Bob Edwards Weekend, June 9-10, 2012
HOUR ONE:
Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus joins Bob to discuss the latest political news.
Bob talks with banjo player Bela Fleck and the Original Flecktones, who have reunited for their latest tour and CD called Rocket Science. Howard Levy is back on piano and harmonica, joining bandleader Fleck, bassist Victor Wooten and his brother Futureman on percussion.
Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Andrew Riutta. Raised to be tough, Riutta’s ancestors were farmers, miners and lumberjacks – and he followed them into that work force. Riutta believed he could muscle his way out of any problem and around any obstacle, until he learned he would be a father. Riutta says fatherhood is the hardest job he’s had, and that it has softened his disposition and rounded his rough edges.
HOUR TWO:
There’s an old adage that only two things in life are certain: taxes and death. But modern medicine has made the latter less certain. These days, dead people can live for a long time on life support. For instance, stroke victims are regularly kept alive long enough to donate their organs, and brain-dead pregnant women are sometimes kept alive long enough to deliver their babies. Dick Teresi details the long, complicated history of the changing definition of death in his new book titled The Undead.
Geneticist Bryan Sykes has provided a groundbreaking examination of this country through the genes of its citizens. His book is titled DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America.
Bob Edwards Weekend airs on Sirius XM Public Radio (XM 121, Sirius 205) Saturdays from 8-10 AM EST.
Visit Bob Edwards Weekend on PRI’s website to find local stations that air the program.
I, too, thought Dick Teresi's viewpoint was highly biased. I was disappointed that Mr. Edwards' interviewing technique was not more investigative – he seemed to take all of Mr. Teresi's statements at face value. If listeners accept the information without question, organ donation will be set back for years. I worked as an organ procurement coordinator over 20 years ago, and my experiences were nothing like those he recounted. We did not stalk the halls – we never approached a family until we were contacted by medical personnel (with no connection to the organ procurement organization). We cared deeply for the families who lost loved ones, and their loved ones were certainly people to us. My colleague and I were able to do our jobs because we both believed that if we ever lost a child, our one consolation would be organ donation – that another child might live. And one more piece of information, aenesthesiologists administer drugs during the operation to keep the organs vital until they are removed.
I found the commentary on brain death the organ procurement process to be unnecessarily inflammatory. His description of the process was misleading and lacking crucial information of how the system is set up and has inherent fail safes. He had an obvious bias against ogan donation, which shone through