Monday, December 21, 2009
Each Monday this month, we’re examining America and war. Today, we bring back Bob’s 2005 conversation with Paul Dickson and Thomas Allen, authors of The Bonus Army: An American Epic. It tells the story of 50,000 World War One veterans who descended on Washington, DC in the long hot summer of 1932 to demand payment of a cash bonus promised to them years earlier. For two months the veterans camped out on the National Mall until Douglas MacArthur sent in tanks to clear them away.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
According to the FBI, Latinos are the most targeted ethnic group of violent attacks. Since 2003, the number has increased so that 64 percent of all ethnically motivated attacks are against Hispanics. In the worst of those crimes, three Latino men on Long Island were brutally murdered simply based on how they looked. However, authorities believe that many attacks go unreported because the victims are either afraid of local police or simply because they have come to accept the attacks and humiliation as a cost of living here in the United States. But that price is just too much to bear for the families of Marcelo Lucero, Luis Ramirez, and Jose Sucuzhanay – the three men who were killed. For the full hour, Hating Marcelo: America’s Growing Rage Against Latinos – a look at why Hispanics are hated and what that hate does to a community.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Twenty years ago this month, Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu were executed marking the end of more than forty years of Communist totalitarianism in Romania. When Americans think of Romania, dracula, orphans and dictatorship are what generally come to mind. But in a new book Sheliah Kast and Jim Rosapepe reevaluate the country’s past and present. Their book is titled Dracula is Dead: How Romanians Survived Communism, Ended It, and Emerged since 1989 as the New Italy. Then, Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac comprise the Canadian folk duo Madison Violet. The ladies take a break from their tour to join Bob in the studio and perform a few tracks from their new album, No Fool for Trying.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Today we take a look back at 2009. First, David Broder of The Washington Post talks about the year in politics. Next, Sophie Delaunay, Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders talks about her organization’s annual list of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, many of which have gone underreported or unknown. Then we hear from Edge of Sports host Dave Zirin about the biggest sports stories of the year. And finally Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtisoffers his personal list of 2009’s top ten CDs.
Friday, December 25, 2009:
On this Christmas Day, we bring back Bob’s interview with Karen Armstrong, one of the world’s most highly regarded authors on religion about her book The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with executive director Dan Gediman about the essay from Susan Parker Cobbs. She was a teacher of Latin and Greek as well as and Dean of Women at Swarthmore College. A native of Anniston, Alabama, Cobbs studied the classics at New York University and the University of Chicago. She taught at Swarthmore for nearly a quarter century.