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Growing the Medicine
Monday, November 16 2009
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Growing the Medicine
Len Goodman
New Mexico is one of 14 states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana. And New Mexico is taking it one step further than the rest - the state is licensing providers to grow and distribute marijuana to patients.
One of the first to be awarded the new license is Len Goodman, a Santa Fe businessman. His newly-minted non-profit is called New MexiCann Natural Medicine. Len was a beatnik and a hippie who went to New Mexico over 40 years ago to join a commune near Taos. He's smoked plenty of pot over the years, but now he's figuring out how to grow, and sell it legally to patients around the state. Len talks to Dick Gordon about his unusual business plan, and how he was converted to the cause of medical marijuana by the patients he's met along the way.
- Visit the New MexiCann Web siteÂ
Lessons from the tech bubble
Josh Fruhlinger  Â
Josh Fruhlinger worked for a technology startup during the tech bubble of the late-90s and early part of this decade. Back then, he says getting laid off was actually a relief to some workers. As he tells Dick, Josh is sensing similar feelings during today's recession. At least you know your fate, compared to the uncertainty of staying at a company you know is going under.
- Check out Josh's blog
Beijing Blues
Friday, November 13 2009
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Beijing BluesÂ
Alan Paul             see larger>>
Lots of people these days are trying to make East-West partnerships.
Alan Paul found himself an unlikely ambassador for American Blues, in
China. His band there, Woodie Alan, became so successful they were
named the Beijing Band of the Year. Rock star in China is a role Alan
never imagined he'd play in life.
Alan was obsessed with The Allman Brothers as a kid. He learned to play the guitar and made a living as a music writer. But he'd never performed much himself. Then he moved to China, met a Chinese Blues musician, and started a band. Alan talks with Dick Gordon about gaining the confidence to get up on stage, and how he developed a new connection with American roots music - and with his pride in being an American - while playing the blues in China.
- Check out the band
- Learn more about Alan
- See photos of Alan with the band
YOUR STORY - CHILDHOOD DREAM REALIZED
Mary Immel and her late husband
During the Great Depression, Mary Immel lived in a small desert town in northern Arizona. In the center of her town was a railroad station with a restaurant called La Posada. With a penny in hand, five-year-old Mary would walk over to the station on a hot summer afternoon, towards the gumball machine, but get lost in the cool beauty of the building’s hacienda and its magnificent green gardens. She returned, years later, to see what had become of the secret garden of her childhood. This story originally aired on February 11, 2009.
contact usOpening Up at Fort Hood
Thursday, November 12 2009
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Opening Up at Fort Hood
Shannon and AJ Meehan
Capt. Shannon Meehan is one of the soldiers from Iraq who took his wartime stories to the psychiatrists at Fort Hood. But since the mass shooting there, allegedly by psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, Shannon is now worried that other military personnel won't want to share their stories with mental health professionals.
Shannon was a platoon leader in Iraq. He was considered one of the best in the brigade. But in the heat of the battle for Baqubah, he called in mortars on a suspected Al Qaeda house. He soon discovered that a family with six children had died in those blasts. Shannon joins Dick Gordon to talk about how the psychiatrists at Fort Hood began to help him deal with the wounds of war.
Find out more about Shannon's book
Newlyweds
Beth Ashley and Rowland Fellows
In 1938, 12-year-old Beth Ashley fell in love with a 13-year-old boy named Rowland Fellows when they were spending the summer with their parents in the village of Five Islands, Maine. It was a schoolgirl crush for her, but even though they talked and played together, she didn't let him know, and he didn't notice, not even during the next two summers. Then the war came, and both families moved away. Marriages, families, careers and full lives followed. But Beth never forgot Rowland and in 2004 wrote a column about her love of Five Islands and her first love, Rowland Fellows. A mutual friend connected them and you know the rest. Beth and Rowland were married this summer…71 years after they met.
- See more photos of Beth and Rowland
The Original WASPs
Wednesday, November 11 2009
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THE ORIGINAL WASPS
Deanie Parrish
During World War II, women stepped up into the jobs once held by enlisted men. They became mechanics, steel workers, plumbers and, for Deanie Parrish and 1,000 other women, pilots for the U.S. military. The Women's Air Force Service Pilots, known as the WASPs, helped train male pilots for combat, transported officers around the country, and allowed more men to serve overseas.
But Deanie never talked much about her adventures in the air; it wasn't until 1993 that she began to share the stories of her service. Now Deanie and her daughter are trying to record interviews with all the surviving WASPs. On this Veteran's Day, Deanie talks with Dick Gordon about her adventures in the air and the importance of remembering the past.
- Learn more about the Wings Across America project
- Read more about Deanie and see her World War II scrapbook
- See Deanie then and now
Remember the Rohna
Russ More       see larger>>
Russ More was on the HMT Rohna off the coast of Algeria in World War II. The troop ship was under British command when it was hit by a remote controlled, rocket-boosted bomb. This bomb was the first of its kind, and historians say that the hit gave birth to the missile age. The attack on the Rohna was the greatest loss of troops at sea in U.S. naval history.
