Jan 3 - 7 Programs

Monday: Painting With Animals: Olly & Suzi are London-based artist-explorers who have portrayed wild dogs and lions in Tanzania, killer whales in Norway, polar bears and Arctic foxes in Siberia, and many others. The artists collaborate with one another and induce wild creatures to interact with their canvases. Bites, footprints, rips, and slithers are "proof of where they are now," they say, "but might not be for much longer." Rebroadcast from 12/17/2009.

Tuesday: The Interfaith Amigos: Three clergymen from the three Abrahamic faiths used friendship to create a dialogue. Rabbi Ted Falcon, Sheikh Jamal Rahman, and Pastor Don Mackenzie met every week for nine years after 9/11 in search of common ground. They sum up their collective discoveries in the book, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi and a Sheikh. Rebroadcast from 07/08/2010.

Wednesday: The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin is the most well-known comic character worldwide, comparable in popularity only to Mickey Mouse. Tintin’s adventures lead him and his readers to such places as China, the Congo, America, and even the moon! But through time and history, Tintin and his Belgian creator Hergé have not been spared by controversy. Accused of such a serious charge as racism, Hergé was forced by history to review some of the depictions of the places Tintin visits. So how has Tintin changed over time? And what explains the enduring popularity of Tintin? Rebroadcast from 08/19/2010.

Thursday: Inside Islam: Muslims, Mosques and the American Identity: What goes on in mosques in America? Are mosques a part of the tradition of religious pluralism in America? Can a Muslim be an American? Islamic Studies luminary Akbar Ahmed traveled for a year around the country, visiting over a hundred mosques to find out how Muslims are living every day in America. Rebroadcast from 11/02/2010.

Friday:Eating Animals: Vegetarianism is nothing new, but for some reason Jonathan Safran Foer's 2009 book, Eating Animals, sparked a nationwide conversation about how we eat. The paperback edition of this bestseller comes out this week and Jonathan Safran Foer joins us to continue the conversation he started, this Food Friday. Rebroadcast from 09/24/2010.

Happy New Year! We’ll talk again in 2011.

Jean

Dec 27 - 31 Programs

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Whitman and Lincoln: Parallel Lives on the World Stage: Who knew that San Marino made Lincoln an honorary citizen? Or that Karl Marx was a fan and followed the progress of the Civil War with great interest, thinking it might be a model of resistance? And given the political tensions that seem threatening to tear us apart in our own time, how hopeful to look back and remember why it was so important to the whole world that this nation, "so conceived, and so dedicated," did not perish from the earth.

Monday: Kung Fu for Life: Think Kung Fu is just for Jackie Chan? How about the Kung Fu of cooking? Philosophy professor Peimin Ni is bridging the divide between East and West to show that the true Kung Fu is not a style of fighting but a philosophy of life we can all learn from.

Tuesday: A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA snatched off the terrorist suspect Abu Omar from a street in Milan on February 17, 2003, and spirited him away to Egypt for extraordinary rendition. The Italian court responded by convicting 23 CIA agents, marking the first time the CIA has ever been brought to trial. Freelance journalist Steve Hendricks investigated the case and wrote about it in his book, "A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial."

Wednesday: Capital Punishment on Trial: Why does the U.S. hold on to the death penalty while other countries in the West have abolished it? Justice Stevens caused quite a stir in explaining why he turned against the death penalty in his review of David Garland’s new book "Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition." Find out why when we talk with David on the show next Wednesday.

Thursday: Love and Other Letters: Anthropologist and Milwaukee native Nancy Lurie discovered a treasure trove of over 500 letters that her father wrote to her mother in the years leading up to their marriage, from the gaslight era to the Jazz Age, yielding fascinating insights into the First World War, the Russian Revolution, Prohibition and many other signs of the time. What’s waiting to be discovered in your attic?

Friday:Eating Animals: I’m still not a convert, but after talking with Jonathan Safran Foer about vegetarianism, I’m weakening. His 2009 book "Eating Animals" sparked both a nationwide conversation about how we eat and a movement which is gaining momentum.

Merry Christmas and to all a Good Night!

Jean

Letters from Brussels: A Snowflake through Time - 12/23

Dominique Haller

On today's show, we'll feature another one of Leona Francombe's wonderful Letters from Brussels. It's called A Snowflake through Time. You can read it here.

To check out all of Leona's Letters from Brussels, please click here.

International Children's Literature - 12/22

Dominique Haller

What books did you grow up with? On today's show, we'll talk with two experts on children's literature about its history and its diversity in the world today. Authors such as Edith Nesbit from the UK and Astrid Lindgren from Sweden have provided our youngsters with great classics of children's literature. Here's a list with links to some of the authors we'll talk about in today's show:

Astrid Lindgren, Sweden: go to her website and find out about her books here.

Tove Jansson, Finland: learn about the Moomin Series here.

Kitty Crowther, Belgium: her books are currently only available in French and Dutch. To see some of her amazing illustrations, click here.


Ryoki Arai, Japan: his website is in Japanese, but his books have been translated to English. To see his quirky picture books, click here.

What are the best memories you have of children's books? Which were your favorites when growing up, and why? Which ones are you now reading to your kids? Leave your comments below.

