Programs for the Week of 8/29

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Redeemers: Power Brokers Who Shaped Latin America: Just before going on the air on Tuesday, I got a call from Wisconsin’s former Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton who has an abiding interest in the politics of Latin America. She was effusive. “Oh, I just found out that you have Enrique Krauze on your show today. What a coup! He is so great!” And so he was, blazing a path through Latin America’s complicated political and intellectual history, bringing to life the great literary and revolutionary figures from the past whose legacy endures today. Best of all was the overall message: the image of the caudillo that began with Simon Bolivar who famously prophesied, “Out of my grave a thousand dictators will spring,” may very well end with the post-modern caudillo Hugo Chaves. Democracy has taken hold south of the border. Maybe we should pay closer attention. We might learn something.

Monday: The Inter-Species Language of Grief: Ever since her husband lost the ability to speak after suffering a stroke, Diane Ackerman has been grieving. She finds that, out of empathy, her acute sense of loss has connected her with the losses and grieving of others, including animals.

Tuesday: Environmental Degradation as Slow Violence: Nigerian activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, refused to let the oil industry's disastrous effect on his community go unnoticed. He's just one voice showcased in Rob Nixon's new book urging us to see environmental degradation as a kind of slow violence affecting the poorest in our communities.

Wednesday: Pearl Buck in China (encore): A blond blue-eyed daughter of a Presbyterian missionary, Pearl Buck grew up in rural China amid bandit raids, beheadings and battles, when infant girls were strangled and thrown to the dogs. Helen Spurling's biography looks at the years that shaped Buck as a writer and gave her magic power. (Rebroadcast from July 19, 2010)

Thursday: Rambunctious Nature: Environmentalist Emma Marris says it's time to abandon the idea of preserving nature in its pristine state, and move forward instead with creating the "rambunctious garden," which she describes as "a hybrid of wild nature and human management."

Friday: Odd Bits: When it comes to meat, the prime cuts seem to get all the attention. Australian Jennifer McLagan, author of the infamous "Fat," explores why we shy away from odd bits, from tongues and brains, to gizzards and trotters, their taste potential, and how we can approach them with more confidence in the kitchen.

It’s sad to see summer fade away, especially after such a glorious – and mosquito free – month in Wisconsin. No dog days this August. Happy grilling!

Jean

Programs for the Week of 8/22

Nota Bene: Here on Earth is still looking for two new producers. For more information about the openings, please go to our website:

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): The Food We Brought

Monday: Sufism in the West: One of my most memorable interviews some years ago was with Pir Vilayat Inayat-Khan, then head of the Sufi Order of the West, a man who was hang-gliding in his eighties. His son, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan has succeeded him as the head of the Sufi Order International, an organization begun by his grandfather in the early 20th century to bring Sufism to the West. He joins us to talk about how he bends the mystic tradition and inter-faith work to remedy the world’s most pressing issues.

Tuesday: Redeemers: Power Brokers Who Shaped Latin America: Evita Perón, Che Guevera, Hugo Chavez. Latin America has had its share of strong leaders. Enrique Krauze, one of Latin America's leading intellectuals, brings to life the ideas and figures that shaped a continent.

Wednesday: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen (encore): Journalist Christopher McDougall gathered information about the Tarahumara, a little known tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners who live in Mexico's Copper Canyon and can outlast any animal on earth. (Rebroadcast from 8/17/2010)

Thursday: Mindfulness and Medicine: For patients with life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, it can be hard to find comfort in the face of death. Susan Bauer-Wu and Elana Rosenbaum, who both encountered cancer in their personal lives, are medical professionals who teach the practice of mindfulness as a way for patients to rediscover strength and serenity.

Friday: We All Scream for Ice Cream: Be it soft-serve, gelato, Indian kulfi or Isreali glida, some form of ice cream treat can be found throughout the world in restaurants and home freezers. Ice cream’s story is a tale populated with Chinese emperors, English kings, Italian hokey-pokey street vendors and a gourmand American First Lady.

Nobody can say we're not eclectic!

Jean

Programs for the Week of 8/15

Applications for our two openings for Here on Earth producers are beginning to trickle in. Please go to

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

Programs for the Week of 8/8

***Announcing two Here on Earth producer openings:******
We currently have two producer positions open on Here on Earth: one is three-quarter time with benefits and academic staff status; the other is a half-time position with no benefits but the possibility of a future upgrade. If any of you are interested in applying, or know someone who might be, please go to the above links for full descriptions of both positions, or email me directly: feraca@wpr.org. We are very sorry to be losing our excellent Here on Earth producers, Carly Yuenger and Dominique Haller, within a month of each other, and are anxious to find their replacements. Please help us spread the word. Here on Earth is committed to bringing good news of the earth and its people, to fostering cross-cultural understanding and to encouraging world citizenship. Plus, we have a lot of fun.

