Bob Edwards Weekend
October 24-25, 2009
HOUR ONE
The number 350 – as in parts per million – is the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Environmentalist Bill McKibben talks about his latest project: 350.org and why this year is so crucial to scientists concerned about climate change, and what the group has planned for this weekend. October 24th is the International Day of Climate Action.
Kurt Vonnegut is gone but not forgotten. His works are celebrated for their satirical humor and a startling creativity that experimented with traditional narratives. A new book collects some of Vonnegut’s previously unpublished short stories. It’s called, Look at the Birdie. Vonnegut’s longtime friend Sidney Offit wrote the forward, and he joins Bob to reminisce about Vonnegut’s early career and the heyday of magazine fiction, when works by the best writers appeared at newsstands and not just the bookstore. A writer himself, Offit is the author of fourteen books and serves as the curator of the George Polk Awards in Journalism.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from Bobby Doerr. He was the second baseman for the Boston Red Sox from 1937 to 1951, played in nine All-Star Games and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986. Doerr now lives in Oregon on land he bought when he was a teenager. That’s where we reached him by phone to reflect on the essay he recorded decades ago.
HOUR TWO
Rafe Esquith teaches fifth grade at Hobart Elementary in Los Angeles, California. He’s the only teacher ever to win the president’s National Medal of the Arts and he returns to the show to discuss his new book, Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World.
Any fan of Libby Gelman-Waxner’s monthly column, “If You Ask Me,” in Premiere magazine (1987-2007) could tell you all about Libby’s home life and her hilarious observations on Hollywood and films. But many of those fans never knew that “Libby” was actually a pseudonym for screenwriter, playwright, and novelist Paul Rudnick, one of America’s greatest humorists. Rudnick’s most recent book is a memoir about his work in the theater world, titled, I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey.