The Story from American Public Media - Archive

The Affair(s)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:00

The Affair(s)

A new study is out saying young married people are much more likely to have affairs than they were 15 years ago. Today Dick Gordon talks with a woman named Angela, who says she's had several affairs. She's developed her own set of rules for successfully carrying off infidelity. And though she's thought it all through in therapy, Angie says she doesn't feel guilty. She says the experience taught her a lot about herself, and it has actually made her a better wife. But that doesn't mean she's proud of what she's done.

A LOSING SEASON

Jack Ridl

Buzz Ridl was the coach of his time. He took little Westminster College in Pennsylvania to the national title 50 years ago this year. In fact, there is an event this weekend at Westminster, where many of the players are gathering to remember Coach Buzz Ridl.

The coach’s son, Jack, is now a poet. He remembers that national championship, and he remembers the agony of sitting behind the bench, watching his dad try to win. Jack has recently published an entire book of poems that were inspired by his memories of basketball, his father, and the fans. It's called Losing Season.

Hear Jack read the poem My Brother A Star
Watch a clip of the 1960 championship game, courtesy of the NAIA

A New Research Question

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:00

a new research question

Dr. Carolyn Sartor

There is a new study out this week that is causing waves in medical circles. A federal task force is raising new questions about the need for breast cancer screening, particularly mammograms for younger women. That is a big shift in the national conversation about breast cancer.

Carolyn Sartor is well versed in the detection and treatment of breast cancer. She is the former head of the department of radiation oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She's the one who used to give the news to patients. Then she got breast cancer herself. Three times. Suddenly she was both doctor and patient, dealing with the very disease that is her specialty. Carolyn joins Dick Gordon to talk about how her perspective as a patient has begun to change her research questions.

Find out more about Carolyn's work

contact uS

CIVILIZATION

Ahmed Fadaam

Elon University is a small school in the town of Burlington, North Carolina. It is home to the Pericles Scholars program, where students are encouraged to learn more about the rest of the world. This time last year, our Baghdad reporter Ahmed Fadaam was working with those scholars, giving them his first hand accounts of life in Iraq. Later today, Elon will unveil a statue that Ahmed created there. Ahmed calls the piece Civilization. It's a notable piece because Ahmed had been a sculptor and art teacher before the war, but for five years Ahmed had given up making art.

See photos of Ahmed's statue "Civilization" at Elon University
See videos of when "Civilization" was vandalized and rebuilt
See photos of Ahmed at work

contact uS

Midnight Teacher

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:00:17

Midnight teacher

Wick Sloane (top), Tremare James

Community colleges are experiencing record enrollments in the recession. Some have responded by adding classes at all hours of the day. Wick Sloane teaches English at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston - at midnight.

As he tells Dick Gordon, Wick thinks students in community college are among the most energized and inspiring he's ever met. He pointed us to Tremare James, a 19-year-old woman who has made back into the classroom despite debilitating sexual assaults. Wick and Tremare talk with Dick about the 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. class, and what they're liking about the experience.

Keep up with Wick's essays about higher education

An attachment to Ethiopia

Eric Gottesman

Eric Gottesman had a summer internship with the Supreme Court when he found out he'd won a fellowship to spend a year in Ethiopia. The experience set his life on a whole new course, one he's still trying to make sense of. For one thing, Eric gave up his plans to become a lawyer and instead became a professional photographer. But he was never comfortable with simply being a journalist or a documentarian. He wanted his subjects to intimately participate in the process of making portraits. Eric talks with Dick about the young woman he's worked with most closely, Salam, and how that and other relationships keep him tied to Ethiopia.

See some of Eric's photographs
Learn more about Eric
Music heard in this story: Antchi Hoye, by Gigi

Off The Streets

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:00:00

OFF THE STREETS

Experts estimate that 300,000 children and teens are lured into prostitution each year.

At 15 years old, Delencia began working as a prostitute in Texas. She says over the past three years it was her only opportunity to earn the money she wanted for clothes, hair and nail treatments. Last month, after a brush with law enforcement, Delencia decided to quit selling her body. She talks with Dick Gordon about how she's adjusting to life off the streets and the challenges she faces ahead.

