In memory of journalist Daniel Schorr who passed away on Friday at the age of 93, we’ll rebroadcast Bob’s January 2008 interview with Schorr.  Read more about Daniel Schorr here.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The documentary Presumed Guilty follows the story of Jose Antonio Zuniga through the Mexican judicial system.  Zuniga has evidence and witnesses on his side, but going against him are a prosecutor and a court system which maintains a 95-percent conviction rate.  Roberto Hernandez and Layda Negrete are Berkeley-educated lawyers who take up the case.  They discuss the extreme hardships faced by falsely accused Mexicans in a system where suspects are “guilty until proven innocent.”  The documentary airs today on PBS/POV.  Then, gambler Beth Raymer’s memoir “Lay the Favorite: a Memoir of Gambling” tells the story of her wild gambling career.  Raymer’s memoir talks about her wild life as a young woman in a high stakes world. She soon discovers the anxiety fueled world of sports betting.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

We conclude our series of interviews recorded at this year’s New Orleans Jazz Fest with a musical import. Jon Cleary was born and raised into a musical family in a sleepy English town, but thanks to a traveling uncle he was introduced at an early age to the music and culture of New Orleans. Now Cleary has been living there for most of his life, made the switch from guitar to piano and possesses an amazing grasp of the secret ingredients of New Orleans music. Cleary shares the recipe with Bob on one of the four pianos in his home studio in the Bywater neighborhood.  Then, as our summer music series ends, we bring you a preview of our new series from southern Louisiana reporting on the endangered wetlands, the oil spill and how New Orleans is doing five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. That series is titled No Place Like Home: The Vanishing Culture of Coastal Louisiana.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, leaked 7,000 pages of top secret documents about the war to the press. It was a Defense Department study never meant to be seen by the public. Its publication in the New York Times proved the war was based on lies and eventually led to president Richard Nixon’s resignation and the end of America’s involvement in Vietnam. Bob talks with Ellsberg about his decision to release the “Pentagon Papers” and with filmmakers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith about their documentary called “The Most Dangerous Man in America.” It’s now out on DVD.

Friday, July 30, 2010  

David Broder of The Washington Post joins Bob to talk politics.  Next, once called “the American Olivier” by critic Frank Rich, actor Kevin Kline’s film and stage honors include an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and two Tony Awards, for On the Twentieth Century (1978) and Pirates of Penzance (1981).  In his latest film The Extra Man, Kline plays Henry Harrison, an aspiring playwright who makes his living as a male escort for wealthy older New York women.    Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, Bob talks with curator Dan Gediman about the essay of journalist Lucy Freeman.  She covered mental health and social welfare subjects for The New York Times. Her first book Fight Against Fears detailed her own psychoanalytic treatment for social fears and insomnia. Freeman went on to write more than 70 books ranging from psychology topics to mystery novels.