show goes on. Here's what we have prepared for you:
Monday: Welcome to Ghana! Obama speaks from Ghana over the weekend and on Monday we’ll bring on some experts on Ghana and Africa to talk about Ghana’s place in Africa and what Africans can expect during the Obama administration. With us are: Vincent Odamttenk, professor of English at Hamilton college, and Adotei Akwei, vice president of government affairs at Care USA.
Tuesday: Mozambique’s Majestic Gorongosa National Park: Did you catch the 60 Minutes segment with Gregory Carr, social entrepreneur and founder of the Carr foundation? We’ll continue this week’s focus on Africa with a conversation with Gregory Carr about his work in Mozambique to preserve its natural resources and native animal species.
Wednesday: The Happiness Project: There are so many studies these days that try to figure out who are the happiest people in the world. The verdict is still out, but Charles Spearin has found a unique take on the question through his music. You might know Spearin as a member of the Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene. With his new solo album, The Happiness Project, he asked his friends and neighbors to speak about what makes them happy and then transformed their voices into musical notes and songs. Listening to the musicality of unique people talking about their happiness might just give us a new way to measure the good things in life. You can read more about Spearin’s Happiness Project, watch a music video and leave questions for the upcoming interview at the Blog Without Borders.
Thursday: Do you think of hot and dusty offices in LA and New York when you think of Noir? It has expanded to Scandinavia, Ireland, Italy, and even Israel, India, and Trinidad! We explore the ever-widening popularity of crime fiction and noir around the world. What international crime fiction are you reading?
Friday: Today we rebroadcast one of our favorite Food Friday shows from our archive: Cuisines of the Axis of Evil, which aired last November. Author Chris Fair dishes out a culinary feast of facts on ten controversial countries, hoping to find an edible approach to foreign relations.
Happy listening,
Here on Earth team.
Monday: Welcome to Ghana! Obama speaks from Ghana over the weekend and on Monday we’ll bring on some experts on Ghana and Africa to talk about Ghana’s place in Africa and what Africans can expect during the Obama administration. With us are: Vincent Odamttenk, professor of English at Hamilton college, and Adotei Akwei, vice president of government affairs at Care USA.
Tuesday: Mozambique’s Majestic Gorongosa National Park: Did you catch the 60 Minutes segment with Gregory Carr, social entrepreneur and founder of the Carr foundation? We’ll continue this week’s focus on Africa with a conversation with Gregory Carr about his work in Mozambique to preserve its natural resources and native animal species.
Wednesday: The Happiness Project: There are so many studies these days that try to figure out who are the happiest people in the world. The verdict is still out, but Charles Spearin has found a unique take on the question through his music. You might know Spearin as a member of the Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene. With his new solo album, The Happiness Project, he asked his friends and neighbors to speak about what makes them happy and then transformed their voices into musical notes and songs. Listening to the musicality of unique people talking about their happiness might just give us a new way to measure the good things in life. You can read more about Spearin’s Happiness Project, watch a music video and leave questions for the upcoming interview at the Blog Without Borders.
Thursday: Do you think of hot and dusty offices in LA and New York when you think of Noir? It has expanded to Scandinavia, Ireland, Italy, and even Israel, India, and Trinidad! We explore the ever-widening popularity of crime fiction and noir around the world. What international crime fiction are you reading?
Friday: Today we rebroadcast one of our favorite Food Friday shows from our archive: Cuisines of the Axis of Evil, which aired last November. Author Chris Fair dishes out a culinary feast of facts on ten controversial countries, hoping to find an edible approach to foreign relations.
Happy listening,
Here on Earth team.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
July 6-10 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Bruce Adolphe on Self Comes to Mind: From the first moment I spied the headline in the New York Times: Music as the Evolution of Human Consciousness and read the review of the performance that took place at the Museum of Natural History in New York City the night before (ouch! I missed it by three blocks), I knew I wanted to do a program about it. We didn’t have the benefit of Hanna Damasio’s brain imagery to watch, but we did have the composer himself and his music, plus some of the best moments from the conversation that took place between Bruce, Antonio Damasio and Yo Yo Ma directly following the performance. Not as good as being there, but, all in all, pretty terrific. God bless radio.
Here’s what’s coming up on Here on Earth the first week in July:
Monday: Sex and the City (Beirut, that is): She’s very brave and very beautiful. Poet Joumana Haddad has launched Jasad in Beirut, a quarterly magazine in Arabic featuring sex and the human body that’s breaking all the taboos.
Tuesday: Biomimicry: Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Science writer Janine Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels.
Wednesday: Travels Along the Camino De Santiago: An international bestseller, and soon to be released as a major motion picture, I’m Off Then is German comedian Hape Kerkeling’s account of his travails along the Camino De Santiago, Spain’s most traveled pilgrim’s route since the first century AD.
Thursday: President Obama will be giving his next big speech on July 11, this time from Ghana. Although it’s angered a lot of other African nations, the choice of Ghana seems calculated to reinforce the idea of Africa as a place of emergence rather than of despair since Ghana is Africa’s success story in terms of its economy and its democracy. Guest to be announced.
Friday: All about Ice Cream (repeat): Enjoying a cool sweet treat on a hot day is a beloved pastime for people around the world. We explore the history, culture, and flavors of ice cream in America, gelato in Italy, and kulfi in India.
Jean
Here’s what’s coming up on Here on Earth the first week in July:
Monday: Sex and the City (Beirut, that is): She’s very brave and very beautiful. Poet Joumana Haddad has launched Jasad in Beirut, a quarterly magazine in Arabic featuring sex and the human body that’s breaking all the taboos.
