Through Illness, Storms and Static, We Press On!

Update - 3/26/09: You can download the MP3 of today's Inside Islam program from our archive. Let us know what you think!

Joe Hardtke

So, about today's show... It seemed everything that could go wrong (and couldn't go wrong) just about went wrong! That's live radio for you.

We started the day with Dan showing up to work sick. Then we heard our lead guest today, Dr. Nasr, was recovering at home as well. Things quickly went downhill from there, as Jean and I explain in this short video blog post...



We even received some sympathy tweets from our listeners on Twitter: "I am not troubled by the guest's phone... It is a tribute to your admirably high standards that the phone glitch was troubling to y'all!"

Despite the long day, Jean is right about the importance of this program and I hope you enjoyed the show and the Inside Islam series in general.

Me, personally? I blame gremlins...

Patrick's Sense of Smell

Joe Hardtke

We recently produced a program called "The Scent of Desire." (You can listen to the program here and download it here.)

In our pre-show meeting that day, one of our producers shared his strongest nose-related memory, dating from all the way back in the 3rd grade! Patrick, inquiring minds want to know...



Back to today's show, it's the next program in our Inside Islam series we're calling "Eco-Islam." It seems the religion has had a long relationship with eco-friendly designs and concepts and several theologians are hoping to re-introduce these ideas for the current fight against global warming and environmental decline.

Did you know the Qur'an was green? Learn more with Kaitlin over at our Inside Islam blog.

Saying Goodbye to Molly...

Update - 3/19/09: You can download the MP3 of today's poetry circle from our archive. Let us know what you think!

Joe Hardtke

So today was our last Poetry Circle of the Air with Molly Peacock. Molly is moving on to a new phase in her career, and the staff celebrated our friend at today's production meeting by recalling our favorite Molly Moments.



Want more Molly? Here are some Poetry Circle favorites from our archive:

The Excrement Poem by Maxine Kumin from June 21st, 2007
A Song of Departure by Li Ch'ing Chao from March 19th, 2006
The Onion by Wislawa Szymborska from September 20th, 2007
My Joy Doubled by Todd Boss from December 18th, 2008
Van Gogh's Brother, Vincent by Kate Newmann from March 20th, 2008
Cancer Winter by Marilyn Hacker from December 20th, 2007

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever met Molly in person, yet I feel like I've known her forever. Radio is weird that way.

Busy Day at the Office

Joe Hardtke

Here's the latest video blog from the Production office. Dan, Lisa, Patrick and myself fill you in on upcoming shows and share some exciting news concerning our iPod Nano raffle.



Hopefully Jean will be feeling better by tomorrow and we'll be back with an all new show. And as for the video blogs, more are on the way so keep this site bookmarked.

'Til then...

Meet The Producers... ...And Arnold

Joe Hardtke

My, it's been some time, hasn't it?

Please accept my apologies for the lack of action here at the Blog Without Borders. We've been very busy with the Inside Islam series and blog as of late, but here we are again.

Our web producer, Lisa Bu, recently purchased a new nick-nack: A mini Flip Video camera. After viewing some of her class videos, light bulbs appeared simultaneously over all our heads... We've got to get some video up from our production office. After all, this blog is about you and your access to who we are and what we do.

It's my hope that we post a couple of videos a week to let you into our meetings and debates over what to include on the show, what questions to ask and what topics to explore. I'm sure you'll quickly notice that under our professional, public radio exterior lies a bunch of outright goofballs. We laugh a lot at Here on Earth. Here's an example of a typical Friday afternoon, immediately after our last show for the week.



Just wait 'til you get to know us! Don't say I didn't warn you.

Dan (who speaks far better German than I do) has a couple of great shows lined up for next week. On Monday, we'll take to the skies and see our global situation from above with author William Fox and his book Aereality.

Then on Wednesday, author Peter Singer will make the case for why we should give to the poor, even in the hardest of times, just like he did with Stephen Colbert yesterday.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Peter Singer

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
NASA Name Contest

I've also got a few shows up my sleeve. More on that in the (very) near future.