THE BOB EDWARDS SHOW – May 3-7, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010: Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest in East Los Angeles. Since 1984, he’s helped thousands of young Latinos give up the gang life, find jobs, and lead productive healthy lives. In his book, Tattoos on the Heart, Father Greg tells the stories of gang-bangers who went straight—but also the stories of those he was unable to reach.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010: On May 4, 1970, a student protest against the Vietnam War on the Kent State campus ended in tragedy when members of the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four and wounded nine Kent State students. Dr. Jerry M. Lewis witnessed the campus shootings and since then has been involved in researching and memorializing about the fatal incident. Dr. Patrick Coy is director of Kent State’s Center for Applied Conflict Management which was founded as a result of the shootings. The two will discuss the 40th anniversary of the historical events and the role of student activism in American culture. Then, following the Greensboro sit-ins fifty years ago, young black students formed a revolutionary grassroots organization. Charles Cobb was one of the founding members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee or SNCC (pronounced “Snick”). He describes the events of early 1960 and how their methods helped paved the way for civil rights.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010: Jennifer Mascia has written a memoir about growing up as the daughter of a Mafiosi. Her book is titled Never Tell Our Business to Strangers. Then, the genesis for Angela Easterling’s new album, BlackTop Road, can be traced to 1791, the year her mother’s family started their farm in Greer, SC that eventually was cut by a road that now bears their name. After writing the songs for the CD, Easterling only had one producer in mind. Will Kimbrough says, “I produced Angela Easterling’s record, but all I had to do is show up for class and play along. She is a powerful, focused artist who has done her homework.”
Thursday, May 6, 2010: Bob talks with Alex Gibney about his latest documentary, Casino Jack and the United States of Money. It follows the rise and fall of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Then, it’s been four years since Isabel Allende published a novel. She returns to the world of historical fiction with Island Beneath the Sea, the story of a slave girl in 19th Century Haiti. Allende immersed herself in the complicated cultural history of Haiti, researching the period when slaves rebelled, overthrowing their French masters. Bob talks with Allende about the new novel, the history of Haiti, and the crippling legacy of governmental oppression.
Friday, May 7, 2010: David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, Bob talks with Judith Shulevitz about her new book The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time. Shulevitz’s book is exploration of the Sabbath in American history and also a personal meditation on sacred time in our accelerating lives. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with curator Dan Gediman about the essay of Maria von Trapp. She was the mother of seven girls and three boys, known as the world famous Trapp Family Singers. The story of their flight from Austria during Nazi occupation became the basis for “The Sound of Music.” Trapp and her family settled in Vermont where they operated a lodge and music camp.