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Norway Responds to Terror: Kudos to ace producer Carly Yuenger who snagged former Norwegian Prime Minister Bondevik for today’s show. A better guest to suss out Norway’s extraordinary response to its recent homegrown terror attacks I cannot imagine. As the founder and president of Norway’s Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, he was able to give real perspective and depth to his country’s long record on human rights and commitment to openness and freedom. We’ll see what kind of compromises Norway may have to make in the future, but so far, they are inspiring.

Monday: Ramadan: The Feast and the Fast (encore): Since Ramadan began last Monday, which represents a particular hardship for American Muslims, we thought you might enjoy learning about how different the experience of Ramadan can be depending on where you happen to find yourself. Compare fasting here in America in the heat of long summer days to countries like Syria where everyone sleeps all day and feasts all night (unless they happen to be under siege, of course). (Rebroadcast from September 1, 2009)

Tuesday: Robert Jay Lifton's Life of Listening: In his new memoir, psycho-historian Robert Jay Lifton says that he's spent most of his life listening. From talking to victims of Chinese thought reform, to Japanese survivors of Hiroshima, to Nazi doctors, he bore witness to some of the 20th century’s darkest moments and responded with hope and activism.

Wednesday: Sand Queen: In the process of interviewing women veterans of the Iraq war for her book, The Lonely Soldier, Helen Benedict noticed that when questioned about their experiences with sexual harassment, many of these women remained silent. So Helen decided to write the novel SAND QUEEN to give voice to the unspeakable.

Thursday: The Power of Forgiveness: What is it about expressions of remorse and apology that open the door to forgiveness? Few people are better suited to exploring this question than Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist and commissioner for South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Friday: Rooster Sauce: "Rooster Sauce," as Sriracha (rhymes with Feraca but no relation) is commonly known, can be found in the home, at the corner diner, and behind the scenes in some of America's top restaurants. You'll enjoy exploring the endless possibilities of cooking with this favorite hot sauce with Lori Skelton sitting in for me while I set out for the Christine Center to facilitate this year's Interfaith Retreat with Sufi master Jamal Rahman and Wheaton Franciscan Gabrielle Uhlein. (see last Tuesday's show: Francis and the Sultan – also my favorite.)

For more information about Francis and The Sultan, go to www.christinecenter.org or just call 715-267-7507. I hope to see you there August 12-14. The Christine Center is a very special place of pilgrimage and hermitage set deep in the heart of Wisconsin’s Amish country and I am particularly excited about this year’s timely retreat with Jamal and Gabrielle, two people alive with joy. Come if you can. Dance and sing.

Jean

Programs for the Week of 8/1

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Is Democracy Coming to China?: MIT Professor Edward Steinfeld cast new light on China as a country that, in his view, is inching its way toward democratic reform, following in the footsteps of Taiwan and South Korea. Particularly fascinating to me were the passing references to artists Han Han and Ai WeiWei who both remind me of Frank Zappa.

Monday: The Dacha Days of Summer: For centuries, Russian city dwellers have spent their summers relaxing and gardening at rural cottages called dachas. (like gotcha!) Mellissa Caldwell spoke to hundreds of "dachniki" about their beliefs in the healing power of land and the strange way time passes in the country, leading to her conclusion: To understand the dacha is to understand the Russian soul.

Tuesday: St. Francis and the Sultan: When St. Francis crossed enemy lines to meet the Sultan Malek el-Kamil during a Crusade, he fully expected to be martyred. Instead, he was embraced as a friend. Hear the full story when I talk with Muslim Sufi master Jamal Rahman and Gabrielle Uhlein, a Franciscan sister, who are teaming up for the Christine Center's third annual interfaith retreat (to be facilitated by yours truly).

To register for this Interfaith retreat, call 715-267-7507 or e-mail the Christine Center at christinecenter@tds.net

Wednesday: Norway's Response to Tragedy: In the wake of the recent massacre in Norway, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told the world, "The answer to violence is even more democracy, even more humanity." Will Norway be able to sustain its commitment to openness and tolerance?

Thursday: TBA:

Friday: Kings of Pastry: Sixteen of France's top pastry chefs compete for the ultimate accolade, the collar of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, best craftsmen of France, in the "Kings of Pastry" competition. The contest takes place every four years and involves 16 chefs over three exhausting days concocting 40 different recipes in a race against the clock.

