Monday, May 18, 2009
It’s being touted as the butterfly equivalent of The Orchid Thief, the wildly popular behind the scenes look at rare flower collectors. Author Peter Laufer tells Bob all about his new book The Dangerous World of Butterflies: The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists. It touches on the relationships between butterflies and organized crime, ecological devastation, species depletion, the integrity of natural history museums and the art world. Then, before he picked up the guitar, Andy Friedman had the same job as Truman Capote: working in the mailroom at The New Yorker magazine. Eventually, Friedman started selling his drawings to the magazine. And now his former employer is reviewing his music, labeling it art-country and proclaiming that Friedman belts out “country songs about love, highways, booze, and art with a growl that’s unexpectedly tender.” Friedman plays some songs for Bob off his new album, Weary Things.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Deepa Narayan is Senior Advisor in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World Bank. She’s conducted many studies in many countries to explore how people move out of poverty permanently, from the perspectives of men and women who have experienced it first-hand. She’s learned that poor people do not fit the stereotypes often linked to poverty: that they are drug users, alcoholics, unmotivated, and unable to repay debt. Rather, it’s often the opposite. Narayan’s latest study is published in the book, Moving out of Poverty: Success from the Bottom Up. Then, Mike Luckovich has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his editorial cartoons. He calls the Pulitzer “the ultimate coloring contest.” Luckovich is the staff editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution but his work is also syndicated to hundred of papers nationwide and regularly appears in Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The McCallen Building was the first LEED certified structure built in Boston. To environmentalists, the green building methods are forward-thinking and socially responsible but the construction workers who actually put the place together didn’t see the point at first. The new film The Greening of Southie documents the ascent of The McCallen Building, explains LEED certification and illuminates their specific building techniques. The film is narrated by the building owner, architects, project managers…and most notably, the formerly skeptical construction workers. Filmmakers Curt Ellis & Ian Cheney join Bob to discuss their new documentary and the green building movement in general. Ellis & Cheney first spoke with Bob last year about King Corn, their eye-opening expose of the corn industry. Then, a look at the rest of the film world with our resident entertainment critic David Kipen.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Writer Ruth Reichl is editor in chief for Gourmet, former food critic for both the New York and Los Angeles Times, and the author of three bestselling memoirs. Her latest memoir, Not Becoming My Mother and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way, is a tribute to her mother, Miriam Brudno, whose larger than life personality dominated Reichl’s younger years. Then, a third of pet owners admit buying birthday presents for their furry friends. Many groomers now offer pedicures as part of their routine service. And if your dog is deemed to be suffering from separation anxiety, your vet might prescribe Prozac. It’s all part of the $43 BILLION a year pet industry. Michael Shaffer has written an expose of our pet-obsessed culture. It’s called One Nation Under Dog.
Friday, May 22, 2009
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk about the latest news from the capital and beyond. Next, director Stephan Elliott talks with Bob about adapting playwright Noel Coward’s classic Easy Virtue for the big screen. This comedy of manners has a glamorous American woman (Jessica Biel) disrupting the quiet world of her new husband’s prim British family. Kirstin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth co-star. Then, this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe. Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from Educator and folklorist J. Frank Dobie. He wrote numerous books and articles about vanishing ways of life on the ranches of his native Texas. Dobie taught in the English department at the University of Texas for many years, and was a lecturer on U.S. history at Cambridge during World War II.