HOUR ONE
With concerns about mounting national debt so intense now that President Obama has called for a partial spending freeze, Bob turns to David Walker for fiscal opinion and analysis. Walker is a former comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office and he has just written Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility.
The Berlin Airlift has been called the first battle of the cold war. For almost a year, young men flew old planes over Berlin dropping food, fuel, medicine — even candy — to the two million people below. In his new book Daring Young Men, historian Richard Reeves tells the stories of the civilian airmen who carried out one of history’s largest humanitarian campaigns.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with curator Dan Gediman about the essay of Ben Lucien Burman. Author, journalist, and World War I veteran Burman wrote 22 books, including the bestselling Catfish Bend series about life in a fictitious Louisiana river town. Several of his books became movies, including Steamboat Round the Bend, which starred Will Rogers.
HOUR TWO
Edge of Sports host Dave Zirin gives Bob a preview of Super Bowl XLIV. Then, Bob talks with Keith Campbell, older brother of producer Chad Campbell, and life-long New Orleans resident about the Super Bowl. The Saints are appearing in that contest for the first time, and Bob talks with Campbell about what a win might mean for the city.
When Vince Lombardi became coach of the Green Bay Packers, the franchise was in a tail spin. It was the laughingstock of the National Football League – community owned, cheaply run, and outclassed on the field. When coaches and owners of other teams wanted to scare a little hard work into their own players, they threatened to ship the miscreants to Green Bay. In Lombardi’s first season with the Packers, he returned the team to respectability and began to lay the groundwork for his now legendary coaching ability. John Eisenberg talks with Bob about Lombardi, coaching philosophies, and current NFL teams that could use a Lombardi of their own. Eisenberg’s book is titled, That First Season.
Entertainment critic and former NEA Director of Literature David Kipen talks about the Oscar nominations, what’s new in theaters, and J. D. Salinger.