Bob Edwards Weekend, April 9-10, 2011
HOUR ONE:
David Kirp is an early childhood education and development expert who served on President Obama’s transition team. Kirp joins Bob to talk about his new book, Kids First: Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children’s Lives and America’s Future.
In celebration of 40 years on the air, the PBS series Masterpiece presents a new Upstairs Downstairs, a continuation of the popular original series from the 1970s. Dame Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh, who were part of the original cast, return to their roles as Lady Maud and her housekeeper Rose Buck, in addition to a new group of actors for this updated version. Bob talks with executive producer Rebecca Eaton about the return of this PBS classic. It airs this weekend.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Mary Plouffe, a clinical psychologist in Maine. In a way, she’s paid to be a serial conversationalist, chopping up her interactions into hour-long segments. Plouffe believes in the power of talk therapy, of course, but she says the silent moments she shares with her patients are just as important.
HOUR TWO:
Political journalist Jeff Greenfield wonders how the United States would have fared if certain events had happened differently. Looking back, he says minor changes such as a cancelled meeting, a chance encounter, or a shift in the weather could have given us different leaders with different beliefs. Greenfield’s book is Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan.
For 50 years, the male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo has kept alive the sounds of traditional South Africa. This three-time Grammy award winning group was that country’s first black musicians to receive gold record status. Their most recent album is a collection of traditional tunes called Songs From a Zulu Farm.
Bob Edwards Weekend is heard on XM 133 & Sirius 196 on Saturdays from 7-9 AM EST.
Visit Bob Edwards Weekend on PRI’s website to find local stations that air the program.