Palin, Palin, Palin. The mainstream media is obsessed and the feminist blogosphere has been very interested in the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. On many feminist blogs you'll see questions like "Is Sarah Palin a feminist?" or "Can someone who was given a free ride break a glass ceiling?" and an old favorite "Can someone who doesn't support reproductive choice be a feminist?" The Palin pick may cause a feminist identity crisis just as the Obama-Clinton primary season did.
Jessica here, happy to be back in the good old USA. Nothing like two weeks out of the country to make you appreciate home again. Even if you have a wonderful time, as I did during the past two weeks in Vietnam, it is good to come home again.
But enough of that; I have so much more to tell you about my trip.
Click "Read More" below for more stories and pictures.
The past few days have been among the strangest, most challenging and most wonderful of my entire life. There is no way I could even begin to do them justice in this blog post. All I can do is bring you a basic outline of what has transpired over the past few days and promise you that soon after I return home we will begin work on a documentary to bring you this amazing story.
Click "Read More" below for the story and pictures.
I am sitting on my bed under a mosquito net in Pleiku, Vietnam, and I
finally have a few spare moments to update you on the latest adventures
of your favorite globe-trotting producer.
Click "Read More" below for stories and pictures.
Well I see that my coworker Justin is trying to outdo me with multiple blogs from his trip to West Virginia. Since it is
only 5:30 am at home and he is sure to be asleep, I will take this opportunity to do a little reporting of my own!
Click "Read More" below for stories and pictures.
Welcome to the Center for Emerging Media's new website!
We're so excited to bring this to you after working on it for a month and a half. This website brings together in one place all our various projects, and also incorporates an interactive forum for our listeners to interact with each other.
If you have any questions about how to use this website or where something is located, leave a comment below or send me an email at jes.phillips@gmail.com.
To navigate the website, pay attention to the top menu bar. That will be your number one place to go once you know what you wanted to do. Do you want to read the blog? Click on "Blog". Do you want to listen to CEM programs? Click on "Programs". And so on. Once you make a decision, depending on what you click on, the right column will give you more options. For example, if you click on Programs, the right column will show you what programs we have available for you to listen to. If you click on Blog, the right column will show you archived entries and tags.
Just click around and get to know the site. Please let us know if you have any problems or questions about how this works!
We look forward to seeing you all in the forums and on this blog!
-Jessica
Sunam is only 3 years old. She is dressed up in her bridal outfit as she prepares to marry her 7 year old cousin. Photo Credit: Farzana Wahidy/AP.
We have brand new content for you from the Center for Emerging Media! Stream the podcast here. (Or just right click on that link, and choose "Save Link As." This will download it onto your computer. Thanks to our intelligent reader Ron Counsell for figuring this one out!) Program length is 39: 21.
Female genital mutilation. Sex slaves. Human trafficking. These are the topics that journalist Maria Hinojosa thought of when she was deciding which global women's issue to focus on for a special episode of NOW, the acclaimed PBS program. But a phone call to a source set her straight. The biggest issue facing women globally is not genital mutilation, or slavery. It is the millions of women that are forced to marry as children. 51 million girls under the age of 18 are married. According to a report by the International Center for Research on Women, that number will rise to 100 million by the end of this decade. Marc and Maria sat down and talked about her documentary Child Brides; Stolen Lives which premiered on PBS in 2007.
You can stream that interview here. (Program length is 39: 21)
Want to watch the documentary? Visit the website of Now on PBS.
Under the cut...resources and pictures!
Here are a couple of the girls you will meet in this documentary and interview
Habi
Habi lives in Niger. She will tell the story of how she came to be incontinent as a result of being married as a child.
Mamta
Mamta was only 7 when she was married to a man she had never met. She is afraid of her husband.
Other resources
Several months ago, the New York Times Magazine published a stunning series of pictures of child brides in Afghanistan with their husbands. Here is a link to that article and slideshow. One photo is above. Ghulam Haider, 11, is to be married to Faiz Mohammed, 40. She had hoped to be a teacher but was forced to quit her classes when she became engaged. Photo Credit: Stephanie Sinclair for the New York Times
The International Center for Research on Women has a wealth of information about child marriages. Visit their online exhibit Too Young To Wed: Child Marriage in their Own Words.
Let us know what you think of the interview.
I want to thank all of you who came to the CAB meeting tonight. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to see your faces and hear your thoughts.
I see some people already made post-CAB comments in the previous post, so I imagined others would follow suit, and I wanted to make a place for all the post-CAB comments. So feel free to share your impressions, feelings, thoughts in this post.
I am sure Marc will write something to you tomorrow.
-Jessica
Hi everyone,
Please note the new header tab above with the words "Protest Links". If you go there, you'll find links to the following sites:
*Marc Steiner is not involved with these websites. We’re just linking to them!*
Bring Marc Steiner Back-A website with information on how to get in touch with underwriters, Community Advisory Board Members, WYPR Board of Director members, and essays on why this firing is important to YOU.
Save Steiner Show-a website run by local activists with information on how to join the daily demonstrations outside of WYPR.
