The Weekend’s Program (July 27-28, 2013)

HOUR ONE:

 

Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news.

 

Rafe Esquith has taught at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles for more than 25 years and is the only teacher to have been awarded the president’s National Medal of the Arts.  Almost all of his students live below the poverty line and are from immigrant families, with none speaking English as a first language.  However, his fifth-grade students consistently score in the top 10 percent of the country in standardized tests.  Esquith’s latest book is titled Real Talk for Real Teachers: Advice for Teachers from Rookies to Veterans: “No Retreat, No Surrender!”

 

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

 

HOUR TWO:

Early in the morning of January 1, 2009, Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a transit officer on the subway system in Oakland.  The incident triggered riots throughout the city.  Filmmaker Ryan Coogler made a feature film about Grant, called Fruitvale Station, which chronicles his last days alive and shows the good and bad sides of the young man. Coogler, who’s also from the bay area and was born the same year as Grant, wanted to portray the young man as a person and not just a mere statistic.

 

In 2010, Bob spoke with singer-songwriter Meg Hutchinson about her album The Living Side.  On the album is a song called ‘Gatekeeper’ about Sergeant Kevin Briggs of the California Highway Patrol.  For years, Briggs has worked on the Golden Gate Bridge, talking hundreds of people out of jumping to their deaths.  Bob talks with both Meg and Kevin about the song, Kevin’s work and depression.