Bob Edwards Weekend: August 6-7, 2011
HOUR ONE:
In Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, journalist Juan Williams uses his very public firing from NPR as a launching pad to discuss the countless ways in which honest debate in America is stifled. Williams writes about the lack of discourse in the halls of Congress and the health care town halls to the partisan talk shows and print media. Bob talks with Williams about his new book, his departure from NPR and his expanded role at Fox News.
Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney is back – yet again – to discuss his latest project, Magic Trip. He uses archival footage shot in 1964 by Ken Kesey and “The Merry Band of Pranksters” as they traveled by psychedelic bus from the West coast to the World’s Fair in New York City. They documented their LSD-fueled trip to the “World of Tomorrow” with 16mm film, but never quite finished editing the 100 hours of footage.
In this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Julia Pistell. She is never too busy to take a lunch break. She’s not hungry, she’s simply curious. Pistell has had many jobs in several countries, and her lunch breaks have given her an opportunity to meet new people, learn a different language, tame wild cats, and write letters to a far-off love. She says what you do at lunch is the true reflection of who you are.
HOUR TWO:
Melissa Fay Greene was last on this program to talk about There is No Me Without You, a book about a middle-class Ethiopian widow whose home became a refuge for hundreds of AIDS-orphaned children. In the years since, Greene and her husband adopted four children from Ethiopia. Those kids joined another son adopted from Bulgaria as well as Greene’s four other children by birth. When the number of children hit nine, Greene turned her reporter’s eye to events at home and has now written, No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.
Bob Edwards Weekend is heard on XM 121 & Sirius 205 on Saturdays from 8-10 AM EST.
Visit Bob Edwards Weekend on PRI’s website to find local stations that air the program.