THE BOB EDWARDS SHOW HIGHLIGHTS – November 15-19, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Eliot Spitzer was New York’s powerful Attorney General, known as “The Sherriff of Wall Street.” Then in 2006, Spitzer was overwhelmingly elected as the Governor of New York. The Democrat was on his way to political super-stardom and maybe someday the White House. But it turns out he had the secret habit of employing very high-priced escorts. Spitzer was known to the prostitution ring as “Client 9” and that’s the title of Alex Gibney’s latest documentary. Gibney joins Bob to discuss the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer is currently the co-host of CNN’s Parker Spitzer. Then, entertainment critic David Kipen joins Bob to talk about the importance of libraries and about his new venture, a lending library in LA’s Boyle Heights neighborhood.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Jane Addams was a social justice activist at a time when women were supposed to be homemakers and nothing more. In 1889, when Addams was twenty-nine years old, she moved into a newly industrialized, working class neighborhood in Chicago and founded Hull House, the nation’s first settlement house. Addams went on to advise eight presidents on social policy, and she was the first American woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Bob speaks with Addams newest biographer, Louise Knight. Knight’s book is titled Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy. Then, Bob talks with Edge of Sports host Dave Zirin about news in the world of sports.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Alabama’s Donaldson Correctional Facility is the last stop for hundreds of men facing life sentences in the overcrowded, violent maximum-security prison. And it’s a very unlikely setting for Vipassana, an intense, silent meditation program lasting ten days. The documentary film The Dhamma Brothers tells the story of a group of inmates going through the course. Jenny Phillips produced and directed the film. She is a practicing psychotherapist in Massachusetts and it was through her initiative that this unique prison program began in Alabama. The documentary was just released on DVD. Then, singer-song writer Elvis Costello is a master of reinvention. This musical chameleon has kept fans on their toes for the past 30 years, and his latest album, National Ransom, follows suit, as guests Jerry Douglas, Vince Gill, and other musical luminaries join Costello for an inventive take on the American roots sound.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Historian Simon Winchester has made a career unearthing the fascinating stories of things many of us take for granted, most notably in The Professor and the Madman (1998) about the creation of Oxford English Dictionary. His latest book tells the stories of the Earth’s second largest body of water in Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories. Then, Symphony Hall host Martin Goldsmith reviews two new biopics about the life of legendary musician John Lennon, released for what would have been Lennon’s 70th year. In theaters now, Nowhere Boy follows young John Lennon’s life in Liverpool, while Masterpiece Contemporary’s new film Lennon Naked, airing Sunday, November 21st on PBS, looks at Lennon’s final years with The Beatles. Goldsmith is the author of The Beatles Come to America.
Friday, November 19, 2010
David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics. Next, what do British novelist Nick Hornby and American piano player Ben Folds have in common? A new CD called Lonely Avenue, 11 songs featuring Hornby’s lyrics and Folds’ music and voice. They both join Bob at the piano in our performance studio to discuss how their long-distance mutual admiration turned into an album of playful yet often soul-stirring songs. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of James Johnson. He has been a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts for the past 35 years. But he grew up in the “Sportsman’s Paradise” of Louisiana, where he spent many hours duck hunting with his father. Johnson says the lessons he learned in the duckblind made him the person he is today.