The Bob Edwards Show, November 25-29, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013: Actor and comedian Steve Coogan is best-known in his native Britain as his alter ego Alan Partridge, a satirical TV and radio presenter. Coogan switched gears for his latest film, Philomenia, a drama co-staring Judi Dench. Coogan plays a journalist who follows the story of a woman’s (Dench) search for her long-lost son. Then, for the past 31 years, NPR listeners have heard Frank Tavares tell them that “support for NPR comes from…” As his time as the “voice of NPR” comes to a close, Tavares tell Bob about his years behind the mic. Tavares is also a professor of communication at Southern Connecticut State University and most recently, the author of a book of short stories, The Man Who Built Boxes and Other Stories.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013: Ann Patchett is a best-selling novelist and the owner of an independent book store in Nashville. All she’s ever wanted to do with her life is get paid to write fiction, but early in her career, that wasn’t a recipe for financial stability. Instead, she wrote essays. Lots and lots of essays. They appeared in a range of publications from The Atlantic to Outside, and her new book, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, collects twenty-two of them. Taken together, they chronicle her path from a struggling young artist to a confident writer.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013: On what would have been Albert Camus’s 100th birthday comes a book exploring the relationship between the famous philosopher and the French biologist Jacques Monod, a friendship that in many ways mirrors the relationship between religion and science. Camus and Monod both joined the French Resistance to help liberate their country from the Nazis. But after the war, each man took a very different path to try to make sense of the cruelty, death, and destruction they had seen. Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize is authored by Dr. Sean Carroll, an internationally scientists who currently heads the Department of Science Education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin. Then, Jean Grae is one of the few women in hip hop. The South African born, New York raised emcee started her career in the 90’s and has since chartered a course in music that counters today’s popular twerking-Barbie aesthetic. Part of Grae’s popularity is her unconventional approach to dating, gender, race… Not to mention her lyrical skill, sharp wit, and aggressive technique rivals many of the übermasculine head knockers in her cypher. Grae’s been on hiatus for a number of years, for a number of reasons. She joins Bob to talk about her time off, her desires for marriage and a Grammy, and her latest creative iteration, an album in three cycles: Gotham Down Cycle 1: Love in Infinity, Gotham Down Cycle 2: Leviathan, Gotham Down Cycle 3: The Artemis Epoch.
Thursday, November 28, 2013: On this Thanksgiving Day we dip into our archive to bring back two of Bob’s interviews. First, English writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry traveled across the United States in a black London cab, visiting all 50 states to experience first-hand what makes America unique. Fry stopped in Georgia for Thanksgiving, marched in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, learned how to pick a banjo with hillbillies, and palled around with Ted Turner on his Montana ranch. Fry’s book is appropriately titled, Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All. Then, Bob talks with one of public radio’s favorite personalities. In the early 1970’s, Susan Stamberg was one of the first producers hired by the fledgling National Public Radio and later she became the first woman to anchor its nightly news program, All Things Considered. Bob talks with Stamberg about her experience as a radio pioneer, what she feels makes a great interview and the true story behind her mother-in-law’s Thanksgiving cranberry relish.
Friday, November 29, 2013: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Then, Cuban-born world-class percussionist Pedrito Martinez immigrated to the United States and began his breakthrough by winning the 2000 Thelonious Monk Internationa Afro-Latin Jazz Hand Drum Competition. After performing in groups such as Yerba Buena, his own band Pedrito Martinez Group is gaining worldwide acclaim and touring in support of their self-titled album. Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.