The Bob Edwards Show, October 21-25, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013: Kenneth M. Pollack is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He began his career as a Persian Gulf analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and has served twice on the staff of the National Security Council including as Director for Persian Gulf Affairs. Pollack is the author of 8 books on the political, military and economic affairs of the Middle East. The newest is titled Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb and American Strategy. Pollack joins Bob to discuss his book and the latest on Syria. Then, in her new book Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism, Karima Bennoune spotlights Muslim women and men who are challenging religious extremism in their own countries through artistic expression, journalism, grassroots organizing and public protest. Bennoune is a professor of international law at the University of California–Davis. She grew up in Algeria and the United States. This book was inspired by Bennoune’s father who faced death threats throughout the 1990s when he was an outspoken professor at the University of Algiers.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013: After 9/11, a small group of officials were tasked with using the financial powers of the United States government to find and dismantle illegal financial supply chains used by terrorists. Author Juan Zarate explores one of the least-examined strategies in the war on terror with his new book Treasury’s War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare. Then, the irreverent and talented Robbie Fulks is always worth a listen, whether in conversation, on stage, or on a record. Bob last spoke with Robbie on the occasion of his live CD Revenge! and since then he’s released two full length discs, Let’s Kill Saturday Night, with such feel-good anthems as “She Must Think I Like Poetry” and “God Isn’t Real,” and his latest, titled “Gone Away Backward.” Robbie takes a pit stop from touring to discuss his career, songwriting process and his latest album for Bloodshot Records.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013: Sheri Fink holds an MD and PhD in neuroscience, and she has reported on health, medicine and science from every continent except Antarctica. Five Days at Memorial is her new book chronicling the events at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina in August of 2005. The hospital was situated three feet below sea level — one of New Orleans’s lowest points – and when the storm hit; at least two thousand people were at Memorial. Two hundred and forty of those were patients, six hundred were workers and the rest were taking refuge. The scene quickly became chaotic and Fink reports that several doctors and nurses were faced with making an unthinkable decision: deliberately injecting some ill patients with drugs to hasten their deaths, resulting in at least 18 fatalities. Then, Bob talks once again with Paul Schomer who runs the new music discovery blog www.radiocrowdfund.com. This time he shares the music of two new acts – The Seattle band Dark Horses and Austin-based orchestral pop band Mother Falcon.
Thursday, October 24, 2013: Feminist film critic Molly Haskell wrote a memoir about her sixty year old brother, Chevey Haskell, who came out as transgendered and now lives as Ellen Hampton. Bob talks to Haskell about her brother and her book My Brother My Sister: Story of a Transformation. Then, while initially reluctant to take the spotlight, British singer Laura Mvula is currently touring the United States and winning fans with aplomb. Rolling Stone described her album “Sing to the Moon” as combining “jazzy melodics, pop balladry, orchestral flourishes and pleading gospel to astonishing effect.” Bob speaks with Mvula about her musical family, overcoming stage fright and sharing her music with a growing global audience.
Friday, October 25, 2013: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, Ray Suarez is a chief correspondent for PBS NewsHour. His new book, Latino Americans, is a comprehensive look at Latino American history spanning 500 years from the very first Latino right up to today’s immigration issues. Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.