This Weekend's Program

Bob Edwards Weekend, May 12-13, 2012

HOUR ONE: 

Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus joins Bob to discuss the latest political news.

For a relatively young country, Israel and its supporters wield immense power in shaping United States government policy. Peter Beinart is a former editor of the New Republic who lays out his criticism of the Jewish State in a new book called The Crisis of Zionism. Among Beinart’s more controversial ideas is a proposed boycott on products made in Israeli settlements. 

Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Lauren LeBlanc.  Americans like to dream big – for the country, and themselves.  Teenagers imagine a future for that includes throngs of adoring fans, and photographers tracking their every move.  LeBlanc was no different, but life hasn’t worked out that way.  Instead, she’s a mother of two, living in the suburbs.  Her life is simple, and she couldn’t be happier.  LeBlanc says that she may never make an impact outside her community, but that’s okay because inside her home, she is irreplaceable. 

HOUR TWO:

Studs Terkel was a noted writer, broadcaster, oral historian and story teller.  He died in 2008, but shared several lengthy conversations with Bob.  We honor Terkel’s centenary by re-airing portions of their chats.  Terkel was born on May 16, 1912. 

For his latest album, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright reflects on his life … this time on the sunny topics of aging, decline and demise. He also brings in his family to help: all of his kids and most of his ex-wives appear on the album. Wainwright joins Bob in the studio to perform a few songs and to talk about his CD titled Older Than My Old Man Now.

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Lauren LeBlanc and This I Believe

Lauren LeBlanc and one of her daughtersEach week, we’ll hear a new This I Believe essay - this time from Lauren LeBlanc. When she was young, LeBlanc had grand dreams of living in New York and singing on Broadway.  Instead, she became a mom and schoolteacher in suburbia.  While it’s not the life she once imagined, LeBlanc now knows she wouldn’t have it any other way. LeBlanc is a native texan living in Louisville, Kentucky…married to her high school sweetheart and has two young daughters. For three years, LeBlanc has used the This I Believe curriculum in her language arts classes to teach her eighth graders how to put their convictions on paper. Her essay is featured in the new book, This I Believe: On Motherhood.

Click here to read a transcript and to listen to her essay.

Click here for guidelines to submit your own statement of beliefs.

Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel spent a lifetime bearing witness to other peoples’ stories — about surviving the Great Depression, fighting in World War II, finding faith, working and just about every other subject within the human condition. But Studs was also a consummate story teller himself. He would even interrupt his own story to tell a different tale — and pick up right where he left off. The 100th anniversary of Studs’ birth is May 16, and we’re observing it by offering a small portion of one of Bob’s many interviews with him.

Studs died more than three years ago, but you can still hear him every week on his home station, WFMT. Click here to find out how.

There’s an entire website dedicated to Studs’ centenary, and you can find it here. Be sure call in with your own stories about Studs and how his work affected you.

For a refresher on all of Studs’ books, click here.

Forthcoming on The Bob Edwards Show

The Bob Edwards Show, May 14-18, 2012

Monday, May 14, 2012: In the fall, the Dance Theatre Of Harlem (DTH) will begin its first professional tour since it lost funding in 2004. Bob talks to the company’s Artistic Director, Virginia Johnson, about the past and future of the predominantly black ballet company. Then, Misty Copeland began ballet classes at age 13, ten years later than most aspiring ballerinas. Today, at the acme of her career, Copeland is 29 years old and the first black woman in the American Ballet Theatre. Bob talks to Copeland about being a prima ballerina and her sixteen years in the world of swans.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012: Bill Veeck was born into baseball. His sportswriter father became president of the Chicago Cubs, and Bill later worked for owner Phil Wrigley, rebuilding Wrigley Field to achieve the famed ambience that exists today. In his late twenties, he bought into his first team, the American Association Milwaukee Brewers. He later bought the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox.  In 1947, Veeck signed Larry Doby, the American League’s first black player. A year later, he signed the legendary black pitcher Satchel Paige, who helped win the 1948 World Series—Cleveland’s last championship to this day. Bob talks to Paul Dickson about his book Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012:  Today would have been Studs Terkel’s 100^th Birthday.  We bring back Bob’s interview with Terkel to honor his centenary. Bob reminisces with Terkel about his career as a writer, broadcaster, oral historian and story teller.

Thursday, May 17, 2012:   “Criss-crossing the continent, renowned geneticist Bryan Sykes provides a groundbreaking examination of America through its DNA.”  Then, in Tucson, Mexican American high school students are very likely to drop out before they graduate. But, students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program don’t just graduate – they go on to attend college. A new film in the PBS series Independent Lens follows several students in that program. Precious Knowledge tells the stories of these teenagers against the backdrop of new anti-immigration laws in Arizona and other states. Eren Isabel McGinnis directed Precious Knowledge, which features Alanna Castro, among other students.

Friday, May 18, 2012:  Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times joins Bob to discuss the latest political news.  Next, Mitch Ryder was the leader of the rock group Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, and had hits including “Devil with a Blue Dress On” and “Sock It to Me Baby.” After achieving pop success he descended into addiction and bankruptcy - and lived to tell about it. He has a new memoir out, as well as an album called The Promise. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Jessica Paris.  Summer is fast approaching – the season of taking a break, cutting yourself some slack, and indulging in a little R-and-R.  Paris says we should just say no to those impulses.  She says she is not a puritan or a miser, but in a world of bounty, choices have to be made.  Paris doesn’t believe we satiate our desire by feeding it any more than we do by depriving it.  And sometimes deprivation leads to greater satisfaction than indulgence.

Darrell Scott

by Jeannie Naujeck, “Nashville Bureau Chief”

I first saw Darrell Scott a couple of years ago at Cumberland Caverns near Nashville. He was playing a Bluegrass Underground concert on a bill that also included Justin Townes Earle. That’s who I had gone to see but, to me, Darrell Scott stole the show with his passionate singing and presence. I couldn’t even make out the words to his songs but his presence was so compelling I had to find out more about him. Once I did, I realized he is a master of the craft and one of the most brilliant songwriters in Nashville. Then, I found out Darrell was touring with Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller in Robert Plant’s Band of Joy - and I wondered how on earth I had not discovered him before.

Darrell may not be a household name but if you want to know how good he is, just look at the company he keeps - Guy Clark, Tim O’Brien, Patty Griffin, Rodney Crowell all appear on his latest album, Long Ride Home, which is a tribute to the country music he grew up with. The album was recorded at Darrell’s house and you can hear how much fun the musicians had playing *real* instruments - an upright bass, an upright piano - on raucous songs like “Hopkinsville.” But what really stands out is Darrell’s writing … how he portrays the angst of watching an ex-love with someone else in “Dance in the Darkness” in just a few perfectly-chosen words.

 

“I saw the curtain move, I saw the hand that pulled the shade 
And in a moment the lights went out and a radio began to play 
And I crossed the empty street with the window in my view 
But I couldn’t see through to watch them dance in the darkness”

No one discusses the album and the songs better than Darrell himself. Click here to read his self-written bio.

You can also find out more about Darrell’s dad, Wayne Scott, who always wanted to be a country singer and songwriter and named all of his five sons starting with the letter D so they could one day possibly form a family band. At age 71, Wayne Scott put out his first album with Darrell’s help. As Darrell says, he was “the real deal.” Sadly, he passed away in an accident in December, but his talent lives on in his son. If this is the first time you’ve heard of Darrell Scott, you’re in for a real treat.