The Bob Edwards Show, September 8-12, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014: Today we replay Bob’s award-winning documentary, “Exploding Heritage,” which addressed the controversial issue of mountaintop removal in the south-central Appalachian Mountains. The method of extracting coal by blowing the tops off of mountains is devastating plant and animal life, and causing trouble for the people who live nearby. Bob explored how mountaintop removal is leveling the oldest mountain range in America — leaving the landscape, the local economy, and the local culture ravaged.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014: Over the last few years, Nev Schulman has investigated dozens of online relationships to determine whether they’re based on truth or fiction. Now, he takes his knowledge to the page in his new book In Real Life. Bob talks to Schulman about his book, the TV show, and the complexities of identity in the digital age. Then, Bob talks to public radio treasure and host of “A Prairie Home Companion” Garrison Keillor.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014: Today Bob spends the hour with public radio host and recent National Humanities Medal recipient Diane Rehm, talking about end of life medical decisions. Rehm’s husband, John, was in the final stages of Parkinson’s and wanted to end his life, but his doctor refused to help. As a result, he chose to deliberately die by dehydration, the process taking nine days. Rehm says “He should have had better choices.”
Thursday, September 11, 2014: Academy Award-nominated actress Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear) plays Kelly, a new mother stuck in suburbia, who befriends 17 year old Cal (Jonny Weston) in director Jen McGowan’s new film Kelly & Cal. Bob talks with Lewis and McGowan about Kelly & Cal, which is in theaters now. Then, the term cult following could have been invented to describe the popularity of Bob Dylan, an enigmatic figure who recoils from most one-on-one contact with his fans. Despite that, there are legions of people obsessed with Dylan to a degree far beyond what seems healthy and reasonable. They are Dylanologists and that’s the title of a new book about them by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Kinney.
Friday, September 12, 2014: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Then, we hear a new commentary from children’s book writer and illustrator Daniel Pinkwater. And finally, we remember American jazz icon Gerald Wilson. He started his professional music career in 1939, playing trumpet for the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Over the course of his seven-decade career, Wilson had great success as a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator, writing music for and playing with jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Bobby Darin, and Ray Charles, to name a few. Gerald Wilson died Monday at the age of 96.