Monday, March 15, 2010: Over forty years ago, Stewart Brand put together the Whole Earth Catalog, which was his shot at collecting all the skills mankind had learned to make life work better here on Earth. Now, facing the dangers of global climate change, Brand has written Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. Then, Dave Zirin, host of Edge of Sports Radio reports from South Africa on the preparations and problems ahead of the 2010 World Cup.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010: Meg Hutchinson is an award-winning songwriter who artfully documents the human condition. Hutchinson released her debut CD Come Up Full in 2008 and now she has a new CD titled The Living Side. Then, Salon.com book critic Laura Miller shares her recommendations for what’s new in the book world.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010: When companies want to understand global affairs, they hire someone like George Friedman. He runs Stratfor, a private intelligence company that provides intelligence and analysis. Friedman is the author of The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century and he’ll discuss what a private intelligence firm does, who hires it and what it knows that the public doesn’t.
Thursday, March 18, 2010: David Kessler is one of the most driven and successful doctors of his generation. He fearlessly took on the tobacco industry as head of the FDA, was dean of a premier medical school in California and has done path breaking research in pediatrics. There is one part of his life where he has always failed: his weight. His new book The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite analyzes why more American every year are losing the battle to control their weight. Then, the day before his senior year in college began, singer-songwriter Joe Pug packed up his belongings and headed for Chicago. Working as a carpenter by day, Pug’s friend snuck him into a studio to record his songs. That was the beginning of the 25-year-old’s music career which now includes two EPs and a new CD called “Messenger.”
Friday, March 19, 2010: David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, Tim Wendel wanted to know which baseball pitcher threw the hardest ever. Instead of a single answer, his new book High Heat, explains why we’ll likely never know. Wendell discovered that the fast ball is alchemy and no one body shape tells the full tale of the fastest hurlers. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with curator Dan Gediman about the essay of Albert J. Nesbitt. He was president of the John J. Nesbitt Company, which manufactured heating and ventilating units. Among his many civic activities, Nesbitt served as the president of the Philadelphia YMCA and the Philadelphia Council of Churches.