The Bob Edwards Show, June 30 – July 4, 2014
Monday, June 30, 2014: For more than a decade, James Joseph Bulger Jr. was listed as one of the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives. The former Boston gangster, better known as “Whitey,” was eventually found, tried and convicted of racketeering, extortion and money laundering. He was also found to be complicit in several area murders. The 84 year old is currently serving two consecutive life terms in a federal penitentiary. Filmmaker Joe Berlinger has made a new documentary about the story with a focus on last summer’s trial in Boston. Berlinger talks with Bob about his film Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger. Then, we hear a new commentary from children’s book writer and illustrator Daniel Pinkwater.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014: Dancer Savion Glover made his Broadway debut at the age of 10, and won a Tony for Bring in ‘D Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk when he was 23. Glover’s latest show is Savion Glover’s OM at New York City’s Joyce Theater, and he joins Bob to talk about his life and career. Then, director John Carney went from first-time indie filmmaker working on a tiny budget with musicians instead of actors for his film Once, to seeing his film win an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 2008 Oscars. His new film, Begin Again, stars Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightly as two people brought together through the power of music. Begin Again opens nationwide on July 2nd.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014: Bob talks to first time novelist Boris Fishman about “A Replacement Life.” It’s about a struggling young writer who forges Holocaust restitution claims for Soviet Jews living in New York City. The book is a work of fiction, but Fishman got the idea for the story after helping his grandmother, who escaped from the Minsk ghetto during World War Two, fill out her restitution claim. Fishman wondered if people ever just made stuff up, to get the money. So he wasn’t surprised when dozen people were indicted in 2010 for forging Holocaust stories, to the tune of $50 million. Fishman’s novel, “A Replacement Life” imagines and humanizes people who would have done such a thing. Boris Fishman was born in Minsk, Belarus, and used to be a fact checker for The New Yorker magazine.
Thursday, July 3, 2014: Bob talks with director Steve James about his latest documentary, Life Itself. It tells the remarkable story of the late, great film critic Roger Ebert, and is based on his 2011 memoir of the same name. Ebert died last April following a decade-long battle with cancer. Then, Bob talks with music blogger Paul Schomer about his latest discoveries. This time, we’ll hear new music from James Tillman, Invisible Homes, Led to Sea, Dogheart and Crocodile.
Friday, July 4, 2014: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, we bring back Bob’s conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough about 1776, his book on the American Revolution. It’s written as a companion work to John Adams, his celebrated biography of the second president, and includes research from hundreds of letters and several diaries kept by people on both sides of the conflict. Then, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.