Russ saw the bomb hit the ship. He swam several hours to safety, towing a shipmate. Russ never told his own story to his parents, and his children never heard the story until recently, when Russ moved into a senior center and began to write down his memories. He wrote to the center's paper, and sent his recollections to his children. He joins Dick to remember his experiences during World War II.
- Find out more about the Rohna
See photos of the Rohna and Russ with his granddaughterÂ
Ahmed's Diary - Just Another Day in Baghdad
Tuesday, November 10 2009
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Ahmed's Diary - Just another day in Baghdad
Ahmed's self portrait
Ahmed Fadaam, The Story's regular diarist, has just started a new job in Baghdad. He was on his way to work recently when he felt his car shake: a massive bomb had exploded in the city. Soon after, Ahmed got word his brother might have been injured. His tells the story in the latest installment of Ahmed's Diary.
- Hear other entries in Ahmed's Diary
A NEW MISSION
Jon (top) and Chris Boggiano
Jon and Chris Boggiano are brothers, West Point graduates, and veterans of the Iraq war. They served during the battle of Fallujah and saw some terrible things. They say many of their friends and fellow soldiers have struggled to find meaning and purpose after the intensity and camaraderie they experienced in combat.
Jon and Chris consider themselves lucky. They're entrepreneurs who have started their own sustainable building consulting company, and they say their belief in this work matches the dedication they once felt in the Army. The brothers talk with Dick Gordon about how they got the idea to start the company, and how their perspective as veterans helps them contribute to the green economy.
- Read more about the brothers' company, Everblue
- See Jon and Chris in Iraq
LOST IN ACTION: AN UPDATE
Marshall Anderson
A couple of years ago, Dick spoke with Marshall Anderson about his father's best story from World War II. It involved losing a treasured class ring on the battlefield. Many years later, long after his father had died, Marshall came home to a message on his answering machine: the ring Marshall's dad had lost nearly 60 years earlier was found. Marshall has since visited the battleground in Germany, and seen what he thinks may be the exact spot where the ring was lost.
- Hear Dick's original interview with Marshall
Behind the Wall
Monday, November 09 2009
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Behind the Wall
Birgit Lindemann
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Birgit Lindemann grew up behind the Wall. Her uncle would cross the border from West Germany, risking detection by the Stasi, in order to see Birgit's grandmother in the East. Birgit remembers sneaking to her grandmother's house to see her uncle and to take in the smells of cologne and chocolate - things that could not be bought easily in the East.
Birgit played by all the rules, always striving to be a good East German "young pioneer." But when she wasn't permitted to follow the path in life she wanted, Birgit became disillusioned. When the wall fell, Birgit grabbed her parents, drove to the border and breathed in the wondrous scents of freedom. But Birgit soon learned there were new challenges ahead for her and her family after the wall came down. Birgit talks with Dick Gordon about life before, and after, the fall of the Berlin Wall.
- See Birgit as a young girl
- See Birgit's school report card
Lessons from Retail
Mary Seymour
Mary Seymour made a big change in her life almost exactly as the financial crisis began. She moved from New England, where she'd lived and had a successful career as a writer and editor, to Greensboro, N.C., where all the job possibilities she'd lined up fell through. Mary looked into everything from working at UPS to becoming a prison guard before she finally ended up at the mall. She got two jobs - one at a high end women's boutique, and another at a major department store. Mary still works at the department store. As she tells Dick Gordon, taking a job in retail wrecked her self confidence - for a time. But she does love aspects of the job, and she has emerged with a game plan of what to do next in her professional life. Mary is planning to start a graduate program in counseling.
Give My Poor Heart Ease
Friday, November 06 2009
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GIVE MY POOR HEART EASE
Bill Ferris            photo by Dan Sears
Bill Ferris is one of this country's leading folklorists. His new work, Give My Poor Heart Ease, includes a book, a CD and a DVD. It is a collection of original recordings that Bill made in his native Mississippi.
As a boy, Bill began going to church with his family's housekeeper, Mary Gordon. He fell in love with the music and the drama of the church. As a teenager, he hit the road with recording equipment. Soon he was capturing music in lots of different African American communities. Bill soon discovered the blues, and the recordings he made in the 60's and 70's capture the roots of the Mississippi blues. Bill Ferris joins Dick Gordon to tell about his passion for the people and the stories behind the Mississippi blues.
- See video clips of BB King and the men at The Parchman Penitentiary
- Find out more about the one strand guitarÂ
- All archival recordings are from the CD/DVD included in the book
- All music is from the CD included in the book. Musicians include: Going Down to the Station by 'Sonny Boy' Williams; Going Away Blues and Boogie Chillun by Lovey Williams; Lazarus and Oh, Rosie by Inmates at the Parchman State Penitentiary; There are Days by Southland Hummingbirds; You Shall Be Free by Mary Gordon; Highway 61 Blues and Cairo Blues by James 'Son' Thomas
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