THE BOB EDWARDS SHOW, March 19-23, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012: Bob speaks with journalist Deborah Scroggins about two Muslim women who have become world famous for their diametrically opposed political views. The Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui offer a striking contrast in the issue of Islamic women’s rights and the often-overlooked place of women in that society. In her new book, Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror, Scroggins offers a comprehensive dual biography of these two women who, despite their divergent ideological paths, share similarities in their backgrounds, age and education. Then, disgust is a complex human emotion. What we find nasty, gross, and outright nauseating, is psychologically connected to what attracts, excites, and motivates us. Rachel Herz discusses whether these predilections are innate or learned. Her book on the subject is titled That’s Disgusting.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012: Bob talks with Mark Johnson, the founder of Playing for Change and the producer of two albums recorded by the street musicians Johnson has met since he started the organization in 2004. The group’s breakout hit was a cover of “Stand by Me” recorded by many different musicians around the world and in their own style. That video mixed them all together and has more than 40 million views on YouTube. Then, Bob talks with Clarence Bekker, Grandpa Elliott and Jason Tamba, just a few of the international musicians affiliated with the band. Playing for Change is touring now and their latest recording is PFC 2: Songs Around the World. Group member Clarence Bekker also has a brand new solo CD called Old Soul.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012: George Black’s latest article for OnEarth magazine is titled India Calling. Black explores how the cell phone revolution in India is also fueling a surge in green energy development. Mobile companies plan to build 200,000 new cell phone towers in India over the next few years, and they’re looking to the sun to power those towers. OnEarth magazine is published by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Then, Bob talks with Jeff Forshaw and Brian Cox. Forshaw is a theoretical physics professor and Cox is a professor of particle physics and host of the Discovery Channel series Wonders of the Universe. They have co-authored The Quantum Universe, which is a follow up their best-selling book Why Does E=mc2. Here, they explain quantum mechanics and why it matters in everyday life.
Thursday, March 22, 2012: David Unger is an editorial writer at The New York Times where he’s covered foreign policy, international economics, and the military for more than three decades. He’s been on the editorial board for 22 years and now has written a book called The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs.
Friday, March 23, 2012: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, if you listened to music in the 1960s and 1970s then you heard the Wrecking Crew, the uncredited studio musicians who performed on one hit record after another, for everyone from the Beach Boys to the Byrds to Simon & Garfunkel to the Mamas & the Papas. Kent Hartman tells the story of these largely unnamed session musicians in his book The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Best-Kept Secret. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Matt Rizotti. Paramedics and firefighters see people during the worst moments of their lives. The strangers they meet are watching their possessions turn to ash, or watching a loved one die unexpectedly. Rizotti is a volunteer firefighter and an emergency medical technician. He says it’s deeply rewarding to help people in such vulnerable circumstances, and that his job has taught him to treasure every moment he shares with loved ones.