Celebrating Our Intangible Culture 12/21

Carly Yuenger

On today's show we talk with Chief of the Intangible Heritage Section of UNESCO, Cécile Duvelle, about the most recent additions to the list of the world's intangible cultural heritage. It sounds a little high concept, but the reality is earthly and delightful. Just check out their website...

UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has an amazing multimedia catalog of the over 200 examples already voted to represent the world's intangible cultural heritage (basically, anything cultural that is not a "thing").

Here are just a couple of the gems you'll find there. Enjoy!



Tsuur Music of Mongolia:

Traditional Li textile techniques of Hainan Province, China

Favorite Foreign Films 12/20

Carly Yuenger

On today's show we talk with film critic Jim Hoberman about the past and present of foreign films in America. Here are the trailers from a few films talked about in the show.

Take a look, and then leave a comment telling us about your favorite foreign film!

Dec 20 - 24 Programs

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): The Butterfly Mosque: Well, it’s been a banner week, and we haven’t even got to the Italian Grandmothers yet. I’m hard pressed to come up with a favorite – I liked them all – but since I have to choose, it doesn’t get much better than Wednesday’s show with G. Willow Wilson, who writes for Superman and is a devotee of Nine Inch Nails, explaining, with calm, open-eyed clarity, why she converted to Islam. And what a lovely title for a memoir: The Butterfly Mosque. I just wish she had a put a little more Superman into it.

Monday: Best Foreign Films: Is it really true that Americans don’t have the patience to read the sub-titles? Veronica Rueckert sits in for me talking with Village Voice film critic Jim Hoberman about America’s on again/but mostly off again love affair with foreign films. And we’ll want to hear about your first, favorite, and most recent excursions into the wider world of cinema.

Tuesday: Our Intangible Heritage: What do Falconry and Turkish oil wrestling have in common? They are two masterpieces of human culture recently added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. We’ll speak with Cécile Duvelle, Chief of the Intangible Heritage Section, about the challenges and rewards of protecting living traditions.

Wednesday: International Children’s Literature: What are the books you grew up with? If you are still looking for the right book to give to the kids in your family, join us to explore the rich tradition of children’s literature from around the world.

Thursday: Lincoln and Whitman: In 1856, Walt Whitman wished that 'some… middle-aged, beard-faced American blacksmith or boatman come down from the West across the Alleghenies, and walk into the Presidency.' Five years later, Abraham Lincoln did just that. Less known is the shared admiration between the two. Lincoln inspired Whitman's poetry and for years he held imaginary conversations with Lincoln in his journal. We look back at the Civil War, 150 years later, through the shared regard of two of the times' most distinct voices.

Friday:Christmas Eve in Sicily: We combed the Here on Earth archives and came up with the perfect food program for Christmas Eve: On Dec. 24, la vigilia di Natale, Guissepe Scarlata's family will sit down in their home in Trapani to a seven course fish feast: marinated octopus and squid salad, smoked swordfish and thin slices of cured tuna. And that's just for starters. Join us for Christmas Eve in Sicily.

Buon Natale! Buon Natale, tutti quanti!

Jean

Dec 13 - 17 Programs

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): War Stories and Recipes: I’m in prophecy mode right now, but if Food Friday with Anna Badhken this afternoon comes close to what I’m anticipating, she’s got my vote. I’ve always been deeply connected to food – after all, I come from an Italian family – but it took the memoir of a war correspondent to get me to truly understand why. When everything else fails food, and especially the sharing of food, is what reminds us what it really means to be a human being.

Monday: Finding Utopia: Will utopia ever exist? JC Hallman travelled the world’s intentional communities to study our quest for a better perfect. He came back thinking that even when perfect fails, there’s something human about reaching for it.

Tuesday: Operation Peter Pan and Beyond Robert Wright in a recent NY Times op-ed discusses whether the significant rise of tolerance for gays in the US over the last generation is a road map for Muslims.

Wednesday: Inside Islam: The Butterfly Mosque: WWhy do so many women convert to Islam? You might think it’s because they fall in love with Muslim men, but in Willow Wilson’s case, conversion came first followed by romance.

Thursday: The Storyteller of Marrakesh: Earlier this fall, travel writer Raphael Kadushin whetted our appetite for the exotic in describing his trip to the Djamaa, the fabled medina of Marrakesh. Now, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, an Indian novelist, takes us deeper in his novel based on the ancient art of storytelling as it’s still practiced by Hassan, the storyteller, as he gathers his listeners in the Djamaa.

Friday:Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Just as I was about to concede that grandmothers – especially the Italian variety – are an endangered species along comes this glorious cookbook which, I admit, made me cry. The book is the result of a year chef Jessica Theroux spent cooking, foraging, and eating with Italian grandmothers from Milan to Sicily, learning their secrets and listening to their stories. Bless you, Jessica.

Happy Shopping/Happy Baking!

Jean

Jean's Pick of the Week for December 3rd

Joe Hardtke

Jean's pick this week had all the elements of a great show: Provocative content, a terrific guest and even a twist at the end of the program.



Check out Jean's pick for this week then download the show from the Here on Earth archive.

Here on Earth - "Off the Mic" - Bob Klein on Ghana

Joe Hardtke

After today's show on the early days of the Peace Corps, Bob Klein, a member of the first cohort of Peace Corps Volunteers, shared this funny (or maybe not so funny?) story from his time in Ghana.



You can download Bob's interview with us now. You'll find it in the Here on Earth archive.