Tuesday: Biomimicry: Forget the notion that technology improves upon nature. Science writer Janine Benyus introduces us to pioneering engineers making technological breakthroughs by uncovering and copying nature's hidden marvels.
Wednesday: Travels Along the Camino De Santiago: An international bestseller, and soon to be released as a major motion picture, I’m Off Then is German comedian Hape Kerkeling’s account of his travails along the Camino De Santiago, Spain’s most traveled pilgrim’s route since the first century AD.
Thursday: President Obama will be giving his next big speech on July 11, this time from Ghana. Although it’s angered a lot of other African nations, the choice of Ghana seems calculated to reinforce the idea of Africa as a place of emergence rather than of despair since Ghana is Africa’s success story in terms of its economy and its democracy. Guest to be announced.
Friday: All about Ice Cream (repeat): Enjoying a cool sweet treat on a hot day is a beloved pastime for people around the world. We explore the history, culture, and flavors of ice cream in America, gelato in Italy, and kulfi in India.
Jean
Friday, June 26, 2009
June 29 - July 3 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: John Nichols nailed it on Monday’s show about Obama’s response to Iran when he predicted that the President would make a stronger statement before the week’s end. As it turned out, we had only to wait another 24 hours. And the for sheer fun, I really enjoyed Wednesday’s hilarious conversation with Jag Bhalla, author of I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears, about idioms from around the world. Contributions from callers were every bit as funny as those in his collection, eg: “I’m going to play chess with the Pope.” That’s Icelandic for “I have to go to the WC.”
Here’s what’s ahead on Here on Earth as we lean into the Fourth of July:
Monday: Persian Girls: Having grown up female in Iran just prior to the 1979 Revolution, Nahid Rachlin knows a thing or two about social unrest, Iranian politics and what the experience of both are like for women. Author of the memoir Persian Girls and a professor at the New School University, Nahid Rachlin joins us to provide context and insight into the current Iranian controversy.
Tuesday: Music of Human Consciousness: Musical inspiration can come from a lot of places but Composer Bruce Adolphe found the inspiration for his latest piece in a particularly unusual spot: the research of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Self Comes to Mind is the end product of this collaboration between scientist and musician and it was recently performed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Video imagery and projected texts accompanied Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of the duo’s cello and percussion composition.
Wednesday: Flowers That Kill: Here on Earth listeners will remember UW-Madison anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney for her groundbreaking work on Kamikaze Pilots, the ‘cherry blossoms’ of Japan. Emiko has been spending spring semester at the Library of Congress in D.C. where she just gave a lecture on Flowers that Kill comparing the Emperor’s symbolic use of cherry blossoms with the way Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler used roses for a similar purpose.
Thursday: Summer Reading from Words Without Borders: Editor Susan Harris and blogger Bud Parr share selections designed for those who want to know more about what’s going on in Pakistan, China, and Iran, and those who want to escape from them.
Food Friday: It’s strawberry season and French chef Monique Hooker is ready to teach us how to make a red, white, and blue strawberry pie for Fourth of July.
Wow! And I thought we were lightening up!
Have a great weekend and please keep listening!
Jean
Here’s what’s ahead on Here on Earth as we lean into the Fourth of July:
Monday: Persian Girls: Having grown up female in Iran just prior to the 1979 Revolution, Nahid Rachlin knows a thing or two about social unrest, Iranian politics and what the experience of both are like for women. Author of the memoir Persian Girls and a professor at the New School University, Nahid Rachlin joins us to provide context and insight into the current Iranian controversy.
Tuesday: Music of Human Consciousness: Musical inspiration can come from a lot of places but Composer Bruce Adolphe found the inspiration for his latest piece in a particularly unusual spot: the research of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Self Comes to Mind is the end product of this collaboration between scientist and musician and it was recently performed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Video imagery and projected texts accompanied Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of the duo’s cello and percussion composition.
Wednesday: Flowers That Kill: Here on Earth listeners will remember UW-Madison anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney for her groundbreaking work on Kamikaze Pilots, the ‘cherry blossoms’ of Japan. Emiko has been spending spring semester at the Library of Congress in D.C. where she just gave a lecture on Flowers that Kill comparing the Emperor’s symbolic use of cherry blossoms with the way Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler used roses for a similar purpose.
Thursday: Summer Reading from Words Without Borders: Editor Susan Harris and blogger Bud Parr share selections designed for those who want to know more about what’s going on in Pakistan, China, and Iran, and those who want to escape from them.
Food Friday: It’s strawberry season and French chef Monique Hooker is ready to teach us how to make a red, white, and blue strawberry pie for Fourth of July.
Wow! And I thought we were lightening up!
Have a great weekend and please keep listening!
Jean
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Wednesday’s show with Margaret Wertheim on the amazing psychedelic Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project, a combination of feminine handicraft, non-Euclidean geometry, beauty, science, and social activism. Truly.
Here’s what’s coming up on Here on Earth in the week ahead:
Monday: Back by popular demand, Satish Kumar, Indian sage and editor of Resurgence Magazine, joins us from the UK to talk about his own lifestyle: Elegant Simplicity which is the theme of the current issue of the magazine.
Tuesday: Scientist Leads Institute for the Study of Compassion: James Doty, neurosurgeon turned biotech investor, made a fortune and lost it in the dot-com bubble. Something similar, albeit on a much smaller scale, happened to a lot of us in the recent financial meltdown. James Doty started re-examining his values. Today he’s the director of an institute he founded for the study of compassion.