Learn about resources for child victims of prostitution

Discovering Leslie Cheung

Marie Jost

A couple of years ago, Marie Jost rented the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Chinese cinema was new to her, and Marie was floored by what she saw. She started checking out other Chinese films. It was while watching Farewell My Concubine, an Academy Award nominee in 1993 for best foreign film, that Marie really got hooked on Leslie Cheung, the lead actor. Marie's fanaticism about Leslie, who killed himself in 2003, has led her to explore Chinese art, culture and language. She says it's also renewed her own creativity, even inspiring her to plan a trip to Hong Kong next spring.

Growing the Medicine

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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 site

Lessons from the tech bubble

Josh Fruhlinger

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

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00

Beijing Blues

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.

Opening Up at Fort Hood

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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 granddaughter

Ahmed's Diary - Just Another Day in Baghdad

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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 guitar
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

Combat Bunny

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00

Combat Bunny

Carolyn Schapper

Carolyn Schapper was a 30-something Army sergeant serving in Iraq, and the only woman in a unit full of men in their teens and 20s. One day her convoy was approached by an Iraqi boy selling bunnies. Carolyn tried to dissuade one of her fellow soldiers from buying one, but Carolyn was soon reluctantly holding a white rabbit on her lap as the convoy headed back inside the wire.

The bunny was a hit as soon as it arrived at the base - the soldiers called it Combat Infantry Bunny, or CIB, for short. Soon it became Carolyn's job to care for CIB. And before long she realized the bunny was saving her from her loneliness and isolation. Carolyn talks with Dick Gordon about how her unlikely connection with a rabbit changed her experience of the war.

Meet CIB, Combat Infantry Bunny

RuNNING TOGETHER

Nancy & Tim West, larger >>

Nancy West felt like her son was growing away from her, immersing himself in video games and baseball, things that Nancy had little interest in. In an attempt to find an activity they could do together, Nancy, an avid runner, invited her then 8-year-old son to take on a challenge: see how many consecutive days they could run. Called streak running, Nancy and Tim started out with no goal in mind, and ended up running at least a mile per day for two years. Nancy talks to Dick about her mother-son experiment, and how it brought them closer together, which was the point all along.

A Dispute Over Solar

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00

A Dispute over solar

Doug and Karen Kitt

Karen and Doug Kitt live in a lovely Victorian apartment building in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco, one of the most progressive communities in the country. For the past four years, the Kitts have been saving up to go solar. They've recently installed almost 50 panels on their rooftop, which will provide power for all three flats in their building, and an electric car.

Two days before installation was completed, neighbors complained about the panels blocking their view. The Kitts' permit was pulled by the city, and a court date was scheduled. The Kitts talk to Dick Gordon about neighborhood politics, and the clash between scenic views and green energy in the city by the bay.

Read about the conflict in the San Francisco Examiner

Growing Up SOlar

George (top) and Linnea Lof

Larry Lof was 14 years old when he and his siblings moved into their newly-built home in Denver. His sister Linnea was 5. The home was an architectural showpiece, down to the two tall red tubes in the foyer. But the really unique thing about their home was that the tubes were filled with rocks that were heated by solar panels on the roof. It was the 1950s, and their father George was a leader in solar energy innovation.

Larry and Linnea talk to Dick about their father's legacy and what it meant to grow up at the beginning of the solar power age. They say just before he died last month, their father George was saying the time for solar energy may finally be here.

See a photo of George in his home.

GM's Electric Car

Bill Buhl

What's your story about alternative energy?

Teri Buhl wrote to us about her dad, Bill Buhl, who once built an electric car for General Motors. Bill says that electric car was very fast and very heavy. Eventually, GM canned the project. Bill was so disappointed he walked away from electric cars and has never gone back. This story originally aired on April 1, 2008.

See photos of the electric car Bill worked on

Since the Election

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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 Cousin

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

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00

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.