December 8-12, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008:
Bob talks politics with David Broder of The Washington Post. Then, author Katherine Bateman tells Bob about her new book. In Kentucky Clay, Bateman provides a sweeping view of American history from the first settlers to present day, through the eyes of her family, the Clays.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008:
Bob talks with Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison. It’s been twenty-one years since Morrison published the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved, a story about slavery set in 1855 Cincinnati. Now Morrison offers a prequel to Beloved with her new book A Mercy which takes place in Virginia around 1690. Morrison said she wrote the book because she was “wondering was what it must have felt like to be a slave before racism.”
Wednesday, December 10, 2008:
Gary Myers is a former attorney who works to protect the civil rights of US troops. Bob talks with Myers about his experience working on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases and how PTSD affects families and those serving in all of our military branches. Then, the latest installment of our ongoing series on education reform. Joel Klein was an Assistant Attorney General with the Justice Department, but since 2002, he’s been the chancellor of New York City’s public school system. Klein talks with Bob about the sweeping reform measures he’s instituted in New York – which haven’t all been welcomed by teachers and parents. With help from the Gates Foundation, Klein created 43 new, smaller schools and improved the graduation rate by 20-percent.
Thursday, December 11, 2008:
Bob talks with Salon.com sports columnist King Kaufman about the NFL, NBA, and college sports. Then, as part of our ongoing series on education reform, Bob talks with Diane Ravitch, a former Assistant Secretary of Education who is now a research professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education. She has criticized many of the changes being made in the public school systems of New York and Washington, DC. Ravitch offers her own suggestions for improving inner city schools and discusses her book titled Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms.
Friday, December 12, 2008:
Bob spends the hour with author and humorist Roy Blount, Jr. For years Blount has been intrigued with the sounds of certain words and why people use them the way they do. So, he did some research and wrote a book about them called Alphabet Juice.