Bring Marc Steiner Back petition-Sign a petition decrying this move by WYPR.
Wear protest threads-Link to a Cafepress store where a listener has set up a tshirt shop supporting Marc Steiner
Support Steiner on Facebook-On Facebook? Join this group to show your support.
Have fun, kids.
-Jessica
Don't miss Marc on the Ed Norris Show on 105.7 WHFS FM today from 10:30-11:30. He's joining them for their news roundup. Call and be part of the show at 410-481-1057 or email theshow@ednorris.com.
-Jessica
Happy Valentines Day, everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful day!
New Poll!
Poll: Are you going to the Feb 20th Community Advisory Board Meeting?
Here is a picture of the Heart Nebula. Isn't it beautiful? If you like this kind of stuff, I highly recommend you hightail it to the Walters Art Museum, where they have a whole exhibition of photographs from the Hubble Telescope.
Big news out today. Looks like Maryland will have two new faces in our Congressional delegation (unless Wayne Gilchrist and Albert Wynn choose to run as Independents and win).
What are your thoughts? This could be the first competitive general election the Eastern Shore has seen in a couple decades. Does a Democrat have a chance on the Shore or is state senator Andy Harris going to sweep into office? What about Republican challengers to Donna Edwards?And of course, Obama wins in Maryland. Did you vote yesterday? I am still registered in Worcester County. I tried to travel home yesterday to vote. I meant to get an absentee ballot, but in the craziness that was my life the past two weeks, I plumb forgot. So I set out for Ocean City at 3:30 yesterday. I hit a wall of traffic several miles from the Bay Bridge and sat there until 6 pm, at which point I realized there was no chance I was going to make it home in time to vote. I won't make the same mistake in November!
This is what we had planned to be discussing for the noon hour on the Steiner Show today. Since we're not there, give us your thoughts HERE.
-Jessica
Did your parents ever give you an incentive to perform well in school? As in, raise your grades and we'll raise your allowance? Or, keep a certain GPA and we'll take you on a vacation? Mine did. Freshman year of college my mom wouldn't let me take my car to the campus first semester-and I wasn't allowed to bring it second semester unless I got a certain GPA. I worked pretty hard to make sure I hit that GPA mark--I needed my car to escape campus every once in awhile.
We all know that lots of parents do this. But when the actual school system gets involved, we get very uncomfortable about the idea of learning having a cash/material reward system. We want education to be pure-for students to be motivated by a love of learning-to learn for learning's sake. But do we need to do a reality check? Do we need to abandon our high ideals and take a look at what is really going on, and maybe adopt a method that stems from a harm-reduction philosophy?
That's what we're talking about today at noon, with Dr. Andres Alonso, live and in studio. Join us!
Poll: What do you think about Dr. Andres Alonso's idea that the school system pay students who improve their test scores?
-Jessica
I remember in 2006 during the race for Maryland's vacant senate seat, a hot debate being sparked on our show when a guest said, "Any black person who votes for a Democrat in this election is a patsy." Oh, the calls that came in for the rest of the hour-people were SO angry!
While it was a comment that probably could have been worded in a much more intelligent way, what it implied was interesting. The implication was that the Democratic party was taking the African American vote for granted by not supporting the candidacy of Kweisi Mfume-and that blacks should vote for the Republican candidate, Michael Steele, an African American. Most of the callers were offended by the very suggestion that the Republican agenda had anything to offer black voters.
But according to statistics, more and more blacks are finding something about the Republican party to interest them. In 1972, fewer than 10 percent of African Americans identified themselves as conservative; today nearly 30 percent-11.2 million-do. Those are the numbers presented by Christopher Alan Bracey in his new book, Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from Booker T. Washington to Condoleezza Rice.He points to the social issues that African Americans tend to be conservative on-abortion and gay marriage for example-and traces the history of politicla conservatism in the Black world. Figures like Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell--what appeal did they find in conservative politics? Why do they remain such polarizing figures? Join us today to discuss.-JessicaP.S. Go here for information on Bracey's event in Howard County this weekend!
Then-Mayor Martin O'Malley at an Earth Day Planting at Gilmor Elementary in 2005
Before I came to work at WYPR, I worked at a documentary company called Soundprint. While I was there, they were working on a series of stories about urban forests that delved into the unique environmental issues that cities face. For the documentary Watershed 263, we attended an Earth Day planting ceremony at Gilmor Elementary in Baltimore. Gilmor was one of a dozen schools in Baltimore that had converted their parking lot into a garden. Things like parking lots and roads are terrible for the environment. When it rains, the rain gathers up all the oil and other pollutants that have been sitting on the pavement and then whooshes it all into a storm-water drain. That all ends up in the Chesapeake, of course, where it wreaks havoc. A garden, on the other hand, keeps that water right there, and puts it to good use. It's a lot of fun for the kids, too, to get a day out of class to get their hands dirty and have a beautiful spot to play.
The purpose of that whole long story was to tell you that on that day, then-Mayor Martin O'Malley was at that school, and ceremoniously planted the first flower in the soil. I remember being impressed that he would find time in a busy schedule to visit a school, make a speech, plant a flower, and hang out with the kids for awhile. I left with the feeling that he cared about the environment.
