The Bob Edwards Show, April 8-12, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013: Shin Dong-hyuk’s first memory was an execution. Ten years later, Shin watched his mother be hanged and his brother shot, both executed for attempting to escape. Now 29 years old, Shin’s life is documented in Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. Author Blaine Harden is a reporter for PBS Frontline and a contributor to The Economist. He joins Bob to discuss Shin, the only person known to be born, raised and escaped from a North Korean prison camp. Then, award-winning singer-songwriter Dido joins Bob to discuss her first album in five years Girl Who Got Away.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013: Everyone’s favorite astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson joins Bob to talk about all-things-science. His book, Space Chronicles is now out in paperback.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013: Bob Thompson, a longtime feature writer for the Washington Post, has spent the past several years tracing the footsteps of Davy Crockett. The result is a book titled Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier. Thompson explores the myth of Crocket and reveals, among other things, that the coon-capped frontiersman wasn’t born on a mountain top at all. Then, Jazz musician Jaimeo Brown joins Bob to discuss his debut album Transcendence.
Thursday, April 11, 2013: Initially, infertility was the only grounds for divorce in Ancient Rome. But later laws provided three more reasons: cheating, excessive wine consumption, and making copies of the house keys. Vicki Leon shares this and other true facts about lust, love, and longing in the ancient world from her book, The Joy of Sexus.
Friday, April 12, 2013: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, thanks to the centuries of bad press as well as the current hit Showtime series The Borgias, the Borgia name is synonymous with duplicity and immorality— a family that would go to any lengths to retain their power. But historian G.J. Meyer challenges what we know about this Italian papal family in his new book The Borgias: A Hidden History. Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.