Monday, September 7, 2009
It’s Labor Day and what better day to bring back Bob’s interview with our favorite Studs Terkel. In spring of 2005 Bob traveled to Chicago and the home of Terkel to reminisce about his career as a writer, broadcaster, oral historian and story teller. Terkel’s 1973 book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do is considered the quintessential book about working in America.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
James Wood is a literary critic and staff writer for The New Yorker and a professor of English and American literature at Harvard University. In his book How Fiction Works, Wood examines the alchemy of fiction, questioning why some literary devices work, while others fall out of fashion. In 2008, the magazine Intelligent Lifenamed Wood as one of the world’s top 30 critics. Then, Zee Avi is a Malaysian singer-songwriter, guitarist and ukulele player. She was discovered after posting a video of herself on YouTube. She is currently on her first-ever US tour. Avi will play some songs for Bob in Sirius XM’s performance studio.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court did something it hadn’t done in 50 years – it ordered a stay of execution and court hearing for an inmate to attempt to prove his innocence. Since 1991, Troy Davis has been on death row in Georgia, convicted of shooting an off-duty cop. Even though seven of the nine eyewitnesses who testified against him have come forward to say they either were mistaken or deliberately lied, no court has let them testify with this information. Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project joins Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights to talk about the case and what it portends for other wrongful convictions throughout the country. Then, Peter Mulvey plays songs from his new CD titled “Letters from a Flying Machine,” a collection of original songs, plus spoken word recordings of four of the many letters Peter has written to his nieces and nephews. Mulvey kicks off his concert tour on September 9th, and will cover the whole distance on a bicycle rigged to accommodate his guitar and all his gear.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
WNYC’s Radiolab kicks off its sixth season with five new episodes on topics ranging from the afterlife to parasites. Hosts Robert Krulwich andJad Abumrad talk about where the idea for Radiolab came from, what they try to do with each new show, and how they’d like to see it grow. Radiolab’s sixth season starts on Friday, September 11th. Next, Bob talks with Sirius XM’s Edge of Sports host Dave Zirin about the start of the NFL season. Then, writer Roger Williams reads his essay “Last Fan Standing,” written for the September issue of Smithsonian Magazine’s “Last Page” column.
Friday, September 11, 2009
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, 10 years after his first album, Nashville favorite Paul Burch continues to write honky tonk music that even the most staid of Yankees can’t help but enjoy. His latest album “Still Your Man” showcases new music from this musician who counts Marianne Faithful and Chet Atkins among his fans. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from Julien Bryan. Documentary film-maker Julien Bryan made educational movies exploring cultures as diverse as the nomadic tribes in Saudi Arabia and the mountain families of Appalachia. His films were translated into 40 languages and shown around the world.
For a 2006 conversation between Bob Edwards and Studs Terkel, check out C-SPAN’s archive. Photos of that event, held at my favorite inside-the-beltway bookstore Politics and Prose, are posted on my Nostalgic Rumblings blog. And to hear Studs act in an episode of Destination: Freedom "The Rhyme of the Ancient Dodger," broadcast November 21, 1948, see this blog entry. Destination: Freedom was the work of a remarkable black writer, Richard Durham, and I always hoped I could get Bob to ask Studs about working with Mr. Durham the next time they spent some time together. Alas, it just wasn’t to be.