Monday, March 29, 2010
Like many young men of his generation, Tim O’Brien was drafted into the Vietnam War and spent two years as an infantry foot soldier in My Lai, Vietnam. Drawing from those experiences, O’Brien wrote a collection of stories he titled “The Things They Carried.” Celebrating its 20 year anniversary with a new edition, “The Things They Carried” is still regarded as a masterwork of war time impressions. Then, director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider discuss their documentary “Waking Sleeping Beauty.” It’s a behind-the-scenes view into the turf battle at the Disney studios between the old animators and new innovators as the studios made the difficult transition from the bleak 1980s to its glory days following the success of The Little Mermaid.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A Human Terrain Team is a relatively new concept in the military. The idea is to incorporate social scientists and cultural anthropologists into military units on the front lines to help better understand and solve the conflicts and misunderstandings that arise between the local population and the troops. We will introduce you to the members of a Human Terrain Team during their classroom training in Kansas and their time at the Army’s National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, California. The team deployed to southern Afghanistan last September.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Bob talks with Michael Lewis about his new book “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.” It’s a look at the mortgage crisis and the few visionaries who saw it coming and made a fortune.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
In 2006, writer Siri Hustvedt was speaking at a memorial for her father when she suffered a seizure from the neck down. Although she lost control over her limbs, Hustvedt continued to speak clearly, finishing her talk. Over the next few years, as Hustvedt continued to have these bizarre seizures, she searched for a diagnosis to help her understand her condition, finally discovering answers in an emerging field in neurological science called “neuropsychoanalysis.” Hustvedt chronicled her journey in her memoir, “The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves.” Then, singer & songwriter Sebastian Krueger is known as Inlets. He’ll answer questions about his career and perform songs from his forthcoming album “Inter Arbiter.”
Friday, April 2, 2010
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, The Obama administration has just presented a new blueprint for education reform – an issue of great concern to Diane Ravitch. She’s Research Professor of Education at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Ravitch will discuss the proposed changes and her latest book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.” Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with curator Dan Gediman about the essay of writer and educator Wallace Stegner. He published over 30 novels, collections of short stories and essays, and historical works. “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” was among his most popular novels, and “Angle of Repose” won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Stegner wrote about the American West, which he also fought to protect.