On a personal note, our technical wizard, the man usually responsible for all the great sound and music in the program, Joe Hardtke has suffered an injury, having broken his collar bone last weekend, and undergone surgery on Wednesday of this week. Also soon to be among the missing is our beloved Swiss Miss, Dominique Haller, who will be leaving us next month to become a full-time graduate student in the art department. If you happen to know of any likely candidates for the position of Here on Earth producer, we’re anticipating at least one, and maybe two openings to be announced in the near future. Stay tuned and meanwhile, pray for us!


Thanks,

Jean

Programs for the Week of 7/25

We have an amazing line-up next week, beginning with Sarah Chayes unwrapping Afghanistan, followed by some very positive news about the future of China, and then John Nichols weighs in on media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the gathering storm over tabloid email hacking in Britain…

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): Saved By Beauty in Iran: Tough, there have been so many great programs this week, - I dearly loved Tony Perrottet’s Sinner’s Tour of Europe, ditto with yesterday’s show about Terence Malick’s new film, The Tree of Life – as Joe said, “It was a chin scratcher” - but since I must choose, my hat goes off to Saved by Beauty, Roger Housden’s harrowing and yet loving account of his two months in Iran. Given the nature of live radio, we never got to the heart of the matter – the profound shift in essential identity that the experience of detention and interrogation brought about in Housden’s psyche. And then he comes home and goes through a parallel experience when he’s questioned by the FBI! Truly amazing stuff.

Monday: The Karzai Brothers and The Future of Afghanistan: Former NPR correspondent Sarah Chayes has been an insider in Afghanistan since she left NPR to help rebuild a country devastated by decades of war. She says there’s a clear connection between what’s going on there now and the Arab Spring.

Tuesday: Is Democracy Coming to China?: Everyone knows about the changes in the Chinese economy. But while much of our political coverage of China focuses on its human rights abuses, some voices are saying that China is experiencing real political change as well. MIT professor Edward Steinfeld joins us to discuss why he thinks that China is on its way to democracy.

Wednesday: Rupert Murdoch’s Empire in Crisis: With all the ink that’s been lavished on the tabloid crisis in Britain, there’s not much being said about Murdoch’s links to the US. What about Fox and the American media?

Thursday: Unnatural Selection: From Albania to Vietnam, fewer and fewer girls are being born. While we are quick to point to patriarchial traditions to explain the phenomenon, we tend to overlook one important aspect of the problem: recently introduced technology that makes what journalist Mara Hvistendahl dubs "Unnatural Selection."

Friday: Mexican Ice Pops: Cool down the heat, bring out the frozen treats! Paletas are the traditional Mexican version of the ice pop, and Fany Gerson, celebrated pastry chef and paletas enthusiast, knows all about how to make the magic of fruit and ice work to perfection.

Jean

Programs for the Week of July 18, 2011

Jean’s Pick of the Week: French Seduction: Apart from the chance to air a little of my high school French, my conversation with New York Times Paris correspondent Elaine Sciolino about, La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life, her new book, was easily my favorite this week. Elaine is a dream to talk to – very spontaneous, very American, and very down-to-earth – and her insights into seduction as the governing mode of French life are simply priceless.

Monday: Literature of the Arab Spring: Translation pioneers, Words Without Borders, has just published their first collection of literature dealing with the Arab Spring. Work old and new from Algeria to Egypt that illuminates the revolutionary spirit.

Tuesday: The Sinner's Grand Tour: In his Slate.com series, Tony Perrottet called his bathhouse and brothel hopping trip through Europe the "pervert's" tour. But, more than the perverse, he found that the hidden history of the erotic reveals more about life, art, and the history of a place than any regular European vacation ever could.

Wednesday: Saved By Beauty in Iran: What happens when, in 2009, a British-American poet fulfills his lifelong dream of exploring Persia's literary tradition firsthand? Iran's spectacular living culture and the depth of its soul is set into relief by his eventual detention and interrogation by Iranian security.

Thursday: Tree of Life: Terrence Malick's latest film garnered both boos and cheers at its premiere in Cannes before winning the festivals main prize, the Palme d'Or. The film's ambitious scope invites us to think about eternal questions: What is the nature of our existence? Why does pain exist if there is a just God? Film scholar and critic David Sterritt and Professor of English, Religion, and Classics Barbara Newman will join us to share their take on this exceptional film.

Friday: Cooking from the Garden: You have a garden, you're excited to cook with your own produce, you religiously stick to your favorite recipe, and: it doesn't taste good. How many times has that happened to you? Deborah Madison joins us to discuss how to slowly let go of that recipe book to better respect our garden's individual quirks.

I'm off to Bear Lake. Have a wonderful weekend!

