Monday, September 5, 2011: Today is Labor Day and we celebrate it with a conversation about Bob’s favorite job: journalism. We bring back Bob’s 2005 conversation with writer, director, and actor George Clooney and actor David Strathairn about their film Good Night and Good Luck. The movie takes on the relationship between Edward R. Murrow, TV news, and the reign and eventual downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Then, we remember Dean Faulkner Wells. She was the niece of writer William Faulkner and the last living member of the family who grew up at Rowan Oak, Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. To her, the Pulitzer Prize winner was simply “Pappy.” Earlier this year, Bob talked to Wells about her book titled Every Day by the Sun: A Memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi. She died in July after suffering a stroke.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011: During the U.S. Global War on Terror, former CIA undercover agent and interrogator Glenn Carle was charged with interrogating a man the CIA believe to be a key member of Osama bin Laden’s circle. But as their sessions progressed, Carle began to doubt if they had the right man. In his book The Interrogator, Carle tells his story as a covert operative in one of our country’s darkest moments.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011: Thomas Jefferson is revered as one of the visionary founding fathers of our country, but his tenure as governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War nearly derailed his legacy. Led by Benedict Arnold, the British took Virginia with relative ease and Jefferson was forced to flee his beloved home. The memories and lessons gleaned from these events had a profound effect on the rest of Jefferson’s life. Michael Kranish is a reporter in the Boston Globe’s Washington bureau and the author of Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War. Then, best-selling author Lev Grossman returns to the fictional land of Fillroy in The Magician King, the sequel to his 2009 hit novel The Magicians. The story picks up with Quentin Coldwater as now king of the magical land he discovered in The Magicians, in this dark and modern mash-up of Narnia, Oz, Hogwarts and beyond.
Thursday, September 8, 2011: The new film Higher Ground is Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut, building on her previous work in The Departed and Up in the Air. Farmiga discusses her role in making the film about an evangelical community that becomes fractured when a local women questions her belief in God and marriage. Next, writer Barry Werth joins Bob to discuss his book about the first month of the Gerald Ford administration – a pivotal time in the American presidency. President Richard Nixon stepped down on Aug. 9, 1974. Just one month later, he was pardoned by Gerald Ford. What happened during that time in the White House is the subject of the book 31 Days: The Crisis That Gave Us the Government We Have Today. Then, shortly after the terror attacks of 9/11, writer Joan Murray read her poem, “Survivors Found,” on NPR’s Morning Edition, the program Bob hosted at the time. Ten years later, she’s back to reflect on that poem, and how it helped people heal from the tragedy.
Friday, September 9, 2011: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times joins Bob to talk about politics and other news. Next, after years of controversy and debate over how to commemorate the victims of 9/11, the National September 11 Memorial is opening at the site of the Twin Towers in New York on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Over 5,000 proposals from 63 nations were considered for the memorial and the one finally accepted was “Reflecting Absence” by New York architect Michael Arad and Californian landscape architect Peter Walker. Arad joins Bob to discuss the memorial which covers eight acres and includes two pools with 30-foot waterfalls that flow into the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a plaza of almost 400 oak trees. The names of the 2,982 victims are listed on parapets surrounding the pools. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Helena Marie Carnes-Jeffries. As the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 approaches, Carnes-Jeffries recalls her feelings at the time. A few days after the attacks, she attended an interfaith prayer vigil in Chicago. And now, even after a decade of war and increasing religious tensions, her faith tells her that peace remains the ultimate goal.