Monday, September 7, 2015: We spent last week remembering the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Today Bob talks with Lawrence Powell of Tulane University who reminds us of the city’s long, rich history – and what was almost lost in 2005. He’s the author of The Accidental City and the book covers the period from the first hunters, trappers and explorers in the region through the end of The War of 1812. Then, Bob talks with Joey Burns, a founding member of the band Calexico. Burns will discuss the band’s music, branded by some as “desert noir,” Calexico’s home base of Tucson, Arizona, their ideas for immigration reform and why they decided to record their seventh studio album in New Orleans. That CD is called Algiers.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015: For fifty years, Frank Deford has been dissecting the sporting world and interviewing some of the most famous and important athletes and coaches around. He has covered just about every sport, in every medium, and he wrote about it all in his memoir, Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter. Then, another of Bob’s old friends, John Feinstein, talks about golf, basketball, football and tennis – all of which he covered in his book titled One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game. Feinstein is famously the author of A Season on the Brink, the bestselling sports book of all time.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015: Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed is here to discuss his documentary called Just Like Us. He brought fellow stand-ups on a historic tour of the Middle East, with shows in Dubai, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The film is not just about the comedy, but gives a real sense of the people and the places prior to the revolutions which swept through the region. Then we’ll hear Ahmed as part of a comedy odd couple. He first appeared on our show way back in 2004 with Rabbi Bob Alper. Back then their stage show was called One Arab, One Jew, One Stage. The pair just recently performed together again in Israel – including stops in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Thursday, September 10, 2015: Bob talks with Ernie Colon, co-author of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. The book condenses the nearly 600-page federal report into a 150 page comic book. Colon has worked in the comic industry for years, drawing the “Richie Rich” series as well as “Casper the Friendly Ghost.” Next, after 9/11, a small group of officials were tasked with using the financial powers of the United States government to find and dismantle illegal financial supply chains used by terrorists. Author Juan Zarate explores one of the least-examined strategies in the war on terror with his book Treasury’s War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare. Then, for his documentary Objects and Memory filmmaker Jonathan Fein visited Ground Zero in New York, the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial to explore the power and poignancy of objects retrieved from and left at those sites.
Friday, September 11, 2015: Bob talks with investigative journalists Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn about their book titled 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers. Their gripping work was the first minute-by-minute history of 9/11 told from the perspective of the people trapped inside the World Trade Center on this morning 14 years ago.