The impression I was left with would please the now Governor, and those who work to craft his image. He has very purposefully cast himself as a "Green Governer". But what does that term really mean? As the environmental crisis in the Bay and beyond seems to grow more urgent, how does the criteria for being an environmental politician change? What is the gold standard in environmentalism for a politician? What is the leading edge-and is O'Malley on it?
We'll discuss this today with people who all care deeply and have devoted their lives to the environment. Join us, to share your thoughts on what you would like to see happen in Maryland.
Poll: Do you think Governor Martin O'Malley is a Green Governor?
-Jessica
Here are some pictures courtesy of one of our guests today, Gerry Winegrad. His descriptions are below:
1
2
3
1. brown bull headed catfish taken from the South River near Annapolis by USGS. Nearly 2/3rds sampled had these cancerous tumors from water pollutants, most likely from stormwater runoff.
2. BROWN TIDE KILLS 7,000 INNER HARBOR FISHJune 5, 2007 BALTIMORE -- State environmental officials said a lack of oxygen killed thousands of fish in Baltimore's Inner Harbor last weekend.State program director Charles Poukish said the fish kill isthe result of an algae bloom or brown tide.Poukish said the lack of dissolved oxygen is the result of a large bloom of microscopic algae. Recent warm water temperatures killed the algae and that depleted oxygen near the water‘s surface. Massive fish kills also were reported in the Potomac during the summer and other kills in the Magothy and other rivers.
3. rockfish with mycobactreiosis (chronic wasting disease). A wasting disease that kills rockfish and can cause a severe skin infection in humans has spread to nearly three-quarters of the rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, cradle of the mid-Atlantic's most popular game fish.The disease also sends a grim message about the entire bay ecosystem. The rockfish remains bay conservationists' only success story -- a species nearly wiped out, then revived by fishing limits.But as the number of rockfish surged, the fish remained in a body of water too polluted to support the level of life it once did.
Marc has said for years that the best way to address drug and gang related violence in Baltimore is to get ex-offenders, those wise men who have been there and come back to tell the tale, to work in outreach with troubled communities. But there has always seemed to be an institutional and government aversion towards giving money to people who have been in prison. Maybe things just had to get really, really, really bad before that changed.In 2000, Chicago implemented a program that was developed at the University of Illnois School of Public Health in Chicago. This program began in West Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. Police Beat 1115 was chosen as the first CeaseFirezone in large part because of the high number of shootings. The idea was to send ex-offenders, faith leader, and other community members into those neighborhoods to offer conflict resolution, help kids get out of gangs, and whatever else it took to save a neighborhood. In the first year of CeaseFire, shootings in beat 1115 dropped by 67%. In the past few years, CeaseFire has seen continuing success, which you can read about here.
Last year, Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore City Health Department brought Operation Safe Streets to Baltimore. It is a program based on CeaseFire, and we're hearing that the pilot neighborhood has seen a tremendous drop in homicides and shootings. Today at one, we'll talk with people from that community to learn more.
Join us....
As the subprime mortgage mess has gone into major meltdown mode, we're hearing a lot about "predatory lenders" while sympathetic words are being used for the people who are losing their homes.
But at what point do we say, "Wait a second--should these people bear some responsibility for making bad financial choices? Why did they choose a loan that was not good for them? Are they guilty of living beyond their means?"
Ah, living beyond ones means. An American tradition, some would say. Advertisers and credit card companies surely want you to engage in this kind of behavior, and hey, it's good for the economy, which is good for America, right? Or at least that's what we tell ourselves when those $230 Cole Haan shoes at Nordstrom are calling our name.
But at what point does it become too much? If I buy the Cole Haan shoes, or use my credit card to pay for groceries or for my kids school uniform, and then I can't make the payments and my interest rate jumps not only on the credit card I didn't make the payment on but on ALL my credit cards--is that my fault for not being responsible with my money? Or was I lured by dishonest and seductive promises about easy credit and low APR's into thinking that I could spend now, pay later?
And if, as in the case of the subprime debacle, the government intervenes, what message will it send to people? Will it help us become smarter spenders and borrowers, or teach us that we can engage in risky behavior and not bear the consequences?
We're talking about issues of responsibility with debt today, and how our culture thinks about money and credit. The subprime mess has showed us how far this issue reaches. All sectors are hurt, not just those involved with the industry. Is it time for our country to radically transform the way we think about money, credit, and debt?
Join us!
Poll: Who do you think is to blame for the mortgage meltdown?Poll: Should the government intervene to keep people from losing their homes?
-Jessica
Mexicans. That is what many Americans call any person living in America who is from south of our border. But the truth is that many of the people living in our country without permission began their journey south of Mexico-and they had to sneak into that country illegally as well. That is the subject of a new article in this month's National Geographic. Around 400,000 people sneak into Mexico every single year, making Mexico’s southern border feel "like the place in distant water where the wave first rises and swells and gathers uncontainable propulsive force." We'll talk with the author of that article, Cynthia Gorney. Please also check out the photographs of Alex Webb, who traveled with Cynthia as she reported the story.
