Monday, June 15, 2009
Jennifer Niles is the founder of the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School which was the first public school in the District of Columbia to implement a year-round schedule. They have also created an intense teacher training program in collaboration with American University. Niles will discuss the mission of the school and the student achievement she has overseen in the first five years. Then, Archie Green was a scholar of what he called “laborlore”— the folklife of the working people. Most of Green’s work is housed at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. It was largely though Green’s efforts that the Center was created in the first place. For seven years, Green actively lobbied Congress for the passage of the American Folklife Preservation Act, finally passed unanimously by Congress and signed by President Ford in 1976. Two of our resident folklorists from the Center knew Green very well. Peggy Bulger and David Taylor share stories and sounds from Green’s collection. Green died earlier this year at age 91.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
An “ombudsman” is a representative who handles complaints about an organization from the public. In Sweden where the term originated, it was a government position. Here, some media outlets also have ombudsmen – but not enough, says Jeffrey Dvorkin. He’s the Executive Director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. While the concept of self-regulation among journalists was on an upward trend several years ago, it’s starting to get resistance as newsrooms are forced to cut positions. Then, Vin Scully has been calling baseball games on radio and television for almost 60 years now. He began in the booth with the legendary Red Barber in 1950, then moved with the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. Author Curt Smith joins Bob to discuss the long-overdue biography he’s written called Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Then, playwright, screenwriter, and director Arthur Laurents has 50 years of accumulated Broadway experiences and memories. Among his notable accomplishments are directing newcomer Barbra Streisand in I Can Get It for You Wholesale and directing La Cage aux Folles, Broadway’s first openly gay musical. Laurents also wrote the books for West Side Story and Gypsy, which remain two of Broadway’s most legendary musicals. His memoir is Mainly on Direction: Gypsy, West Side Story and Other Musicals. Then, Bob talks with Sirius XM’s Seth Rudetsky, host of Seth’s Big Fat Broadway on channel 77 about the recent Tony winners and what’s new on Broadway for the summer.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Ross Donaldson is part of the team that is helping to re-build Iraq’s medical system. Only 33-years-old, his specialty is a relatively new and growing field at medical schools: humanitarian medicine. In The Lassa Ward, Donaldson writes about researching — and catching — a deadly disease in Sierra Leone. Dr. Donaldson is also the editor of the upcoming Tarascon Medical Translation Handbook, a manual that will help healthcare workers communicate with their patients in 18 different languages. Then, Bob speaks to author Tori Murden McClure in front of a live studio audience at the Bomhard Theatre at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. McClure was the first woman (and first American) to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Being the scholar-athlete that she is, she has now written a terrific book about the experience in A Pearl in the Storm.
Friday, June 19, 2009
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, just in time for Father’s Day weekend, Bob talks with Michael Lewis about his new book Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from John Cromwell. He was acclaimed for his work in the theater and movies. He directed some 40 films and is the father of actor James Cromwell, who Bob will talk to about his father’s essay.