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Since the Election
Tuesday, November 03 2009
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Since the election
Curt Moody
It was a year ago this week when Americans went to the polls and elected Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States.
Curt Moody knows that the election of a black man to the highest office in the land is a pivotal next step for the country. Curt faced an uphill struggle trying to gain legitimacy as an architect. He didn't know any black architects when he was a kid, and he has faced specific examples of racism throughout his career. Early on, Curt was surprised to have to convince people even in his own community that a black architect could be every bit as good as a white one. But earlier this summer, Curt won the competition to design a major new museum: The International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C. He joins Dick Gordon to talk about race and architecture.
My Cairo CousinÂ
Margo Massoud Marver
Margo Massoud Marver has heard the series of stories we call "Your Story" and she decided to write about the one time in her life she will never forget. She was leaving war-torn Lebanon for a much needed vacation in Egypt when her grandmother gave her the name of a long lost cousin to try to find in Cairo - no number, just a name. Margo reluctantly took the name, and then unwittingly ended up at the office of the very cousin she had been asked to find. She joins Dick Gordon to tell her story.
- See Margo in Cairo
A Difficult Defense
Monday, November 02 2009
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A difficult defense
Steven Kay
The former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic is now being tried at the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague. Like Slobodan Milosevic before him, Karadzic is defending himself. Till now, he has boycotted the proceedings. At the time of Slobodan Milosevic's trial, attorney Steven Kay was appointed to the former leader's defense team. Between delays, lack of funding, and his client’s courtroom antics, the case was even more difficult than Steven imagined. But during the several year trial, Steven also came to know Milosevic in ways he never expected. Steven Kay talks with Dick Gordon about what really happens in a trial of this nature. This story originally aired on March 4, 2009.
hedging Bets with the Swine Flu
Edwin Kilbourne >> more photos
Each day we see new developments with the H1N1 flu vaccine: who has it, who doesn't, who wants the vaccine. 1976, the U.S. vowed to fight off a potential swine flu pandemic with an unprecedented vaccination campaign. Dr. Edwin Kilbourne developed the swine flu vaccine that year, and he was one of the people who advocated for a mass vaccination program. The pandemic never happened. What's more, doctors reported new cases of a rare illness that the public feared was associated with the vaccine. Dr. Kilbourne's name hit the papers and he defended his position repeatedly. Dr. Kilbourne, now 88, talks to Dick about the time in his life that he calls his "fifteen minutes of infamy" - and what he'd advise now that we're in the midst of another outbreak. This story originally aired on May 12, 2009.
Nurturing Monet's Garden
Friday, October 30 2009
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Nurturing Monet's Garden
Elizabeth Murray
Elizabeth Murray quit her dream job to volunteer in Monet's garden in Giverny, France. Her family thought she was mad to leave her cushy horticulture job in California on a verbal promise for free room and board. But Elizabeth says her urge to work there was unbreakable. She talks to Dick Gordon about what it meant to her to toil in Monet's garden, and how she came to more deeply appreciate the scenes of abundance in his art.
- Visit Claude Monet's garden at Giverny
- Learn more
about Elizabeth
- Find out more about Elizabeth's book, Monet's Passion
- Music Heard in this program: Clair de Lune (Moonlight), and Girl with the Flaxen hair, by Claude Debussy
Brush with Fame - Wicked Witch of the West
Kathy Hopwood holds dear her memories of hanging out in Washington, D.C. one day with the Wicked Witch of the West, actress Margaret Hamilton. Kathy met the famous thespian unexpectedly and spent close to 24 hours with her.
They began their day by searching out collectible dolls and finished by eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at 3:00 a.m. in "Maggie's" hotel room. Kathy says she has never forgotten the lesson she learned from her new friend - trust.
Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West - more >>
- See Kathy's signed photos from Margaret Hamilton
- Kathy showed up for the interview in costume. See how she scared Dick
- Listen to Dick's first conversation with Kathy, about her career teaching self-defense
- Music heard in this story: Main Title and Delirious Escape /End Title from The Wizard of Oz , Soundtrack from the Motion Picture
Caring for Aunt Mary
Thursday, October 29 2009
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Caring for Aunt Mary
Mary Bonamo >>More
Lots of people are caring for aging relatives and their own children. There's even a name for the caregivers: the sandwich generation. On a visit to Florida to visit her dad and his sister, Sue Perna realized her 98-year-old aunt needed more daily help, and that her dad couldn't look after her anymore. Sue's father asked her to take care of Aunt Mary, and sent her a check to build a bedroom onto her Vermont home. Two days after the check arrived, Sue's dad died, and the mother of four took in her 98-year-old aunt. Seven years later, Aunt Mary is 105 and still thriving. Sue talks with Dick about how that decision affected her family's life - the challenges and the unexpected benefits.