Wednesday: Global Word Play: Years ago when I was hosting my old morning show, we used to have a fun segment called “They Have a Word For It.” Howard Reingold, who wrote a little book with that title, would listen into our conversation for a while and then come up with whatever word from the book seemed appropriate. The book was a collection words from foreign languages for which there is no English equivalent. So when Carmen Jackson proposed doing a program with the author of the new book, I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World, of course I said yes. Join in with Jag Bhalla. It’ll be fun.
Thursday: The Compelling Moment: Richard Harwood of the Harwood Institute for Innovation has a knack for reading a crisis as an opportunity. He calls this “The Compelling Moment,” citing what’s going on in Tehran, Detroit, and elsewhere in these worst of times/best of times.
Friday: Milkshakes With a Twist!
Have a great weekend and thanks for lending us your ears.
Jean
Here’s what’s coming up on Here on Earth in the week ahead:
Monday: Back by popular demand, Satish Kumar, Indian sage and editor of Resurgence Magazine, joins us from the UK to talk about his own lifestyle: Elegant Simplicity which is the theme of the current issue of the magazine.
Tuesday: Scientist Leads Institute for the Study of Compassion: James Doty, neurosurgeon turned biotech investor, made a fortune and lost it in the dot-com bubble. Something similar, albeit on a much smaller scale, happened to a lot of us in the recent financial meltdown. James Doty started re-examining his values. Today he’s the director of an institute he founded for the study of compassion.
Wednesday: Global Word Play: Years ago when I was hosting my old morning show, we used to have a fun segment called “They Have a Word For It.” Howard Reingold, who wrote a little book with that title, would listen into our conversation for a while and then come up with whatever word from the book seemed appropriate. The book was a collection words from foreign languages for which there is no English equivalent. So when Carmen Jackson proposed doing a program with the author of the new book, I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World, of course I said yes. Join in with Jag Bhalla. It’ll be fun.
Thursday: The Compelling Moment: Richard Harwood of the Harwood Institute for Innovation has a knack for reading a crisis as an opportunity. He calls this “The Compelling Moment,” citing what’s going on in Tehran, Detroit, and elsewhere in these worst of times/best of times.
Friday: Milkshakes With a Twist!
Have a great weekend and thanks for lending us your ears.
Jean
Saturday, June 13, 2009
June 15-19 Programs
Picks of the Week: My husband and I happened to be in Cordoba, Spain, on 9/11, and there we were again, this time in Barcelona, when Obama gave his speech from Cairo. So it was quite the thrill to be able to talk about the impact of that amazing speech on my first day back at work. I also thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Darwinian dimensions of art with philosopher Denis Dutton, author of The Art Instinct, on Tuesday – there were so many interesting callers that day. And Wednesday’s Bead for Life program with Torkin Wakefield, the American psychologist who is transforming the lives of so many impoverished war widows in Uganda through, of all things, a paper bead exchange, was truly inspiring and very Here on Earth.
Here’s what’s happening on Here on Earth in the week ahead:
Monday: Out of Poverty: The new issue of Dispatches Magazine puts itself among the poor: the traditional underclass and the newly impotent – in America, in Africa, in India, and in Europe. We talk with Dispatches editor and former Milwaukee native Mort Rosenblum.
Tuesday: The Blue Sweater: Can you imagine the shock of giving an outgrown sweater to Goodwill and then finding it eleven years later on the back of some poor kid in Rwanda? That’s what happened to Jacqueline Novogratz who subsequently left a career in international banking to found Acumen Fund, an organization dedicated to tackling global poverty.
Wednesday: Saving the Coral Reefs One Stitch at a Time: Join us for a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft. Margaret Wertheim, co-director of the Institute for Figuring, is joined by a bevy of women who are in the process of creating a stitched coral reef as a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world.
Thursday: Well Blow Me Shivers!: Were you surprised when stories of pirates on the high seas began appearing in daily headlines? Had you thought that the days of pirates were long past? The history of piracy is a long one, and there are certain similarities that link the pirates of centuries past with those working off the coast of Somalia today.
Friday: Urban/Suburban Permaculture: People in cities and suburbs are learning how to produce their own fruit, vegetables, herbs, honey, and more using Permaculture design strategies that reduce work and increase success. Live from Stevens Point, we’ll talk with Bill Wilson from Midwest Permaculture who’s giving introductory workshops at this year’s Energy Fair.
I’m traveling to Green Lake today to give a presentation on Evolutionary Theology to members of the United Church of Christ.
Have a terrific weekend!
Jean
Here’s what’s happening on Here on Earth in the week ahead:
Monday: Out of Poverty: The new issue of Dispatches Magazine puts itself among the poor: the traditional underclass and the newly impotent – in America, in Africa, in India, and in Europe. We talk with Dispatches editor and former Milwaukee native Mort Rosenblum.
Tuesday: The Blue Sweater: Can you imagine the shock of giving an outgrown sweater to Goodwill and then finding it eleven years later on the back of some poor kid in Rwanda? That’s what happened to Jacqueline Novogratz who subsequently left a career in international banking to found Acumen Fund, an organization dedicated to tackling global poverty.
Wednesday: Saving the Coral Reefs One Stitch at a Time: Join us for a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft. Margaret Wertheim, co-director of the Institute for Figuring, is joined by a bevy of women who are in the process of creating a stitched coral reef as a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world.