And then...
There is this cool test on the BBC website I took last week that measures whether or not your senses overlap. As in, do you connect days of the week, letters or numbers with color? Is Thursday always green to you, and is the letter F always red? What the test is really measuring is whether or not you may have a neurological phenomenon called synesthesia. Synesthesia is only beginning to be understand by scientists and the people who have it. There are several different types, the most common called Grapheme-color synesthesia, which is where an individual associates letters and numbers with color. There is also spatial-sequence synesthesia, where numbers have spatial relationships to each other and to you-for example, 18 is further away and to the left, while 9 is rather close and above. There are many other kinds and you can read about them here.
So what is life like for someone with synesthesia? Today we are going to talk with writer Alison Buckholtz, who wrote a great article for Salon.com earlier this week called The Letter E is Purple about her personal experience with the condition-and how she feels about the fact that her son may have it..
Join us!
Baltimore City's 36th police commissioner has a lot of work to do to keep the homicide rate from following last year's trend, when it was the highest since 1999. He's going to be in the studio today to discuss his plans, which include using community engagement, targeted enforcement, and strong partnerships. We're taking your questions for Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld. Join us at Noon.
-Jessica
Baltimore is crazy for HBO's critically acclaimed series The Wire. I think that many citizens of Baltimore secretly enjoy the violent and criminal reputation of the city, that they are perversely proud of it in the way that New Yorkers were of their city before Giuliani cleaned it up. We think it makes us look tough or something. The Wire is a part of that--almost our way of saying to the world, "See how messed up and tough our city is? I bet you couldn't handle this."
It's also just such a great show. Baltimore Sun television critic David Zurawik, who you also hear weekly on WYPR's Take on Television, will be in the studio today to discuss the show. We can also talk about the writer's strike and what it means for the next year of entertainment. Is any end in sight?
Join us, with your questions and comments for David. What do you love or hate most about this new, final season of The Wire? What television show are you going to miss seeing as a result of the writer's strike?
Poll: What do you think of the fifth and final season of The Wire?
-Jessica
P.S. Aaron Henkin of The Signal, our weekly arts and culture show, did a great piece last week where he watched The Wire with former drug dealers and got their thoughts on how real or unreal the depiction of their lives is. Listen to it here.
One of the most interesting things I have read about the situation in Israel and Palestine is a positive observation. The observation is that for the first time in many, many years, the leader of Israel and the leader of Palestine trust each other.
The problem is, perhaps, that their own people may not trust them.
Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, is under investigation for corruption, has been blamed for the loss of the second Lebanon war, and according to some polls, only 8% of Israeli's support his government.
Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, is in a constant fight to keep the Palestinian populace loyal to his Fatah party as opposed to Hamas.
And President Bush, who is meant to help usher these men and their nations towards peace, is generally disliked in the Arab world and due to leave office in a years time.
Is there any hope?
Join us at Noon today to discuss. We're going to talk with Aron Raskas, a Baltimore attorney who is national vice-president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and a director of www.onejerusalem.org, and with Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian columnist/journalist and currently a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, as well as William Kern, Managing Editor of WORLDMEETS.US, a website that provides articles translated into English from an array of international media.
Poll: Do you think this latest push for peace will result in any lasting agreements?
-Jessica
At Noon today, we welcome you to add your opinion to the never ending analysis of the 2008 Presidential election and the results of the Iowa caucus, the New Hampshire primary, and the Wyoming GOP primary. From Obama's surprise victory in Iowa to Hillary's emotional moment to Edward's attempts to keep from becoming completly irrelvent, the Democratic primary has been providing some exciting times. On the GOP side, things are no less exciting, as McCain attempts to accomplish what at times has seen inevitable and at times completly out of the question-to become the Republican candidate for President. Will he be able to get the Republican base to trust him? Only time will tell.
Poll: If the Democratic primary in Maryland were today, who would you vote for?Poll: If the Republican primary in Maryland were today, who would you vote for?
Marc loves Studs Terkel, the great historian, author, broadcaster, and so much more. So whenever he releases a new book or is anywhere near a studio and they offer us an interview, we know the answer is always yes. Recently, he released a memoir called Touch and Go. After decades of telling other people's stories, Studs is finally telling his own. Today at one we bring you an interview with Studs that we recorded before the holidays. It may be the last time we get to speak to this 95 year old American treasure, so don't miss it.
And then we'll talk with Nelson Peery, an author and activist whose latest book is Black Radical: The Education of an American Revolutionary. This book examines the time in this communist's life after he returned home from serving in World War II to the time of the Watts Riots in 1965. He challenges the notion that the Civil Rights Movement in America was led by the clergy elite. Instead, he believes that it was the experiences of black veterans of WWII that gave the movement the mass appeal that it needed to succeed. He joined us to discuss his experiences in the Communist party, the freedom movement, and more.
A great show...today at one. Don't miss it.
We're back, so dry your tears and join us at Noon today for Open Phones. What is on your mind? We're interested. 1-866-661-9309 or 410-662-8780 or email at steinershow@wypr.org. Or leave your comment here.