- Music in this story: Young at Heart. One version performed by Dean Martin, one performed by Jonathan Miles Freeman for the album Journey to Piano Land.
The Pumpkin Chase
The Hutchins Family - larger >>
Zach and Alana Hutchins were brought together by a pumpkin.
It started days before Halloween of his freshman year in college, when Zach and some friends broke the rules and serenaded a girl after visiting hours. It was an adrenaline-pumping experience, and for some reason, when Zach was running off with his friends, he stole a pumpkin from the girls' dorm hallway.Â
The pumpkin belonged to Alana, who wasn't pleased when Zach returned it later, already carved. The two tell Dick their unlikely Halloween love story.
- Music in this story: Great Pumpkin Waltz performed by Vince Guaraldi for the album Oh Good Grief
One Broken American Dream
Wednesday, October 28 2009
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ONE Broken American DreamÂ
Zed Chang
Zed Chang is trying to figure out how his American dream got derailed. He moved to the U.S. from China in hopes of securing a bright future. Zed says he eventually realized his dream when he was offered a good job as an engineer at a major high tech company. Zed was there 9 years, but was laid off this summer. Zed and his wife love the U.S. Their twins were born here. But now the family faces a tough choice - stay in America in a rocky job market or return to China for work.
A boy and a balloon
Dan Nowell
Dan Nowell has been inundated with calls from around the country these past two weeks to comment on the international story of the boy who was thought to be stuck in a balloon.
In 1964, Dan was accidentally lifted 3,000 feet in the air by a hot air balloon. He was 11 years old, and with his buddies went to watch a balloon take off from the local high school football field. Dan was asked to hold a rope, but didn't hear the call to let go. Dan tells us Dick Gordon about that harrowing ride, and how he became a celebrity overnight.Â
- Read an article about Dan Nowell in the San Francisco Chronicle
A Place to Belong
Tuesday, October 27 2009
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A Place to BelongÂ
Seth Best
Last winter, Seth Best searched high and low for a job in Ann Arbor, but the Michigan economy had sunk too low. Seth ended up on the street and found a homeless shelter that would take him, but as a transgender man he ran into many challenges there. After a few months of encounters with drugged out shelter dwellers, Seth left the shelter and was back out on his own - in the middle of a Michigan winter.
Seth soon found a drug-free tent community of fellow homeless people that welcomed him. It wasn't an easy scenario. With few ways to stay warm in his tent, Seth almost didn't make it through the Michigan winter. But Seth tells Dick Gordon that finding this group helped safe his life - and gave him a sense of belonging he was yearning for.
- Learn more about the tent city, Camp Take Notice
The Search for Codex Cardona
Arnold Bauer
Arnold Bauer has been hunting a cultural treasure, a Mexican "painted book," for decades.
Arnold first saw the Codex Cardona in 1985 in the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, where scholars from Stanford and the University of California were attempting to establish its authenticity. Allowed to gently lift a few pages of this 500-year-old treasure, Bauer was hooked. By 1986, the Codex had disappeared from public view. Bauer's curiosity about the Codex and its whereabouts led him down many forking paths, from California to Seville and Mexico City, to the Firestone Library in Princeton, to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Christie's in New York, and it brought him into contact with an international cast of curators, agents, charlatans, and erudite book dealers. He joins Dick to tell about his passion for the Codex Cardona.
- Learn more about the The Search for the Codex Cardona
Paying for Health in the U.S.
Monday, October 26 2009
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Paying for Health in the U.S.
Anne Bajou
Anne Bajou has an unusual perspective on the U.S. health care system. She married a doctor and spent years as the administrator in a family practice, dealing with insurance claims. She also fought a serious illness - without insurance - and returned to her native France when things got really bad. Anne talks with Dick Gordon about the good and bad of what she's seen both here and overseas and why she's so convinced the U.S. health care system needs reform.
One Broke Doctor
Dr. Andrew Johnstone
Dr. Andrew Johnstone also sees the need for reform, but he thinks the best solution is the free market. He says he's practically broke because insurance companies are dictating what he can charge, what drugs he can prescribe, and what tests he should run. Sometimes, he says, rather than go through all the hoops insurance companies put in place, he'll prescribe a drug the company recommends, even if he knows a better drug is out there. Dr. Johnstone talks to Dick about what he's seen in his general practice and what he thinks would fix the problems.
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