Thursday: Well Blow Me Shivers!: Were you surprised when stories of pirates on the high seas began appearing in daily headlines? Had you thought that the days of pirates were long past? The history of piracy is a long one, and there are certain similarities that link the pirates of centuries past with those working off the coast of Somalia today.
Friday: Urban/Suburban Permaculture: People in cities and suburbs are learning how to produce their own fruit, vegetables, herbs, honey, and more using Permaculture design strategies that reduce work and increase success. Live from Stevens Point, we’ll talk with Bill Wilson from Midwest Permaculture who’s giving introductory workshops at this year’s Energy Fair.
I’m traveling to Green Lake today to give a presentation on Evolutionary Theology to members of the United Church of Christ.
Have a terrific weekend!
Jean
Saturday, June 06, 2009
June 8-12 Programs
Jean is coming back on Monday! Here's the line-up for her:
Monday: Reaching Out to the Muslim World (part 2): Since his days on the campaign trail, President Obama promised a speech to the Muslim World to define US policy and change perceptions of America. Did his speech in Cairo succeed? We will analyze Obama's speech and look at the international reaction as we talk with Prof. Uli Schamiloglu, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tuesday: The Art Instinct: Can you imagine what our cave people ancestors were thinking as they relaxed by the side of a fire and enjoyed a beautiful sunset? If you think that we’ve only learned to appreciate beauty more recently, think again. We’re celebrating Darwin’s bicentennial year with author Dennis Dutton and his book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution which explores the evolutionary role of aesthetic appreciation.
Wednesday: Bead for Life: Bead for Life is a non-profit organization dedicated to overcoming extreme poverty in Uganda through the support of an international grassroots movement rather than aid. Through the work of Bead for Life, women in Uganda make and sell paper beads to people around the world. Join us and Bead for Life’s Torkin Wakefield as we explore how feminine handicraft becomes the base for eradicating extreme poverty.
Thursday: Travel as a Political Act: They say the world is shrinking, so what can we do to feel more comfortable with our neighbors? Travel! Acclaimed travel writer Rick Steve’s new book argues that we can’t understand our world without experiencing it. Travel as a Political Act will teach us all what it means to travel with our place in the world in mind.
Friday: We're still working to find a food program for this hour. Any suggestions?
Thanks for listening,
Here on Earth team
Monday: Reaching Out to the Muslim World (part 2): Since his days on the campaign trail, President Obama promised a speech to the Muslim World to define US policy and change perceptions of America. Did his speech in Cairo succeed? We will analyze Obama's speech and look at the international reaction as we talk with Prof. Uli Schamiloglu, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tuesday: The Art Instinct: Can you imagine what our cave people ancestors were thinking as they relaxed by the side of a fire and enjoyed a beautiful sunset? If you think that we’ve only learned to appreciate beauty more recently, think again. We’re celebrating Darwin’s bicentennial year with author Dennis Dutton and his book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution which explores the evolutionary role of aesthetic appreciation.
Wednesday: Bead for Life: Bead for Life is a non-profit organization dedicated to overcoming extreme poverty in Uganda through the support of an international grassroots movement rather than aid. Through the work of Bead for Life, women in Uganda make and sell paper beads to people around the world. Join us and Bead for Life’s Torkin Wakefield as we explore how feminine handicraft becomes the base for eradicating extreme poverty.
Thursday: Travel as a Political Act: They say the world is shrinking, so what can we do to feel more comfortable with our neighbors? Travel! Acclaimed travel writer Rick Steve’s new book argues that we can’t understand our world without experiencing it. Travel as a Political Act will teach us all what it means to travel with our place in the world in mind.
Friday: We're still working to find a food program for this hour. Any suggestions?
Thanks for listening,
Here on Earth team
Sunday, May 31, 2009
June 1-5 Programs
Jean is still away this week. Veronica Rueckert will bring you the following programs.
Monday: Guerrilla Gardening: What do you get when you cross a desire to go green and the nerve to takeover land owed by someone else? It's called Guerrilla Gardening, and while it was first practiced in 17th century Britain, it's become a movement in places like New York City, where abandoned lots are turned into lush gardens by local "Green Guerrillas." Join us and Richard Reynolds, author of On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries, as we explore the history of activist gardening.
Tuesday: The Book of Dead Philosophers: What can you tell about a person from the way they die? In The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at the New School in New York, explores death, our last taboo, from a most unusual perspective. He recounts the demise of famous philosophers, revealing how their variously tragic, amusing, and bizarre ends can help us lead richer lives.
Wednesday: Iceland's Story: Iceland is the site of an aluminum smelting industry, it's been at the forefront of renewable energy development, and, most recently, it's seen what is perhaps the most spectacular fall of any nation during the global economic crisis. Andri Magnason's book Dreamland and the recent film made from it takes us on a journey through Iceland's struggle to recover a sustainable identity for itself but its story has something to teach us all about what it means to honor what's valuable about a nation.
Thursday: Take Back Your Time: TAKE BACK YOUR TIME is a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment. Join us to explore work and workers around the world.
Friday: Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human: Have you ever seen an otter fry a fish? Maybe you haven't thought too much about how cooking is a strictly human activity, but Richard Wrangham has. In his latest book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human, Richard Wrangham, renowned primatologist, argues that humanity itself began when we started cooking our food. This food Friday we go deep into our human ancestry to discover how cooking itself may be responsible for our biological and sociological evolution into what we are today.
