Bob Edwards Weekend

August 2007

August 4-5, 2007

HOUR ONE

• From the executive producer of “ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” a new documentary compiles interviews with White House and military leaders about the severe lack of planning, resources, and guidance in the Iraq transition of power. Bob talks to Charles Ferguson, the producer and director of “No End in Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq.” One reviewer says Ferguson "works with a thirst for history that transcends ideology, as he gets a platoon of Bush officials…to go on record about how their advice was trivialized and ignored."

• Deanie Parker first came to a recording studio on McLemore Avenue in Memphis in 1963. She had won a local talent contest and first prize was an audition with Stax Records. Deanie ended up staying and did everything from singer and composer to secretary, liner notes writer, photographer, editor, publicist and documentarian. Deanie talks to Bob about the record label that was a major player in the creation of American soul music. Stax artists included Otis Redding, Isaac Hays, The Staple Singers and Sam & Dave. Stax celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

HOUR TWO

• Bob talks with Michael Wallis, author of the new book The Lincoln Highway : Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate. It's a trip across the United States through a bygone era, before interstates turned roadside kitsch into monotony.

• Bob talks to Michael Taft about the sounds of carnivals. It’s part of our regular monthly series with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress .

 

August 11-12, 2007

HOUR ONE

• Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former press secretary (1994-2003) talks with Bob about his book The Blair Years: The Alastair Campbell Diaries. It's an intimate account recorded daily by Blair's most trusted strategist and confidant. He has often been described as the second most powerful figure in Britain.

• Bob talks to travel writer Colin Thubron about his latest book Shadow of the Silk Road. In the book, he chronicles his events through the ancient paths of the Silk Road. He spent eight months traveling 7,000 miles tracing the vestiges of the legendary trade route between China and Antioch.

HOUR TWO

• Bob talk to Katherine Eban about her article "Rorschach and Awe" in Vanity Fair. American's coercive interrogation methods were reverse-engineered by the two CIA psychologists who had spent their careers training US soldiers to endure communist-style torture techniques. The spread of these tactics was fueled by a myth about a critical "black sites" operation.

• Thorstein Veblen was the economist who coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption." Economics professor, Ken McCormick talks to Bob about Veblen's legacy on the sesquicentennial of his birth. McCormick is the author of Veblen in Plain English .

• Bob talks to Ted Anthony. He has written an entire book about one song. It's called Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song.

 

August 18-19, 2007

HOUR ONE

• Novelist and critic Francine Prose talks with Bob about her book "How to Read like a Writer." Prose writes that before creative writing workshops aspiring writers learned to write by reading the work of great writers. She reads the work of the very best writers—Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov—and discovers why these writers endure.

• Singer songwriter Peter Yarrow's most beloved song "Puff the Magic Dragon" is brought to life in a new illustrated children's book. Yarrow talks to Bob about how "Puff" came into being, what it was like to record with his daughter, and his years with friends and musical collaborators Paul and Mary .

HOUR TWO

• Helen Thomas has been part of the White House press corps for decades, covering every president since John F. Kennedy. Bob sits down with Thomas in her Washington office to discuss her long and impressive career. Her latest book called “Watchdogs of Democracy?” is now out in paperback.

• Bob talks with filmmaker Tom DiCillo (“The Real Blonde,” “Johnny Suede,” and “Living in Oblivion”) about his new movie “Delirious” starring Steve Buscemi.

• Mundell Lowe and Jim Ferguson are separated in age by a few decades but they are united in their love of playing jazz together. With Lowe on guitar and Ferguson on bass, the pair began touring and eventually realized that their musical pairing was deserving of an album. Bob talks with Mundell Lowe and Jim Ferguson about jazz, their careers, and their new album, titled “Haunted Heart.”