Programs for the Week of 6/27

We start off this week with a few of our favorites from the vault and Jean returns on Thursday!

Monday: Mockingbird (encore): Why has Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird," which is so firmly rooted in the American South, become so popular the world over? And what makes it particularly relevant to Europe right now? (Rebroadcast from 6/30/10)

Tuesday: Peace, Love and Parazit: Iran's Daily Show (encore): Tired of their routine jobs, Saman Arbabi and Kambiz Hosseini, two irreverent young Iranians, started a comedy program called Parazit that's modeled after Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and broadcast over The Voice of America. The show is billed for those who "don't have the patience for news ... and all news is bad news." (Rebroadcast from 4/12/11)

Wednesday: To a Mountain in Tibet (encore): After the loss of his mother acclaimed travel writer Colin Thubron journeyed to the holiest mountain on earth: Mount Kailas, Tibet. It is sacred to one-fifth of humankind and has never been climbed. On an often grueling trek through an impoverished yet breathtaking landscape, Colin Thubron encountered a complex intermingling of religious beliefs while confronting his own experience with death. (Rebroadcast from 3/8/11)

Thursday: Legacy of American socialism: What do Thomas Paine, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common? According to John Nichols, these legendary Americans were more than a little bit red. He joins us for a conversation about the S-Word, the legacy of American socialism.

Friday: Southern Sweetness: After years for writing cookbooks inspired by her time in Southeast Asia, North Carolinian Nancie McDermott returned to her roots, the American South, and the sweet pies and cakes she helped her grandmother bake as a kid. They are central to Southern hospitality, and a great way to celebrate America's birthday!

The Here on Earth team

Programs for the week of 6/20

Monday: Hafez: Persia's Provocateur: Hafez, the famous 14th century Persian poet, used the most gorgeous language to expose duplicity, irreverence, and corruption in preachers, scholars of religious laws, memorizers and reciters of the Qur'an. Why is he still one of the best read poets of Persian literature?

Tuesday: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle (encore): Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: behind that sensationalized title is a truly original account of Amazonia written by a man, Daniel Everett, who went there as a Christian missionary expecting to convert the Pirahas, a tribe in Brazil, and was instead converted by them. (Rebroadcast from 1/12/09)

Wednesday: A Life on the Border: Live from Menasha (encore): Here on Earth had a blast broadcasting live from the Fox Cities Book Festival in Menasha this April. We talked with the acclaimed Mexican-American writer Luis Alberto Urrea who says that the border between Mexico and the United States goes right through his heart. (Rebroadcast from 4/13/11)

Thursday: The Whale (encore): In The Whale, winner of the 2009 BBC prize for nonfiction, Philip Hoare investigates the dark, shadowy beasts who swim below the depths only to surface in a spray of spume to find out what it is about them that exerts such a powerful grip on our collective imagination? (Rebroadcast from 2/3/10)

Friday: Global Eats Around Your Corner: The restaurant insider behind the wildly popular website RestaurantGirl.com joins Food Friday to talk about how to get out of an eating rut with dishes from all over the world that you can find right here in this country.

Programs for the Week of 5/23

Monday: Muslims, Mosques, and American Identity (encore): Tune in to our Gabriel Award-winning program from our Inside Islam: Dialogues and Debates series, "Muslims, Mosques, and American Identity": Can a Muslim be an American? Islamic Studies luminary Akbar Ahmed went all the way back to the Founding Fathers to answer that question. And who can argue with the Founding Fathers? (Rebroadcast from November 2, 2010)

Tuesday: Chosen Peoples: The idea of the chosen is everywhere in American and Israeli history, both trying to grasp the meaning of divine election and to bear its burden. We’ll examine the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel through the prism of their perceived special status as chosen peoples.

Wednesday: How to Make it Happen: Collective Visioning: Linda Stout proved through her award winning work in Appalachia that diversity is essential to meaningful social change. Now, she’s helping groups around the country begin their work by getting everybody a seat at the table.

Thursday: Elif Shafak: The most widely read woman writer in Turkey today, Elif Shafak was accused of insulting “Turkishness” for mentioning the Armenian genocide in one of her novels. Throughout her life and career, Elif has tried to unify the wildly different aspects of her identity: woman, Muslim, Turkish, international globetrotter, writer, mother. For her, what holds it all together in the end is the power of fiction to overcome the politics of identity.

Friday: How to Eat Well on Forty Dollars a Week: Newly divorced and laid off, food writer Robin Mather moved to the woods and slashed her food budget. Her pantry became her savings account and the farmers nearby her grocers and her friends.

Programs for the Week of 6/13

Monday: A Future Without Nuclear Energy?: The recent nuclear disaster in Japan has many people re-thinking the risks and benefits of nuclear energy. Germany took a bold stance two weeks ago when it pledged to shut down its nuclear reactors by 2022. What are the consequences of living without nuclear energy?

Tuesday: Whitewashing Tales from The Arabian Nights: In the original telling, Scheherazade’s story was wild and wicked enough to keep the Sultan awake for a 1001 nights. Reza Aslan and Andrei Codrescu uncover the libidinous side of the Arabian Nights as we talk about the seductive power of storytelling.

Wednesday: Journey to the Moon: When was the last time you felt the enchantment of the full moon? James Attlee traveled the world to bask with those who still find significance in the moon and its province, the night.

Thursday: The Anarchist Bastard: Joanna Herman, who grew up on a pig farm in Connecticut and is fond of saying, "I was born in 1944 but raised in the twelfth century," gives a salute to Italian patriarchy in this twist on Fathers' Day.

Friday: Salt: It's the most universal of ingredients and the one most easily overlooked. From Sel Gris to flake salt, Mark Bitterman argues that the better you know your salt, the better every meal will turn out.

Programs for the week of 6/6

Monday: Religion with Joy: Many practitioners approach religion without joy, relying on concepts that constrict us rather than free us. Using music and movement, Rabbi Sigal teaches methods and guides practices intended to free the spirit and release the dance of the soul.

Tuesday: India - Geek Nation?: Are Indians naturally geeky? In her new book, Angela Saini, who sees herself as the geek daughter of her Indian geek father, explores the past and future of India’s devotion to science.

Wednesday: Socrates in Sichuan: Peter Vernezze went to China as a Peace Corps Volunteer to get a break from teaching philosophy. But in order to understand his students, he went back to teaching the nature of truth and the ideal of the good life, discovering in the process a side of China we rarely get to see.

Thursday: Old Flames Burn Bright in the Eternal City: In Mary Gordon's latest novel, The Love of My Youth, former lovers rendezvous in Rome after a separation of nearly forty years. Adam says to Miranda, "I want to show you one beautiful thing every day." Can a novel be a guidebook?

Friday: Bach to the Future: A 20th Season Bacchanale: The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society turns 20 this year with a bang and a cookbook!: C0-founders Jeffrey Sykes and Stephanie Jutt are celebrating by coming out with a cookbook and a CD, pairing their favorite recipes with their favorite musical selections. Coffee Cantata, anyone?

The cookbook is organized by menu,includes wine pairings and the CD of BDDS live recordings especially selected for each menu.

Cookbooks will be sold for $25 at all BDDS concerts this summer. For $50, they can be personalized by Stephanie and Jeffrey ($25 of this price is considered a tax-deductible donation). They will also be available at Fromagination and Orange Tree Imports in Madison. All proceeds support BDDS.