Time for our annual Holiday Music week. Here is what is coming up!
Monday, December 17th
12-1 pm Lea Gilmore shares her favorite music. Want to check out some of what she played? Here is the playlist.
Baby, It's Cold Outside, performed by Eric Byrd and Lea Gilmore
Santa's Got the Blies, by Denise Lasalle
Please Come Home for Christmas, by Charles Brown
Santa Baby, by Eartha Kitt
All I Want for Christmas is You, by Mariah Carey
This Christmas, by Donny Hathaway
Give Love on Christmas Day, by the Jackson 5
So This is Christmas, by John Lennon
Mary Did You Know, by Clay Aiken
I am Not Forgotten, by Israel and New Breed
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, by Norman Hitchens
Silent Night, by Mahalia Jackson
What a Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong
1-2 pm, Tom Hall shares from of his favorite music.
Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
Come Colors Rise
Thank you, by Dave Brubeck
Gabriel's Message
Yvette in English, by Joni Mitchell
I Wish You Love
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Never Will I Marry
Nine Crimes, Damien Rice
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
Hallelujah Chorus
Tuesday December 18th
12-1 pm Jon Carney is the Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and he brought some of his favorite classical music for us. What did he play?
Edward Elgar conducting the London Symphony- 1st movement of violin concerto featuring Yehudi Menuhin at age 16 - 1931
Vivaldi - Largo from "Winter" of the Quattro Stagioni, Jon's recording w/ the Royal Philharmonic - 1992
Camille St. Saens - from his "organ" symphony (#3) - Jean Martinon and French Radio Symphony - 1975
Michael Nyman - Prospero's Books (miranda) - 1996
Beethoven - slow movement from his opus 135 String Quartet - Guarneri Quartet 1987
Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra - last movement - RPO w/ Danielle Gatti - 1997
Bach - Chaconne for Partita #2 in D minor for solo violin - Henryk Szerying
Fritz Kreisler - "La Gitana" for violin and piano - Jon's own recording w/ his mother on piano - 1995
closing music: Michael Nyman - Quartet #4 - track 14
1-2 pm Jason Willett is the co-owner of the True Vine Record store in Hampden, as well as a member of a litany of fine bands including Leprechaun Catering and Half Japanese. We asked him to bring his favorite Christmas music, and this is what we heard - not quite in the order we heard them, go figure -
James Brown - Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto
Culturcide - Depressed Christmas
Frieder Butzmann - White Christmas
Hybrid Kids - Good King Wenceslaus
James White and the Blacks - Christmas With Satan
The Jethros - I'm Dreaming of a Wide Christmas
Rotary Connection - Opening & Silent Night Chant
finally, 3 awesome song poems called Snowbows, Santa Came on a Nuclear Missile, and Santa Goes Modern
Wednesday, December 19th
12-1 pm Keith Covington is the owner of the New Haven Lounge, one of the best places around to see live jazz. He brought us the gift of great holiday jazz music; here they are in order:
Slim & The Supreme Angels - Precious Lord
Selah Jubilee Singers - When Was Jesus Born
Kenny Burrel - Merry Christmas Baby
Ramsey Lewis - Christmas Blues
David Benoit - Christmas is Coming
Ramsey Lewis - Merry Christmas Baby
Chris Botti - Ave Maria
Dianne Reeves - Carol of the Bells
The Swan Silvertones - I'm Not Tired Yet
Ramsey Lewis - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Bobby Durham - Jingle Bells
Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately?
The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama (not to be confused with the Unoriginal Five Blind Boys of Alabama, seriously they're better) -This May Be the Last Time
1-2 pm Rock and Roll has had something to say about Christmas since the 50's. Former disc jockeys Toby Bray and Michael Butscher came by and spun the following tunes.
Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid
Father Christmas - The Kinks
Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
Step Into Christmas - Elton John
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - Chicago
White Christmas - America
The Christmas Song - Linda Ronstadt
The First Noel - Air Supply
Merry Christmas, Baby - Southern Culture on the Skids
Merry Christmas - The Ramones
Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Please Come Home for Christmas - The Eagles
River - Joni Mitchell
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen
Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Shawn Colvin
The Christmas Song - Nat "King" Cole
Jingle Bells - Frank Sinatra
Let It Snow - Dean Martin
It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - The Jackson Five
Christmas Isn't Christmas (Without the One You Love) - The O'Jays
This Christmas - Donny Hathaway
L'il Saint Nick - The Beach Boys
Thursday, December 20th
12-1 pm Ed Polochick is a busy guy. He's conductor of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska, Artistic Director of the Choral Artists of Baltimore, and Director of Choral Activities at the Peabody Conservatory. He was good enough to find time to come in and share his favorite classical and choral Christmas Music.
