Friday, May 27, 2011

Programs for the Week of 5/30

Monday: Theater of War (encore): Long before Memorial Day, Sophocles, the ancient Greek general and playwright, depicted the timeless psychological wounds inflicted upon warriors in his plays. In the Theater of War project, actors and actresses read Sophocles's plays to active service members and their families to show them that they are not alone in dealing with pain of battle. (Rebroadcast from August 9, 2010)

Tuesday: Inside Islam: Laughter: Another Path to Understanding: In keeping with the lighter spirit of our latest Inside Islam programs, we present Muslim Comedians: Tissa Hami and Dean Obeidallah, who use comedy to break down the stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs that have surged after 9/11.

Wednesday: Indigo – The Color that Seduced the World: Indigo, “the bluest of blues,” is not just a color, but, as Catherine McKinley puts it, “an attempt to capture beauty”. Inspired by her own ancestral entanglement with Indigo, Catherine set out to learn from the last master dyers of West Africa and discovered amazing stories of wealth, power, and divine meaning.

Thursday: The Wabi-Sabi Way: Do you love your rusty, dented old wheelbarrow? How Wabi-Sabi of you! A philosophy of seeing and homemaking, wabi-sabi has its roots in Japanese Zen Buddhism, but it’s all about the imperfection of dried leaves, not the perfection of a fresh cherry blossom.

Friday: You Can Make Injera!: If you've had the opportunity to dig into a traditional Ethiopian meal, the "plate" you probably ate it from and the "fork" you used to eat it were probably a spongy, sour bread called injera. Even for a native Ethiopian like Mulusew Yayehyirad, co-founder of Clinic At A Time, it took years of living in the United States to perfect her recipe using North American ingredients.

Programs for the Week of 5/30

Monday: Theater of War (encore): Long before Memorial Day, Sophocles, the ancient Greek general and playwright, depicted the timeless psychological wounds inflicted upon warriors in his plays. In the Theater of War project, actors and actresses read Sophocles's plays to active service members and their families to show them that they are not alone in dealing with pain of battle. (Rebroadcast from August 9, 2010)

Tuesday: Inside Islam: Laughter: Another Path to Understanding: In keeping with the lighter spirit of our latest Inside Islam programs, we present Muslim Comedians: Tissa Hami and Dean Obeidallah, who use comedy to break down the stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs that have surged after 9/11.

Wednesday: Indigo – The Color that Seduced the World: Indigo, “the bluest of blues,” is not just a color, but, as Catherine McKinley puts it, “an attempt to capture beauty”. Inspired by her own ancestral entanglement with Indigo, Catherine set out to learn from the last master dyers of West Africa and discovered amazing stories of wealth, power, and divine meaning.

Thursday: The Wabi-Sabi Way: Do you love your rusty, dented old wheelbarrow? How Wabi-Sabi of you! A philosophy of seeing and homemaking, wabi-sabi has its roots in Japanese Zen Buddhism, but it’s all about the imperfection of dried leaves, not the perfection of a fresh cherry blossom.

Friday: You Can Make Injera!: If you've had the opportunity to dig into a traditional Ethiopian meal, the "plate" you probably ate it from and the "fork" you used to eat it were probably a spongy, sour bread called injera. Even for a native Ethiopian like Mulusew Yayehyirad, co-founder of Clinic At A Time, it took years of living in the United States to perfect her recipe using North American ingredients.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Programs for the Week of 5/16

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Inside Islam: Wham, Bam, Islam! The Power of Comics: There were so many refreshing dimensions to our show with Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, the creator of The 99, the first comic book series to come out of the Middle East, featuring 99 Muslim superheroes based on the 99 attributes of Allah. This was truly an Inside Islam show in that Naif was candid about his complex intention: to erase western misconceptions about Islam, but also to “try to fix Islam from the inside.” He’s concerned about the black and white world view that so many of his fellow Muslims seem to be stuck in. His own work has been banned. He’s also very concerned with issues of intolerance, and came to writing comics out of his experiences as a clinical psychologist working with torture victims – former prisoners of war in Kuwait and the Survivors of Political Torture unit of Bellevue Hospital in New York. He’s fast, he’s funny, and he’s just what the world needs right now.

Monday: Fortunate Sons (encore): What happened when the Qing dynasty sent 120 boys to go to school in the US in 1872? The boys got good at baseball and picked up nicknames like By-Jinks Johnnie and Fighting Chinee. But they also confronted a struggle between traditionalism and modernity that ended up influencing both China and the U.S. (Rebroadcast from 2/3/11)

Tuesday: Beyond the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (encore): In the last 20 years Noir has gone global, with Swedish fiction writer Stieg Larsson copping the number two place as best selling author in the US, and crime fiction showing up in countries like Algeria, Turkey, and India. Join us with Detectives Beyond Borders blogger Peter Rozovsky and Delhi Noir editor Hirsh Sawhney. (Rebroadcast of "Tracking the Global Gumshoe" from 8/5/09)

Wednesday: Tuesdays with Morrie, Russian-Style: In the 1980’s, Wisconsinite Lisa Paul was a college student in Moscow studying Russian under the wing of an outspoken Jewish Soviet dissident. In her new book, Swimming in the Daylight, she tells the harrowing story of how she put her own life on the line in her campaign to win freedom for her beloved teacher.

Thursday: On a Wing and a Prayer: Could anything be crazier than a Muslim-American learning to fly a plane in post 9/11 USA? I met Monem Salam a few months ago at a conference in Bloomington, Indiana, where he told his hilarious and touching story of how he fulfilled his lifelong dream to become a pilot in spite of his bad timing, and lived to make a PBS award-winning documentary film about it.