Best,
Here on Earth team
Monday: Guerrilla Gardening: What do you get when you cross a desire to go green and the nerve to takeover land owed by someone else? It's called Guerrilla Gardening, and while it was first practiced in 17th century Britain, it's become a movement in places like New York City, where abandoned lots are turned into lush gardens by local "Green Guerrillas." Join us and Richard Reynolds, author of On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries, as we explore the history of activist gardening.
Tuesday: The Book of Dead Philosophers: What can you tell about a person from the way they die? In The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at the New School in New York, explores death, our last taboo, from a most unusual perspective. He recounts the demise of famous philosophers, revealing how their variously tragic, amusing, and bizarre ends can help us lead richer lives.
Wednesday: Iceland's Story: Iceland is the site of an aluminum smelting industry, it's been at the forefront of renewable energy development, and, most recently, it's seen what is perhaps the most spectacular fall of any nation during the global economic crisis. Andri Magnason's book Dreamland and the recent film made from it takes us on a journey through Iceland's struggle to recover a sustainable identity for itself but its story has something to teach us all about what it means to honor what's valuable about a nation.
Thursday: Take Back Your Time: TAKE BACK YOUR TIME is a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment. Join us to explore work and workers around the world.
Friday: Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human: Have you ever seen an otter fry a fish? Maybe you haven't thought too much about how cooking is a strictly human activity, but Richard Wrangham has. In his latest book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human, Richard Wrangham, renowned primatologist, argues that humanity itself began when we started cooking our food. This food Friday we go deep into our human ancestry to discover how cooking itself may be responsible for our biological and sociological evolution into what we are today.
Best,
Here on Earth team
Sunday, May 24, 2009
May 25-29 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: Taqwacores: A New Way to be Muslim in the West. For anyone who has ever grappled with doctrinal religion, Michael Muhammad Knight’s very American, very punk rock take on Islam is really refreshing. His novel, The Taqwacores, about a group of punk rock Muslims who live together in a house in Buffalo, New York, really does read a lot like Catcher in the Rye. We didn’t talk much about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but we did talk quite a bit about idolatry, the problems with organized religion, and how to relate directly with the Divine. Interestingly enough, callers connected not as punk rockers, but as seekers.
Monday, Memorial Day: An Ecology of Music: You’ll enjoy listening again, if you haven’t heard it before, to this program with John Luther Adams, one of our most original composers. It was one of my favorite programs of 2008. John Luther Adams lives in Alaska where he immerses himself in the primal, grandiose soundscapes of the arctic out of which he makes music that will make your hair stand on end.
Tuesday: What can you tell about a person from the way they die? In The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at the New School in New York, explores death, our last taboo, from a most unusual perspective. He recounts the demise of famous philosophers, revealing how their variously tragic, amusing, and bizarre ends can help us lead richer lives.
Wednesday: “Fugee” Soccer (as in Refugee) When New York Times journalist Warren St. John wrote about a soccer team in Georgia made up of child refugees from all over the world, Universal Studios jumped on the film-rights. Warren St. John’s new book about the team, Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town, chronicles the hard work and heroic journeys of the players and sheds light on what it takes to build a community when we seem to have little in common.
Thursday: Samuel Charters, one of the very first musicologists to study Afro-American music, has summed up his life's work in A Language of Song, which details his journey to Africa and to find Africa-influenced music in the United States, Brazil, and the Carribean.
Friday: Sex, Death, and Oysters: When food writer Robb Walsh discovered that the local Galveston Bay oysters were being passed off as Blue Points and Chincoteagues in other parts of the country, he decided to look into the matter. His new book, Sex, Death and Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour, documents a five-year adventure that docks everywhere from oyster reefs to oyster bars and from corporate boardrooms to hotel bedrooms in a quest for the truth about the world’s most profitable aphrodisiac.
I’m going to be gone for a couple of weeks. Veronica Rueckert will be hosting Here on Earth until my return on June 8.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Jean
Monday, Memorial Day: An Ecology of Music: You’ll enjoy listening again, if you haven’t heard it before, to this program with John Luther Adams, one of our most original composers. It was one of my favorite programs of 2008. John Luther Adams lives in Alaska where he immerses himself in the primal, grandiose soundscapes of the arctic out of which he makes music that will make your hair stand on end.
Tuesday: What can you tell about a person from the way they die? In The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at the New School in New York, explores death, our last taboo, from a most unusual perspective. He recounts the demise of famous philosophers, revealing how their variously tragic, amusing, and bizarre ends can help us lead richer lives.
Wednesday: “Fugee” Soccer (as in Refugee) When New York Times journalist Warren St. John wrote about a soccer team in Georgia made up of child refugees from all over the world, Universal Studios jumped on the film-rights. Warren St. John’s new book about the team, Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town, chronicles the hard work and heroic journeys of the players and sheds light on what it takes to build a community when we seem to have little in common.
Thursday: Samuel Charters, one of the very first musicologists to study Afro-American music, has summed up his life's work in A Language of Song, which details his journey to Africa and to find Africa-influenced music in the United States, Brazil, and the Carribean.
Friday: Sex, Death, and Oysters: When food writer Robb Walsh discovered that the local Galveston Bay oysters were being passed off as Blue Points and Chincoteagues in other parts of the country, he decided to look into the matter. His new book, Sex, Death and Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour, documents a five-year adventure that docks everywhere from oyster reefs to oyster bars and from corporate boardrooms to hotel bedrooms in a quest for the truth about the world’s most profitable aphrodisiac.
