The Bob Edwards Show, November 11-15, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013: Dominic Fredianelli signed up for the National Guard after graduating high school, not so much out of a sense of patriotism, but because it seemed like the best opportunity around: one weekend of training a month, a $20,000 signing bonus, and much-needed college tuition support. Soon, 10 of Dominic’s friends also joined up. Heather Courtney’s film Where Soldiers Come From follows the effect one National Guard Unit’s Deployment has on this group of lifelong friends and the town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that they leave behind. Next, Jan Scruggs is the Founder and President of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He’ll discuss the significance of the memorial, a book about it, Dreams Unfulfilled: Stories of the Men and Women on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the future “Education Center at the Wall.” Then, Linda Schwartz is the commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Veterans Affairs and is leading the effort in that state to collect photos of all their Vietnam veterans to include in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center in Washington, DC. She’s a Vietnam veteran herself and will discuss the value of matching a face with a name, and of preserving their stories.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013: Scott Elliott talks to Bob about his second novel Temple Grove, which is the setting on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula where an environmentalist is trying to save the ancient Douglas firs from logging. Elliott is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English at Whitman College. Then, brothers David and Joe Henry examine the life of comedian Richard Pryor in their book Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013: This week, 3 journalists from a now defunct Rupert Murdoch tabloid plead guilty to phone hacking charges. The scandal had the potential to end the media tycoon, but Murdoch survived and continues to rule a multimedia empire that largely spews phony populism to serve a wealthy elite. NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflick takes an in-depth look into the media mogul’s life, business and scandals with his new book, Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.
Thursday, November 14, 2013: Bob talks with former astronaut Chris Hadfield about a few of his 4,000 hours spent in space, and about his new book An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything. Earlier this year while aboard the International Space Station, Hadfield attracted the world’s attention when he released a series of photos and educational videos about life in space. His version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” received over 10 million views in its first three days online.
Friday, November 15, 2013: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, award-winning director Alex Gibney returns to discuss his latest documentary. Since the story changed so drastically from the time he began the project, Gibney has been working on this one, then re-working it, for years now. The Armstrong Lie explores the rise AND fall of cancer survivor and 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Gibney set out to chronicle Armstrong’s 2009 comeback at the world’s most famous cycling event but instead he captured an insider’s view as a racing legend collapsed. Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.