The Bob Edwards Show, March 4-8, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013: There is no shortage of food in the United States, yet every day 49 million Americans – including one in four children – go hungry. A new documentary – A Place at the Table – examines the issue of first world hunger through the lens of three people: Rose, a second-grader in Colorado who often relies on friends and neighbors to feed her; Tremonica, a fifth-grader in Mississippi whose health is compromised by her empty calorie diet; and Barbie, a single mom in Philadelphia trying to make ends meet for her two kids. Filmmakers Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson, along with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, talk with Bob about the film, the accompanying book of essays of the same name, and efforts to end hunger in the richest country in the world. Then, every momentous turn in human history is tied to a place — Italy during the Renaissance, France during the Enlightenment and England during the Industrial Revolution. David Talbot is the founder and CEO of the online magazine Salon, and he tells the story of San Francisco during the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s in his book, Season of the Witch. Talbot’s narrative encompasses everyone from Harvey Milk to Jerry Garcia, Charles Manson to Jim Jones, and the events and movements they came to represent – all building blocks in what has come to be known as “San Francisco values.” It’s available in paperback tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013: Most people are aware that the U.S. has a poet laureate, but its far less known that we also have a national children’s poet laureate. Currently, that position is held by J. Patrick Lewis, whose latest collection is an illustrated book of poems titled When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders. Then, Bob talks with religion scholar Elaine Pagels about her book, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation. It’s now out in paperback.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013: Peter Ames Carlin has written well-regarded and exhaustively researched biographies on Paul McCartney and The Beach Boys. Now he’s turned his journalistic eye to Bruce Springsteen with his newest title, Bruce. He joins Bob to talk about rock-n-roll’s working class hero.
Thursday, March 7, 2013: James Bennet is editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine. He was Adweek’s 2012 “Editor of the Year” and is overseeing a cover-to-cover redesign of the 155-year-old magazine. Bob asks Bennet about the state of print publications and the quickly changing media landscape. Then, some political partnerships are like love at first sight. Others are simply arrangements between two strangers, looking to bolster each other’s weaknesses. One of the most famous of the latter group is the relationship of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. In the book, Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage, Jeffrey Frank tells the shared history of the four star general and the Red-hunting politician.
Friday, March 8, 2013: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for The Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, math is hard. And most of us have very little interest in it after graduation. But Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy has managed to make a film about complex mathematical concepts that was voted “Best of the Year: Documentary” by BBC World News viewers in 2009. He joins Bob to explain why we should be in awe of math instead of fear it. Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.