The First Noel, from the album Crystal Carols by Dean Shostak
The Holy Boy by John Ireland, from the album A Christmas Garland
Adeste Fideles, by Liszt, performed by Walker Marshall
Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 2, by Robert Shaw, from the album Festival of Carols
Candlelight Carol, from the album Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity, conducted by John Rutter
Christmas Night, Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity, conducted by John Rutter
Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 3, by Robert Shaw, from the album Festival of Carols
Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Concert Artists Symphonic Chorale
Worthy is the Lamb That Was Slain performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Concert Artists Symphonic Chorale
1-2 pm Hopefully you'll have some time to relax during the holidays. And if you do, maybe you'll want to go to the movies...but what to see? Never fear, we've brought together a great panel of film critics to tell you what to see. We'll talk to Violet Glaze of the Baltimore City Paper, Mike Speir from Variety, and Michael Sragrow from the Baltimore Sun.
We really hope you enjoy all of this music and special programming. Happy Holidays!
-Jessica, Justin, Marcus
Time for one of our annual shows. HELICON, a great band that reunites once a year to play an annual winter solstice concert, will be in the studio today from 1-2 to bring you some great music. We'll be hearing Ken Kolodner on hammered dulcimer, hammered mbria and fiddle; Chris Norman on wooden flutes, tin whistle, small pipes and piano; and, Robin Bullock on guitar, cittern, fiddle and piano.
The guys will be playing their 22nd annual concert at Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College, on Saturday, December 15 at 3:30 pm and 8 pm. Go here for more information.
You are psyched. Don't deny it. The hammered dulcimer is hardcore.
Join us today!
In my work as producer for the Just Words series, I've come to believe that inner city mothers are the new stoics. I can't tell you how many times I have asked a mother "How do you deal with all this?" and they just look at me like I am crazy to even imagine that they would take the luxury of considering NOT dealing with it all. I do not know how they do it. Being a mother is hard enough, I imagine. But to be a mother trying to raise a child with drug dealers on the corner,without much money, with the schools in terrible shape and murders on the rise?
That's what we are going to hear about today. We're invited three women who have been featured on the Just Words series. Lorraine Mackey lost her son, Aaron Mackey, to gang violence over a year ago. She's doing everything she can to keep her other son safe, and is trying to pick up the pieces and figure out, what went wrong? Sheilah Cannon's daughter was caught in gang crossfire while going to pick her little brother up from school, and had to spend months in shock trauma. Now Sheila is doing everything she can to find a place she can afford to move her children to. Nargas Hyman began to worry about her eldest son years ago when she saw him and his friends hanging out after school, with nothing to do. She created an afterschool youth program that she is still running, over a decade later, out of her mother's basement.
What do these women go through as they struggle to keep their children safe? We'll find out today. Join us.
To hear Nargas, Sheila, and Lorraine on JUST WORDS, go here.
-Jessica
The Marc Steiner Show is getting into the Christmas spirit with a doorbuster opportunity for you today...A twofer! At one o'clock we're going to bring you two authors in one hour.
First, we're talking with Jonathon Scott Fuqua. When you were a teenager, did you ever have a book that just so perfectly captured your life or your feelings that you read it over and over again? I did. It was Girl, by Blake Nelson and I can't say it so much captured my life as it was the life I wished I had. I also loved Unfinished Portrait of Jessica by Richard Peck. Both of these books are about girls turning into women and how thorny that process can be. Jonathon Scott Fuqua writes books like this. They are books that come as a relief to the people reading them; finally, someone understands! His latest book is called Gone and Back Againand is the story of Caley, a teenager whose dad has a personality disorder and whose brother is handicapped. His parents are divorced and he's been moved all around the country, eventually ending up in Florida, which is where the novel begins. It's a story that draws upon the author's own struggles with depression.
And then we talk with Zakes Mda. He's a writer from South Africa whose work is really about our interactions with history and memory and how we manage those things in the middle of present life. His latest book is Cion, and is about Toloki, the hero from a previous novel, moving to Ohio with his family and learning about his ancestors, runaway slaves.
Join us today at one, for all that!
I'm always shocked when I hear about some stupid group on a college campus having a Pimp's and Ho's party, or a "Ghetto" themed party where you are encouraged to bring 40's in brown paper bags and "wear your favorite gang colors!" I mean, do these people really not get it? Are they really unaware that someone is going to be offended by this? Where is the motivation, anyway? Why do people want to emulate ghetto stereotypes and celebrate the worst of human behavior?
These are the questions that Cora Daniels asks in her most recent book, Ghetto Nation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless. Why do people like Paris Hilton appropriate ghetto attitudes and style? How can corporate America defend it's practices of making so much money off harmful ghetto stereotypes? Do we really live in a world where Pimp and Ho" for children costumes are available? Yes. We sure do.
Let's discuss...at Noon...
In 2004, Joel Hafvenstein went to Afghanistan as part of an aid program to help Afghan opium farmers find alternative ways to make money. Predictably, the program ran into resistance from the area's drug trafficking warlords, and responded with ambushes. Within just a few months, nine of his colleagues were dead.
He's our guest today to talk about his time in Afghanistan, which is chronicled in the new book Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier. It's a really exciting account of his time there, and a quite educational story about the complexities of Afghan society and the larger issue of the problems present in U.S. attempts to bring aid to foreign countries.
