The Bob Edwards Show, May 28 – June 1, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012: It’s been more than forty years since thousands of American troops died fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. For this Memorial Day, we pay tribute to our service men and women with an encore presentation of our award-winning show Stories from Third Med: Surviving a Jungle ER. The documentary includes stories of the Navy’s Third Medical Battalion, which served alongside the Third Marine Division. They were based near the DMZ, closest to the enemy in North Vietnam. Four decades later, the doctors and corpsmen recount the horror (and humor) they can never forget, and reflect on the forces that drive men to war in the first place.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012: Rolling Stones’ keyboardist Chuck Leavell returns to The Bob Edwards Show to discuss his latest ventures and adventures: Receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; recording a new blues tribute CD, Back to the Woods; publishing his fourth book, Growing a Better America: Smart, Strong and Sustainable; being named an honorary forest ranger by the U.S. Forest Service; working on John Mayer’s new record, Born And Raised (released on May 22); and successfully launching Mother Nature Network, an on-line one stop shop for environmental news. Then, Nanci Griffith’s 20th album is called Intersection, and has the singer-songwriter reflecting on changes and choices. The single “Hell No (I’m Not Alright)” has become a theme song for the “Occupy” movement.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012: Writer Paula McLain combines fact and fiction in The Paris Wife, a historical novel about Hadley Richardson, the first wife of American writer Ernest Hemingway. The Paris Wife is now available in paperback. Then, Joan Miro (1893-1983) was a leader in the Surrealist movement and one of the great modern artists of the 20th century. He was also a passionate Catalonian with a deep connection to his native land. Bob talks with curator Harry Cooper about Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape, on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC through August 12, 2012. Then, we close the hour with a visit to Miro’s now-crumbling country home in the Catalan countryside.
Thursday, May 31, 2012: Within a generation, more households will be supported by women than by men. In The Richer Sex, Liza Mundy takes us to the exciting frontier of this new economic order: she shows us why this flip is inevitable, what painful adjustments will have to be made along the way, and how both men and women will feel surprisingly liberated in the end. Then, Bob talks to Dale Cockrell and Matt Combs about Pa’s Fiddle, a CD series and live musical event that brings to life the songs found in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House On the Prairie series. Charles “Pa” Ingalls was an avid fiddler, and the Little House books contain 127 old-time songs (such as Buffalo Gals, Polly Put the Kettle On, Jesus Holds My Hand) embedded in the narratives. Cockrell is the director of Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Popular Music, and he is recording all 127 songs utilizing some of Nashville’s most accomplished fiddlers and backing musicians. Combs is director of the fiddle program at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music and is one of the primary fiddlers on the project.
Friday, June 1, 2012: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, Bob talks with banjo player Bela Fleck and the Original Flecktones, who have reunited for their latest CD called Rocket Science. Howard Levy is back on piano and harmonica, joining bandleader Fleck, bassist Victor Wooten and Futureman on percussion. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of John Dyben. Parents have a strong impulse to protect their children from harm, and to soothe their fears and worries. But the world can be a scary place, and a little reality must sometimes creep past the sugar coating. Dyben is a therapist, educator, and pastor. His daughter’s bedtime fears about bogeymen encouraged him to think more deeply about the reassurances he offered her. And eventually, he found himself admitting that though his love for her is strong, his protection of her is not absolute.