I’m going to be gone for a couple of weeks. Veronica Rueckert will be hosting Here on Earth until my return on June 8.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Jean
Friday, May 15, 2009
May 18-22 Programs
Jean’s Pick of the Week: (I’ve reverted to referring to myself in the third person): Certainly Reza Aslan, very slick, very smart, very articulate and, I venture to say, one of our most trusted interpreters of Muslims and Islam. But, scholar of religions though he may be, he really goofed right at the end of Wednesday’s show when he misquoted Jesus in that much misunderstood line, “I come not to bring peace but a sword.” Jesus was a reformer, not a militant. Almost everything he said was intended as a spiritual message. The Christian gospel was spread not by the sword but by the blood of the early Christian martyrs, the “the seed of the Church.”
Monday: Going Back to Cuba: For decades, Cuba has been a place we were only allowed to imagine, but now, with small cracks in the formidable barrier between us, we find ourselves with a lot of catching up to do. So did journalist Carlos Frias, the American-born son of Cuban parents who went to Cuba for the first time in 2006 and wrote about his impressions in the memoir, Take Me With You.
Tuesday: Memoir as An American Art Form: I went to hear Natalie Goldberg read from her latest book about memoir writing, Old Friend From Long Ago, when she was at Border’s in Madison a short time ago. Natalie used to be a regular on my old show. When she talked about memoir as an American cultural phenomenon I knew I just had to bring her on Here on Earth. She’s my old friend from long ago, and once you hear her, she’ll be yours too.
Wednesday: Evicted From Eternity: Have you ever lived in a place you loved and thought you knew, and then gone back years later only to find it completely changed? That’s what happened to me when I revisited Trantevere, the oldest neighborhood in Rome where I lived for a year in 1968 when the little boys were still playing marbles and peeing in the street, just as they had been doing for thousands of years. How could it change? Harvard historian Michael Herzfeld wrote about the people of Monti, another Roman neighborhood that has undergone the same gentrification in his book with the soulful title, Evicted From Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome.
Thursday: Taqwacores: Muslim Punk Rock: Michael Muhammad Knight is known as a provocateur, a rebel, and a heretic among many American Muslims for his book, The Taqwacores, which describes a group of Muslim punk-rockers living a religious yet fiercely individualistic lifestyle. The book gained notoriety as it went viral and inspired a movement. We’ll talk with the man himself, a convert to Islam who grew up as an Irish Catholic.
Friday: In Praise of Fat: People who have been listening to me for a long time know my iconoclastic streak. So when I heard that there’s a new James Beard Prize winning cookbook by Jennifer McLagan called Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, I jumped. It has a picture of one of the fattiest lambchops I’ve ever seen on the cover.
Jean
Monday: Going Back to Cuba: For decades, Cuba has been a place we were only allowed to imagine, but now, with small cracks in the formidable barrier between us, we find ourselves with a lot of catching up to do. So did journalist Carlos Frias, the American-born son of Cuban parents who went to Cuba for the first time in 2006 and wrote about his impressions in the memoir, Take Me With You.
Tuesday: Memoir as An American Art Form: I went to hear Natalie Goldberg read from her latest book about memoir writing, Old Friend From Long Ago, when she was at Border’s in Madison a short time ago. Natalie used to be a regular on my old show. When she talked about memoir as an American cultural phenomenon I knew I just had to bring her on Here on Earth. She’s my old friend from long ago, and once you hear her, she’ll be yours too.
Wednesday: Evicted From Eternity: Have you ever lived in a place you loved and thought you knew, and then gone back years later only to find it completely changed? That’s what happened to me when I revisited Trantevere, the oldest neighborhood in Rome where I lived for a year in 1968 when the little boys were still playing marbles and peeing in the street, just as they had been doing for thousands of years. How could it change? Harvard historian Michael Herzfeld wrote about the people of Monti, another Roman neighborhood that has undergone the same gentrification in his book with the soulful title, Evicted From Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome.
Thursday: Taqwacores: Muslim Punk Rock: Michael Muhammad Knight is known as a provocateur, a rebel, and a heretic among many American Muslims for his book, The Taqwacores, which describes a group of Muslim punk-rockers living a religious yet fiercely individualistic lifestyle. The book gained notoriety as it went viral and inspired a movement. We’ll talk with the man himself, a convert to Islam who grew up as an Irish Catholic.
Friday: In Praise of Fat: People who have been listening to me for a long time know my iconoclastic streak. So when I heard that there’s a new James Beard Prize winning cookbook by Jennifer McLagan called Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, I jumped. It has a picture of one of the fattiest lambchops I’ve ever seen on the cover.
Jean
Sunday, May 10, 2009
May 11-15 Programs
My Pick of the Week: Rag and Bone. I can’t help it, even as a lapsed Catholic, I do love my relics. I’ve seen a good number of some of the best specimens too: Catherine of Siena’s blackened and shriveled head raised above an altar in her favorite church; St. John the Baptist’s baptizing finger on display at Topkapi Museum in Istanbul; frayed pieces of St. Frances of Paola’s robe and portions of his feet in Calabria. But I had an early start. When my dear Aunt Tootsie, my mother’s only sister, was dying, my mother took me on many pilgrimages all over New York City in search of healing relics and holy oils. Most impressive was the body of Mother Cabrini laid out in a glass coffin in her motherhouse, an image which later served me as the prototype for my Women of Spirit series. When Mother Cabrini was officially canonized, her body was dismembered, the head sent to Rome and other parts made into relics. Even I was appalled to learn about that.