Friday: Beyond the Pasta: Mark Leslie didn’t just want to eat Italian food; he wanted to learn how to cook from a real Italian family. From the family in Viterbo that took him in, he not only learned how to cook, but how to live in a whole new way.

I’ll be attending a summit on US Citizen Diplomacy with Wisconsin’s former Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton on Monday and Tuesday of next week – back on Wednesday.

Stay tuned!

Jean


Food Friday Recipe 5/13

Carly Yuenger

On today's show we discuss the beauty, texture, and flavor that whole grains, like millet, kamut, farro, wheat berries, and "oat berries," bring to the table--breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Maria Speck is a cooking instructor, so she knows how most people react to the idea of whole grains. She says that the best cure for the belief that whole grains are bland is a good recipe.
Check this one out: "Leek Salad with Haloumi Cheese and Rye Berries". It's featured on the cover of her book, Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, and represents her dual ancestry--Greek and German--through the inclusion of rye berries (very German!) in a traditional Mediterranean salad.
We hope you'll give it a go and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below, at our Facebook page, or by leaving a voice message at our hotline: 1-877-GLOBE-07

Maria Speck's Leek Salad with Grilled Haloumi Cheese and Rye Berries:
Haloumi, a textured goat and sheep’s milk cheese, popular across the Middle East, is irresistibly chewy and will not melt when grilled or roasted. Take this salad to a barbecue and char the cheese right there for a smoky touch, or use a broiler anytime. Pecorino Romano can stand in for the haloumi but it lacks the same lip-smacking chewiness. Both cheeses can be quite salty, so you may want to go easy when adding the salt. Serves 4 to 6
Rye:
11/2 cups water
3/4 cup rye berries, soaked overnight and drained

Salad:
2 medium leeks, cleaned and cut into 3/4-inch segments (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 (2- by 1-inch) strip orange zest, white pith removed (optional)
1/4 cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, 2 teaspoons oil reserved
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, plus 2 tablespoons for garnish
2 tablespoons nonpareil capers
3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To Finish:
1/4 pound haloumi cheese
11/2 teaspoons dried crumbled oregano or thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes (optional)

1. To prepare the rye, bring the water and the rye berries to a boil in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover, and cook until the berries are tender but still slightly chewy, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and steam for 10 to 15 minutes if you have time. Drain any remaining liquid and transfer to a large serving bowl to cool.
2. While the rye cools, prepare the salad. Bring the leeks, chicken broth, and orange zest to a boil in a large saucepan. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover, and cook until the leeks are soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain the leeks, and add them to the serving bowl with the rye berries. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, 1/4 cup of the mint, and the capers, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning, keeping in mind that capers and haloumi are quite salty.
3. To finish, position a rack about 6 inches below the heat source and preheat the broiler. Cut the haloumi cheese into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick, and put them on a plate. Sprinkle with the oregano, pepper, pepper flakes, and reserved 2 teaspoons of tomato oil; rub the oil and spices all over to coat the slices on both sides (work gently, as haloumi breaks easily). Transfer the cheese to a medium cast-iron skillet or a broiler pan.
4. Broil the haloumi until the slices just start to brown at the edges, about 5 minutes, turning once with a spatula. (Watch closely as you don’t want the cheese to dry out.)
5. Top the salad with the haloumi. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons mint, and serve right away.
To get a head start: Make the rye berries, as in step 1, ahead. The salad (without the haloumi) can be prepared 4 to 6 hours ahead. Chill, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.
To vary it: A great stand-in for the rye in this dish would be about 2 cups cooked whole oat berries

Friday, May 6, 2011

Programs for the Week of May 9

Monday: A Kidnapping in Milan (Encore): 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. Rebroadcast from December 28, 2010.

Tuesday: Benazir Bhutto: The premier of Bhutto, an Independent Lens film that airs on Tuesday night, gives us a reason to talk about the woman who broke the glass ceiling to become the first woman head-of-state to rule a Muslim nation.

Wednesday: The 99: What power do superheroes really have? Naif al-Mutawa believes that they can change the world. That’s why he created The 99: superheroes inspired by the 99 attributes of Allah. Together with The 99, Naif is out to fight radical Islam and Western misconceptions about Islam. Ever since, The 99 have teamed up with Superman to fight for a better world, and President Obama has publicly recognized the importance of Naif’s work.

Thursday: After the Dalai Lama: In March of this year, the Dalai Lama announced that he was looking for a successor who could take over his political duties as head of Tibet’s government in exile. In May, Tibetan representatives will meet to discuss the Dalai Lama’s proposal of political retirement. We’ll discuss the future of the Dalai Lama and of Tibet with Tim Johnson, author of Tragedy in Crimson: How the Dalai Lama Conquered the World but Lost the Battle with China

Friday: Ancient Grains: Think whole grains are just for health nuts? Maria Speck’s love affair with barley, farro, and millet will change your mind. She grew up in Greece and Germany and will help us rediscover old world treatments of mankind’s oldest staples.

Happy Mothers’ Day to all, and special thanks to everybody who made One Day Wednesday a huge success!

Jean

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Spring and Bicycles Go Together - 5/3

Dominique Haller

Today, we're celebrating spring by talking about bicycles with Robert Penn, whose enthusiasm for bicycles, broad knowledge of its history, and extraordinary bicycling experiences make the perfect guest to make you get your own bike out of your basement!

We thought that Leona's piece about spring awakening in Brussels would be a good fit for this show! You can check it out here.