So join us, to hear this fascinating story....
A socialist and a capitalist walk into a bar....
The beginning of a joke, right? Not today. Today we have a socialist (A. Robert Kaufman) and a capitalist (Okay, well not specifically a capitalist, but a business writer, so he writes about capitalism and for the most part we're all capitalists, after all....anyway it's Jay Hancock from the Baltimore Sun) and they are coming in together to talk about how they both came to this conclusion: the War on Drugs has failed and must be ended.
Jay Hancock revealed this belief in a column on November 7th. Kaufman has been advocating this for years. They're going to talk about how they came to this conclusion from very different places.
Join us, to share your thoughts on the War on Drugs.
-Jessica
Seems like this week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis has come back from the dead. Everyone was saying that the conference had become irrelevant--that no one was coming, it would only be one day, and it wouldn't make a dent in the enormous amount of work and negotiation that needs to occur between Palestine and Israel.
But things seem to be looking up. As President Bush emphasizes his desire to make peace in the Middle East part of his legacy, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and other nations of the Arab League have agreed to attend.
So looks like we're going to have a bona fide conference. Today at Noon we're going to discuss what issues are going to be at the top of the heap. What are the likely sticking points? What is a reasonable set of things we can hope to see accomplished?
We'll talk with our friend Ali Zaghab, a Palestinian-born local businessman who has joined us many times in the past to discuss these issues, and Dr. Elli Lieberman, a retired Israeli Army major, a PhD in Middle East studies, and a local businessman. We're also going to here an essay on peace and interfaith understanding and love from John Oliver Smith.
So join us. What do you want to see accomplished? Do you feel optimistic?
Today, local author, Goucher professor, and friend Madison Smartt Bell is joining us to discuss his new book Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore. The book is what it sounds like; the author takes us on a walk through Baltimore, pointing out the important cultural, historical, and social points of interest along the way. He visits typical Baltimore tourist spots like the Inner Harbor and Fells Point, but also goes to places off the tourist track, like the vibrant Greenmount Avenue and Greenmount Cemetery.
Producer Justin went out with him last week and captured the sounds of some of these spots...we'll be playing those on the air today while we talk with Madison. So join us with your comments, questions, and stories of your favorite parts of the city!
Well, I hope if any of you aren't members, you will become one after today, because we're gonna be running up the phone bill here at WYPR!
First--we're going to go to Iraq, to talk with Nancy Youssef of the McClatchy papers. She's going to share her first-hand perspective of the political and security situation in that country.
Then, we're traveling to Pakistan. We're going to talk to Shahan Mufti of the Christian Science Monitor, who is reporting from Pakistan. We'll also talk to Washington College professor Tahir Shad, a Pakistani who is currently in Argentina. And we'll talk with Kamran Asdar Ali, a Pakistani and professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas. What do you want to know about the situation in Iraq and Pakistan? Bring them to the show!
Can I let you in on a little secret? I am loving the housing slump. It is my favorite thing in the world. I hope it just keeps falling and falling. I, of course, am a prospective buyer. But you, the owner, are cursing me for celebrating the loss you are experiencing in your net worth!
The differences in our attitudes explains in part why it is so hard to come to a consensus about the economy and how it is doing. In my eyes, the economy was flying so high that someone like me, young and without much money, couldn't really get my foot in the door and buy stocks or a house. It was not an economy that was friendly to beginners. I felt priced out of that economy. But to someone whose foot was in the door already, the economy was perfect-great-never been better!
We're going to talk today with people who have different ideas about what the economy we have today means. Does the housing slump portend a recession-or is the market just correcting itself? Are oil prices rising higher and higher because of actual supply and demand issues, or is it market manipulation? Why does the Federal Reserve seem so optimistic? And what role do hedge funds play in alll this?
Join us...with your comments and questions...or offers to sell me your house at a reduced price!
Disaster capitalism. What an interesting phrase. It's the topic of Naomi Klein's new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. What is disaster capitalism? It's things like Blackwater, or the privatization of New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina, or Haliburton and the rebuilding of Iraq. It is the world in which private companies profit from disasters, natural or man-made.
Is this an example of the triumph of the global free market? Or evidence that some of the events of the past decades have been engineered to profit certain corporations?
Join us as we speak with Naomi Klein....and watch a short video inspired by the book.
And then, we take a look at the special session in Annapolis. Is deal making and compromise occuring? Will slots pass? Will corporations and those with high incomes be paying more in taxes? We'll talk with WYPR's Senior News Analyst Fraser Smith and Kevin Dayhoff, columnist for The Tentacle.
Join us!
-Jessica
Sister Helen Prejean is our guest today. She's the nun whose work with death row inmates was profiled in the Academy Award winning movie Dead Man Walking. She joined Marc to talk about the death penalty, and why she believes it is not only morally wrong but replete with racial, economic, and geographic disparity as a result of a broken judicial system.
Today we're discussing what is probably one of the uglier topics to be discussed. Rape.
Some interesting things in the news lately:
Students at University of Maryland are protesting because they feel they should be able to name their alleged assailants on a public forum. The University of Maryland disagrees. Learn more.
