This Weekend’s Program (July 20-21, 2013)

Bob Edwards Wekeend, July 20-21, 2013

 

HOUR ONE:

 

Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob from his vacation in Italy to discuss the latest political news.

 

Christopher Rufo is the director of a new documentary film Age of Champions, which highlights a few senior citizens who are competitors at the National Senior Olympics. These senior athletes — a 100 year old tennis player, 86 year old pole vaulter, his 89 year old arch-rival, a pair of swimming brothers and a baby boomer basketball team of grandmothers – are all challenging what it means to be old.  This year’s National Senior Olympics are being held in Cleveland, Ohio July 19th – August 1st. 

 

Jon Mooallem traveled all over North America to study the plight of three endangered species – polar bears, whooping cranes and Lange’s metalmark butterflies.  Mooallem’s book is titled Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America.

 

Then, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe. 

 

HOUR TWO:

The music industry has changed over the last few decades.  The struggling, independent artist now has an even smaller chance of being discovered by a major label and rewarded with a career-changing contract.  But these days, bands can record their own studio-quality music, put their video on YouTube and work all of the social media sites to build a fan base.  Another part of that equation is often direct funding from that growing fan base.  Paul Schomer runs a new music discovery blog called RadioCrowdfund.com and he talks with Bob about the new landscape of the music industry and about some of the bands he has helped fans discover.

 

Bob talks with Sally Ellyson and Dan Messe of the band Hem about their latest CD. The tunes on Departure and Farewell are not much of a departure from their previous work – still a mix of light airiness and layered density.  The full band will also play a few of their new songs in our performance studio.