THE BOB EDWARDS SHOW HIGHLIGHTS – August 17-21, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
The manufacturing industry in the United States has long been in decline, but the loss of factory jobs has been especially brutal during the recession, with nearly two million disappearing since December 2007. Scott Paul is the Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing and he’ll explain howU.S. policies have undermined the manufacturing industry, contributing to today’s deep recession, and what might be done to help the recover jobs in the future. Then, when the United States entered World War II, advertising agencies on Madison Avenue stopped selling toothpaste and started selling Victory Gardens, scrap drives, and War Bonds. In his new book, All-Out for Victory, John Bush Jones examines how advertisements helped support the war.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Bob’s 2006 conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Maraniss about his book, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero. Roberto Clemente was a legendary athlete who helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win two World Series championships. Clemente died in a 1972 plane crash, as he led an effort to deliver aid to Nicaragua after an earthquake. Today would have been his 75th birthday.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Do you often honk at other drivers or think rude gestures are a good way to teach people better driving etiquette? Writer Tom Vanderbilt’s book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us) examines traffic patterns and driving behavior to better understand our individual and collective psyche. A New York Times Notable Book for 2008, Traffici s now out in paperback. Then, singer-musician Judith Edelman started touring with the Bluegrass band, Ryestraw. She later started her own band and they played in concert halls, festivals and clubs across the country and the U.K. She released three albums, 1996’s “Perfect World,” 1998’s “Only Sun” and 2000’s “Drama Queen.” After a hiatus of nine years, Edelman returns with her latest album, “Clear Glass Jar.”
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Cheng Chui Ping, also known as Sister Ping, was one of the criminal world’s most unlikely leaders, and yet for almost 20 years she headed a vast Chinese-American criminal underworld who dealt primarily in smuggling people. Patrick Radden Keefe charts Sister Ping’s rise and fall, and chronicles the violent world she commanded in The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream. Then, a look at the rest of the film world with our resident entertainment criticDavid Kipen.
Friday, August 21, 2009
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, Davis Guggenheim the director of An Inconvenient Truth talks about his new film, It Might Get Loud. It chronicles the meeting of three masters of the electric guitar: The Edge of U2, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Jack White. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from George Mardikian. His first job in America was washing dishes in a San Francisco cafeteria; he eventually bought the place and built it into a renowned restaurant. For his work to improve food service for combat troops in Korea, Mardikian was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award an American can receive.