Jean

Programs for the Week of July 11, 2011

Jean’s Pick of the Week (watch video): The Story of Charlotte's Web: My Pick of the Week: It took E.B. White sixteen takes before he could get through a recording of Charlotte’s Web without breaking into tears. I had exactly the same problem when I first discovered the book in reading it to my kids, and even our crusty tech Joe, who grew up on a dairy farm, teared up thinking about his own first encounter with it. I especially enjoyed hearing from our last caller who had grown up on a farm and preferred Marjorie Rawlings The Yearling because of its brutal honesty about the reality of farm life in the rural South. But to my mind that just pointed up the uniqueness of the way E.B. White wove whimsy with science, as skillfully as Charlotte herself. What a delightful hour. Thanks to all of you.

Monday: Hush, Baby, Hush: All around the world, for as long as babies have fretted, those who care for them have been making up lullabies on the spot, passing them on, and sometimes, written them down. What's your favorite lullaby?

Tuesday: French Seduction: In La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life, New York Times' Paris Correspondent, Elaine Sciolino navigates the Parisian maze of unspoken assumptions about the cultivation of pleasure, and the hidden truth about French life: it's all about seduction.

Wednesday: Rescuing Regina: The harrowing true story of a feisty nun, a ferocious lawyer, and a group of grassroots volunteers who set aside political differences in a race to save a Congolese torture survivor from deportation and almost certain death. Along the way, Sister Josephe holds America’s hidden asylum system up for long overdue scrutiny.

Thursday: Zen and the Art of Firefighting: In 2008 a wildfire nearly destroyed the Tassajara Zen Center in the Ventana wilderness of southern California, but five monks including one woman with no firefighting experience were able to fend off the flames. Colleen Morton Busch and Mako Voelkel join us to describe how Zen mind beats fire.

Friday: T.B.A.:

Jean

The Here on Earth Summer Reading Without Borders List, 2011! 7/7

Poland: Stone Upon Stone by Wieslaw Mysliwski, (b. 1932 ) trans. from the Polish by Bill Johnston

Czech Republic: Dancing Lessons for the Advanced of Age by Bohumil Hrabal, (b. 1914 – d. 1997 ) trans. from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim

Portugal: The Land at the End of the World by Antonio Lobo Antunes (b. 1942) trans. from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

Spain: Never Any End to Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas (b. 1948), trans. from the Spanish by Anne McLean

France: Lightning by Jean Echenoz, (b. 1947) trans. from the French by Linda Coverdale

Swedish-Finnish novelist: Fair Play by Tove Jansson (b. 1914 – d.2001), translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal

Japan: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto (b. 1964) , trans. from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich

Germany: Funeral for a Dog by Thomas Pletzinger, (b. 1975 ) trans. from the German by Benjamin Ross

Spain: Guadalajara by Quim Monzo, (b. 1952) trans. from the Catalan by Peter Bush

Russia: The Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, (b. 1955 ) trans. from the Russian by Jamey Gambrill

Serbia Leeches by David Albahari, (b. 1948) trans. from the Serbian by Ellen Elias-Bursac

Programs for the Week of July 4

Monday: An Artist’s Jaunt Through American History (encore): What figure in American history makes you feel warm and fuzzy about democracy? Illustrator and Israeli immigrant Maira Kalman set out, Alexis deToqueville style, to document democracy in America circa 2009. The result is an optimistic love letter to America that reminds us all of what we have to be proud of this Independence Day. (Rebroadcast from 11/1/10)

Tuesday: America and Pakistan: The First 60 Years: At the time of Pakistan's founding a scant 60 years ago, it was the first and only democracy in the Muslim world, a country whose citizens would elect those who govern them. A Pakistani-American at the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy's Summit drew fascinating comparisons between Pakistan and the first 60 years of U.S. history. Despite obvious differences between our two countries, there are striking parallels.

Wednesday: The Story of Charlotte's Web: About himself, E.B. White once wrote: "This boy felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people." He wasn't alone: talking animals abound in literature all over the globe. Who is your favorite literary talking animal?

Thursday: Summer Reading Without Borders: The 2011 Champion of literature in translation, publisher Chad Post, joins us once again to talk about all the best newly translated books for English readers. We hear about a rambunctious Polish farmer, the wild life of inventor Nikola Tesla, and what really happened inside the Trojan Horse.

Friday: For Cod and Country: With so many species in rapid decline, is eating fish really sustainable? Esquire chef of the year Barton Seaver says yes and shows us how, featuring seafood that hasn't been overfished or caught in an environmentally destructive way.

Doesn’t everybody love the Fourth of July? Have a safe and happy holiday.

Jean