The Bob Edwards Show, October 22-26, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012: In his new book, Who Stole the American Dream?, journalist Hedrick Smith answers the question he’s posed by naming names, giving dates and analyzing why and how the wealth disparity in this country continues to expand. Then, commentary from children’s book writer Daniel Pinkwater. Pinkwater’s most recent book is Bushman Lives!.
Tuesday, October 23 2012: Professor James Blight was part of the research team behind the documentary Fog of War. His latest project is The Armageddon Letters, a transmedia storytelling project about the lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then, we remember George McGovern, who for decades was one of this country’s strongest and loudest voices for liberal causes. In 1972, Senator McGovern won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, but lost badly to incumbent Richard Nixon. McGovern campaigned for an immediate end to the Vietnam War, and for a broad program of progressive social and economic reforms at home. George McGovern died over the weekend at age 90.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012: When Lynn Povich joined the staff of Newsweek in 1965 as a secretary, there were no women reporters. “If you want to be a writer, go somewhere else —- women don’t write at Newsweek,” she and her colleagues were told. But Povich and forty-five of her female colleagues including Ellen Goodman, Jane Bryant Quinn and Nora Ephron stayed and filed an EEOC complaint charging their employer with “systematic discrimination.” She tells the story in a new book titled, The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace. Then, Bob Balaban is an actor (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), director (The Exonerated), and author of children’s books. His most recent is The Creature from the Seventh Grade.
Thursday, October 25, 2012: Like so many children in Uganda’s capitol city, Phiona Mutesi was poor, had little education, and was often hungry. In 2005 a local missionary taught her how to play chess. Within a few short years, Mutesi became Uganda’s national junior chess champion and just this summer competed in the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. Writer Tim Crothers, a former senior editor at Sports Illustrated, tells Mutesi’s remarkable story in his book The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster. Then, Bob talks sports with John Feinstein, Washington Post columnist and co-host of SiriusXM’s “Beyond the Brink” (Mad Dog Radio, channel 86).
Friday, October 26, 2012: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, 20 years ago, Scholastic introduced young readers to a new series called Goosebumps. These creepy stories soon became one of the best-selling children’s series of all times, with over 300 million books sold. Often called the “Stephen King of children’s literature,” author R.L. Stine talks with Bob about the trick of scaring kids and about his writing Red Rain, his latest novel for adults. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Christine Kingery. While growing up, Kingery heard stories of World War II from her grandmother, who was captured twice by the Nazis. She also escaped twice by receiving help from German civilians. Kingery’s grandmother always said the German people were her friends. From her, Kingery realized that peace is possible through compassion.