Programs for the Week of 8/15

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Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Robert Jay Lifton's Life of Listening: What I liked this week is the way Robert Jay Lifton's perspective on the psychology of war connected to Helen Benedict's expose of what it’s like to be an American woman in combat, and that program led, in turn to Pumla Gobodo-Madikezela's extraordinary exploration of the power of forgiveness in post-apartheid South Africa. Honest, folks, we didn't plan it that way!

Monday: Who Are We?: Gary Younge is a black British male of Caribbean descent who speaks Russian and French and lives the United States. So who is he? Better yet, who are we? We'll discuss the influence of identity in our lives and in our world, and we'll try to discern when its influence is a problem and when it's not.

Tuesday: Elvis Lives!: As of today, the 34th anniversary of the death of the King of Rock n Roll, there are 200,000 Elvis impersonators worldwide, from Mexico's El Vez to Japan’s Yasuma Mori who sings about his blue suede kimono.

Wednesday: Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse: To help the Afghan people, Suraya Sadeed made many harrowing attempts to traffic cash and supplies under the noses of Iranian border guards, drug runners, and suicide bombers. She concealed an estimated $100,000 in U.S. cash by strapping it to her stomach and feigning pregnancy while slipping past the Taliban.

Thursday: Global Word Play (encore): How many ways are there to say "believe me" in the world? In English, we say "I'm not pulling your leg." In Russian, the phrase is "I'm not hanging noodles from your ear." We’re reaching back to 2009 for this incredibly fun hour with author Jag Bhalla about the amusing ways different cultures describe their world. (Rebroadcast from June 24, 2009)

Friday: TBA:

Lori will be filling in for me this Friday while I am at the Christine Center's Interfaith Retreat about the 13th century encounter that took place between St. Francis of Assisi and the Sultan Malak-al Kamil. Rich stuff. I call it l. Rich stuff. I call it "champagne for the soul."

Jean