Here’s what’s coming next week:
Monday: Bar Culture in Congo: If you were to major in French literature these days, you would undoubtedly come across the work of Alain Mabanckou, a Francophone writer from Congo Brazzaville who has been sweeping all the most prestigious French awards. His latest book to be translated into English is Broken Glass, a witty novel set in a bar called Credit Gone Away owned by the Stubborn Snail.
Tuesday: Harold Varmus, the Nobel Prize-winning cancer biologist who also serves as science advisor to President Obama is the author of the new book, . He’s coming to the UW-Madison to give a lecture and a reading at Borders. We get a sneak preview.
Wednesday: Reza Aslan, author of the bestseller No God But God, has become one of our most trusted defenders of Islam. His new book, How to Win a Cosmic War, recommends that we strip the religious rhetoric out of our “war on terror” and pay more attention to the war that can be won: the battle for the minds and hearts of young Muslim men.
Thursday: Not Now, Voyager: Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s memoir of her years as a reluctant traveler.
Friday: Forager’s Harvest: Gardens aren’t the only place where you can pick your own food. The trained eye can find all sorts of edibles in woods and backyards, from dandelions to mushrooms.
Happy Mothers’ Day from an old cowhand!
Jean
Here’s what’s coming next week:
Monday: Bar Culture in Congo: If you were to major in French literature these days, you would undoubtedly come across the work of Alain Mabanckou, a Francophone writer from Congo Brazzaville who has been sweeping all the most prestigious French awards. His latest book to be translated into English is Broken Glass, a witty novel set in a bar called Credit Gone Away owned by the Stubborn Snail.
Tuesday: Harold Varmus, the Nobel Prize-winning cancer biologist who also serves as science advisor to President Obama is the author of the new book, . He’s coming to the UW-Madison to give a lecture and a reading at Borders. We get a sneak preview.
Wednesday: Reza Aslan, author of the bestseller No God But God, has become one of our most trusted defenders of Islam. His new book, How to Win a Cosmic War, recommends that we strip the religious rhetoric out of our “war on terror” and pay more attention to the war that can be won: the battle for the minds and hearts of young Muslim men.
Thursday: Not Now, Voyager: Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s memoir of her years as a reluctant traveler.
Friday: Forager’s Harvest: Gardens aren’t the only place where you can pick your own food. The trained eye can find all sorts of edibles in woods and backyards, from dandelions to mushrooms.
Happy Mothers’ Day from an old cowhand!
Jean
Friday, May 01, 2009
May 4-8 Programs
My Pick of the Week: Martin Espada, Poet of Conscience. He says that he writes poetry “to make the invisible visible,” and told us early in the program that his grandmother was a spirit medium, so he comes by it honestly. But who can calculate the personal cost of putting one’s own psyche at the service of those Chileans who were interrogated, tortured, and executed during Pinochet’s reign of terror? Or to dare to speak for those 453 immigrant restaurant workers who lost their lives in the World Trade Center on 9/11? What a way to ring out National Poetry Month.
Monday: Rags and Bone: Okay, I admit it, you probably have to have a taste for the macabre, or at the very least have been raised Roman Catholic to appreciate the cult of relics; but Peter Manseau (Killing the Buddha) insists that he undertook his “journey among the world’s holy dead” to be reminded of how much he loves life.
Tuesday: Wings of Defeat: A new documentary reveals some startling insights into the make-up of Kamekaze pilots: many of them weren’t really all that keen about killing themselves in the name of their country, and some went out of their way to minimize the damage they caused.
Wednesday: Tune in to find out if our One Day Lalapalooza Pledge Drive will succeed. In between marathon pitches, I’ll be talking with John Nichols about international responses to President Obama’s 100 Days.
Thursday: Do American feminists tend to revert to old world values when they become mothers? We’ll ask Maria Laurino, author of the memoir, Old World Daughter, New World Mother.
Friday: Measuring it out by the teaspoonful, how many of us happen to know that vanilla actually comes from the bean pod of an orchid? Journalist Tim Ecott follows the history of vanilla from its cultivation by the Aztecs to the burgeoning of a multi-million dollar industry. It’s everything but vanilla.
Have a great weekend and here’s hoping it doesn’t rain.
Jean
Monday: Rags and Bone: Okay, I admit it, you probably have to have a taste for the macabre, or at the very least have been raised Roman Catholic to appreciate the cult of relics; but Peter Manseau (Killing the Buddha) insists that he undertook his “journey among the world’s holy dead” to be reminded of how much he loves life.
Tuesday: Wings of Defeat: A new documentary reveals some startling insights into the make-up of Kamekaze pilots: many of them weren’t really all that keen about killing themselves in the name of their country, and some went out of their way to minimize the damage they caused.
Wednesday: Tune in to find out if our One Day Lalapalooza Pledge Drive will succeed. In between marathon pitches, I’ll be talking with John Nichols about international responses to President Obama’s 100 Days.
Thursday: Do American feminists tend to revert to old world values when they become mothers? We’ll ask Maria Laurino, author of the memoir, Old World Daughter, New World Mother.
Friday: Measuring it out by the teaspoonful, how many of us happen to know that vanilla actually comes from the bean pod of an orchid? Journalist Tim Ecott follows the history of vanilla from its cultivation by the Aztecs to the burgeoning of a multi-million dollar industry. It’s everything but vanilla.
Have a great weekend and here’s hoping it doesn’t rain.
