The Bob Edwards Show, March 17-21, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014: Grammy-nominated musician Loreena McKennitt talks with Bob about her extraordinary career. Her latest album is The Journey So Far: The Best of Loreena McKennitt. Then, in 1962, musician Paddy Moloney founded a traditional Irish music group called The Chieftains. We mark St. Patrick’s Day by returning to our 2012 conversation with Moloney about his Grammy-winning ensemble’s latest album, Voice of Ages, a collaboration with Bon Iver, the Punch Brothers and many other contemporary musicians. The Chieftains are currently touring Voice of Ages throughout the U.S.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014: Author Jesse Prinz jabs at the nihilism of the nature/nurture debate in his book Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape the Human Brain. Prinz shares with Bob his belief that “…nurture can transcend nature.” Prinz’s book is now available in paperback. Then, since retiring from his weekly column a few years ago, Dave Barry has remained an astute observer of things that are funny to him. In his latest collection of humor essays, You Can Date Boys When You’re Forty, Barry pokes fun at Justin Bieber, 50 Shades of Gray, teenage girls, and, of course, himself.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” These iconic words were spoken by anchorman named Howard Beale in the 1976 movie Network. In MAD AS HELL: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies, Dave Itzkoff, a culture reporter for The New York Times, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Network, including how the film’s screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky prophetically envisioned the future of mass media. Then, Bob talks with Jason Bateman about his new movie, Bad Words. Bateman stars as 40-year-old spelling bee contestant Guy Trilby. He also directed the film.
Thursday, March 20, 2014: As Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the rest of Muppet crew return to the big screen this weekend in Muppets Most Wanted, we look at the life of their creator, visionary artist Jim Henson. In his biography, Jim Henson: The Biography, writer Brian Jay Jones tells Henson’s personal story, revealing the man behind the Muppets.
Friday, March 21, 2014: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Then, two weeks after a Queens woman named Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was brutally murdered, the New York Times published a detailed account of what happened: For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens….Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.” 50 years later, Kevin Cook takes a closer look at the detail of the case in a book titled Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime That Changed America. Finally, Paul Schomer of RadioCrowdFund.com is back to share some new music discoveries with us. This time he’ll play tracks by Boone Graham, Not in the Face, Shortsleeves, Adrienne Lenker and Grand Lake Islands.