Bob Edwards Weekend Highlights – July 16-17, 2011
HOUR ONE:
In May of 1945, twenty-four American servicemen and women boarded a plane for a sightseeing trip over “Shangri-La,” a mysterious valley on the island of New Guinea. It was supposed to be a morale-building pleasure tour but the plane crashed killing all but three. Badly injured and unequipped for the jungle, the survivors set out to try to find help and instead found a primitive, cannibalistic tribe. Mitchell Zuckoff tells this true story of survival, adventure and rescue in his new book Lost in Shangri-La.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Reverend Dr. John M. Buchanan. He is the pastor of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church. Buchanan has found new meaning in the biblical assertion that God created humankind in His image as he has observed his granddaughter, who has Down syndrome. She participates in sports, theater and the church. For Buchanan, her success in life is proof that every person deserves respect and has something of the sacred within them.
HOUR TWO:
Thirty years before Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, there was Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen whose antics often landed her on the front page of the gossip rags. Unlike most of today’s celebs du jour McKinney had an IQ of 168, but her behavior was just as bad and often much more bizarre. In his new film, Tabloid, director Errol Morris tells the story of McKinney’s strange odyssey in pursuit of a love interest – cloned dogs, magic underwear, and celestial sex included. Roger Ebert says, “If Tabloid is a love story, it is one only Errol Morris could film.” Morris’ previous films include The Fog of War, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control and Standard Operating Procedure.
Bob talks with Lucinda Williams about her music career and about her on-stage marriage to her manager and co-producer. Many of Williams best known songs are marked by raw, brutal honesty about relationships gone wrong. Her latest CD is titled Blessed and features two sweet, love songs about her new husband, Tom Overby.
Bob Edwards Weekend is heard on XM 121 & Sirius 205 on Saturdays from 7-9 AM EST.
Visit Bob Edwards Weekend on PRI’s website to find local stations that air the program.