Jean
Friday, April 24, 2009
April 27 - May 1 Programs
Hi Everybody,
We’re still working on the line-up for next week’s shows, but it’s all fast falling into place:
Monday: With two thirds of Americans supporting investigations into the Bush administration’s use of torture, and 40 percent supporting criminal prosecutions, pressure on President Obama is mounting. The Center for Constitutional Rights is calling for the Attorney General to Appoint a Special Prosecutor. We’ll talk with CCR director Michael Ratner.
Tuesday: Well, it’s debt and evil bankers in Dickens’ Little Dorritt. Check your local listing for updates!
Wednesday: Gamorrah – Roberto Saviano’s expose of the Neopolitan Mafia, the book that shocked the Italian psyche and caused Saviano to go into hiding is now a feature film playing at the Orpheum in Madison. We’ll talk with a husband and wife team who know the scene in Naples firsthand.
Thursday: Prize-winning poet Martín Espada has sometimes been referred to as "the Pablo Neruda of North American authors." As a poet of justice, an advocate for those who remain unheard, Espada's work touches on the unrest of South America and the postcolonial conflict of Puerto Rico, the land of his ancestors.
Friday: If you haven’t yet discovered Vom Fass, (it means “From the Tap”) the German import store that features tastings of oils, vinegars, and now scotch right out of the barrel, you’re in for a treat.
That’s all Folks!
Jean
We’re still working on the line-up for next week’s shows, but it’s all fast falling into place:
Monday: With two thirds of Americans supporting investigations into the Bush administration’s use of torture, and 40 percent supporting criminal prosecutions, pressure on President Obama is mounting. The Center for Constitutional Rights is calling for the Attorney General to Appoint a Special Prosecutor. We’ll talk with CCR director Michael Ratner.
Tuesday: Well, it’s debt and evil bankers in Dickens’ Little Dorritt. Check your local listing for updates!
Wednesday: Gamorrah – Roberto Saviano’s expose of the Neopolitan Mafia, the book that shocked the Italian psyche and caused Saviano to go into hiding is now a feature film playing at the Orpheum in Madison. We’ll talk with a husband and wife team who know the scene in Naples firsthand.
Thursday: Prize-winning poet Martín Espada has sometimes been referred to as "the Pablo Neruda of North American authors." As a poet of justice, an advocate for those who remain unheard, Espada's work touches on the unrest of South America and the postcolonial conflict of Puerto Rico, the land of his ancestors.
Friday: If you haven’t yet discovered Vom Fass, (it means “From the Tap”) the German import store that features tastings of oils, vinegars, and now scotch right out of the barrel, you’re in for a treat.
That’s all Folks!
Jean
Friday, April 17, 2009
April 20-24 Programs
Jean is sick in the past few days, but we producers are proud to say that all shows are booked for next week.
Monday: Eco-Trip: Ever wonder how that gold ring got to your finger? Eco-adventurer David de Rothschild traveled the world to find the answer for this and other questions on his new TV show, Eco-Trip. It premiers next Tuesday on the Sundance Channel but you can talk with David and Jean Feraca about the true impact of our lifestyle.
Tuesday: Playing For Change: Mark Johnson and his film crew travelled to four continents to capture the music you’re hearing right now. Musicians from South Africa, New Orleans, Barcelona, India and elsewhere all singing the same song in the film and CD Playing for Change. We posted a link to a moving video clip of "Stand by Me" performed by musicians around the world.
Wednesday: The Greenwashing of Hollywood: Disney’s new movie Earth hits theaters Wednesday. It hopes to follow other nature films like March of the Penguins to box office gold. But are Americans ready to actually save the polar bear, or do we just like watching them on the big screen?
Thursday: Reggaeton: First it took Latin America, then the U.S., and now the world. It’s reggaeton, a music that meets at the crossroads of hip-hop and reggae. Jean Feraca talks to Raquel Rivera who co-edited a book on the subject, and she’ll take us to sweaty Puerto Rican clubs that gave birth to reggaeton.
Friday: Searching for Perfect Pizza: Peter Reinhart, a master bread baker, follows the trail from Italy to the States searching for the perfect pizzas and stories behind them.
Enjoy the spring. See you next week.
Lisa Bu
Web producer
Monday: Eco-Trip: Ever wonder how that gold ring got to your finger? Eco-adventurer David de Rothschild traveled the world to find the answer for this and other questions on his new TV show, Eco-Trip. It premiers next Tuesday on the Sundance Channel but you can talk with David and Jean Feraca about the true impact of our lifestyle.
Tuesday: Playing For Change: Mark Johnson and his film crew travelled to four continents to capture the music you’re hearing right now. Musicians from South Africa, New Orleans, Barcelona, India and elsewhere all singing the same song in the film and CD Playing for Change. We posted a link to a moving video clip of "Stand by Me" performed by musicians around the world.
Wednesday: The Greenwashing of Hollywood: Disney’s new movie Earth hits theaters Wednesday. It hopes to follow other nature films like March of the Penguins to box office gold. But are Americans ready to actually save the polar bear, or do we just like watching them on the big screen?
Thursday: Reggaeton: First it took Latin America, then the U.S., and now the world. It’s reggaeton, a music that meets at the crossroads of hip-hop and reggae. Jean Feraca talks to Raquel Rivera who co-edited a book on the subject, and she’ll take us to sweaty Puerto Rican clubs that gave birth to reggaeton.
Friday: Searching for Perfect Pizza: Peter Reinhart, a master bread baker, follows the trail from Italy to the States searching for the perfect pizzas and stories behind them.
Enjoy the spring. See you next week.
Lisa Bu
Web producer
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