Monday, January 12, 2009: Fourteen years ago in Washington, DC, Paul Griffin founded City at Peace in response to the racial division that was “destroying youth and communities in our nation’s capital.” Today, the theater program has expanded to seven major cities, helping youth across the country improve academically and socially. As part of our ongoing series on education reform, Griffin talks about his students and how changes to education have affected them. Then, Bob talks with writer Alex Beam about his new book A Good Idea at the Time. The idea in question is using classic works instead of standard text books in the classroom – a method also known as the great books curriculum.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009: In her 2003 best-seller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi wrote about the lives of women in Iran. Now she tells her own life story in Things I’ve Been Silent About. Nafisi’s new memoir is a historical portrait of a family and country leading up to the Islamic Revolution which turned Iran into a religious dictatorship.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009: Bob talks with author and historian H.W. Brands about his latest book Traitor to His Class which is a look at the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Then, Bob talks with pop band Sister Hazel about their latest release, Before the Amplifiers: Live Acoustic.
Thursday, January 15, 2009: Eugene Jarecki’s 2005 documentary Why We Fight was about the causes and inner-workings of what outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower dubbed the military-industrial complex. Jarecki has spent the last three years building on the ideas in the film and now has a book, American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril. Bob talks with Jarecki about the military and economic challenges facing the new administration. Then, Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel The Reader told the haunting story of a teenage boy and an older woman in post-war Berlin. It has remained one of the most-read novels in modern history, having been translated into 40 languages. Part mystery, part love story, part historical confession, The Reader asks the question, “How far would you go to protect a secret?” The book now comes to the big screen, directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. It has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes and is expected to rack up a slew of Oscar nominations as well.
Friday, January 16, 2009: Officially moving over from his Monday slot, David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob live with the latest from the capital and beyond. Next, Bob talks with King Kaufman about the NFL playoffs, the NBA, and college basketball. Then, Jesse Winchester went to Canada in 1967 to avoid being drafted into military service during the Vietnam War. While in Montreal, he wrote songs that were covered by various artists, but Winchester’s career as a performer suffered because he couldn’t tour in the United States. Only after President Carter’s amnesty in 1977 could Winchester return to the U.S. to perform for his American fans. He tells Bob that his move to Canada was only one of his unwise career moves.