The Court of Appeals is currently considering a case, Baby v. State (pdf)that came to them from the Court of Special Appeals that says that post-penetration rape basically doesn't exist. Maryland currently says that if a woman gives or indicates initial consent, she cannot withdraw it after she is penetrated. Why? According to the Court of Special Appeals, which based their unwillingness to call this rape based on the outcome of a 198o case Battle v. State:
“The concept, undergirding the Battle holding, rooted in ancient laws by English common law, views the initial ‘deflowering’ of as the real harm or insult which must be redressed by compensating, in legal contemplation, the injured party – the father or husband. … [I]t was the act of penetration that was the essence of the crime of rape; after this initial infringement upon the responsible male’s interest in a woman’s sexual and reproductive functions, any further injury was considered to be less consequential."
-from Court of Special Appeals, Opinion by J. Davis, filed February 9, 2007
I mean WOW, just WOW. Right?
Join us today. We're going to be talking about rape in the modern world--how we deal with it socially and legally. How does our culture treat people who allege they were victimized? How do we treat alleged assailants?
Here is a link to the op-edwritten in The Baltimore Sun by Glenn Sacks, one of our guests, in which he supports the University of Maryland's decision to deny protesters a forum to publicly name alleged rapists.
Bring your comments and questions....
Today we are talking with one of the finest photographers working in journalism today.
Her name is Diana Walker and she is a contract photographer for Time Magazine. She's spent over two decades covering the White House, and has photographed Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Today she is joining us because of her new book The Bigger Picture: 30 years of Portraits. It's an amazing book, and she is full of amazing stories of behind the scenes on the campaign trail and behind the public face of public officials.
National Geographic, which published the book, was kind enough to share with us some of the photographs in the book. Just click here to check them out!
Want to meet Diana? She'll be doing a talk and book signing at Politics & Prose in Washington D.C. on November 11th. Call 202.364.1919 for more information.
-Jessica
When this book came in, I was immediately transfixed. We get a lot of books coming through everyday, and when a pretty one comes in, it's a nice break from the policy tomes we see all the time. But this book goes so far beyond that. It is way more than pretty pictures. It's a poetic argument in favor of reinvigorating architecture with a sense of purpose and spirit. It's a passionate plea from an architect who is seeing our world become increasingly devoid of metaphor and grace.
This book is so visually stunning, and the conversation is bound to focus on a lot of the images of the buildings that Travis Price has designed and built. He was kind enough to let us use some of his images to create a little visual exploration for our blog readers. Just click here and enjoy!
Join us on air or here in the blog to talk about your favorite buildings, what you think about American design today, and whether or not you think our world has lost it's way in terms of design.
And don't forget to become or renew your membership!
Today at noon we are talking with 1/2 of Maryland's representation in the House. We'll hear from Chris Van Hollen, Elijah Cummings, Wayne Gilchrist, and John Sarbanes. Topics? Iraq, SCHIP, Iran, veterans issues, and whatever you choose to bring to the table!
Today we're going to return to a topic we've been covering since the story broke, and that's the case of wounded soldiers being discharged from the Army under Chapter 5-13 "Personality Disorder." This enables the Army to avoid paying medical and disability benefits for these soldiers. It was being applied despite the fact that these men passed the Army's rigorous psychological entrance examinations and displayed no prior evidence of mental disorders. Joshua Kors from The Nation is the one who broke this story (the original article is here, and he's back with an update, which you can read here. We'll also be joined by Congressman Phil Harefrom Illinois, who has introduced legislation to stop this kind of discharge, and from Congressman Bob Filner from California, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
We'll also have a statement from the Army. They declined to come on live. You can read their statement here. You can also read the statement they sent us on March 27, 2007 here.
-Jessica
Beverly McIver "Oh Happy Day" 2001 Oil on Canvas 60 x 55 3/4 in.
I first became aware of Beverly McIver in the November 2006 episode of Art News. The images of her paintings stopped me on my tracks. She depicted herself, a black woman, in black-face. She played off the "Mammy" stereotype. She painting herself dancing with a white man, but scratched her face out. She painted portraits of her mentally handicapped sister, whom she is the primary caregiver for.
I have ambivalent feelings about contemporary art. I walked into a museum in Paris once where a whole room was filled with a table that had potatoes dumped on it, with wires going in and out of the potatoes. At that moment, I sort of broke up with contemporary art. So much of it feels derivative and irrelevant to me. So much of it is absurd and almost obscene in how removed from any real sense of aesthetics it is. Her art escapes that. To me it has both contextual and technical beauty and worth. It is brave and actually manages to shock and unsettle without resorting to ridiculous extremes in terms of medium. So when the card announcing her October show at the C. Grimaldis Gallery came, I told Marc, "You have no choice. You are interviewing this woman!" and he intelligently agreed with me.
I've prepared a page with some of her work on it. Click here. I hope you like her stuff as much as I do.
-Jessica
Are Pit Bulls just destined to be more aggressive and violent? Or do they only become that way because they have bad owners? Are laws regulating Pit Bulls unfair? Or do they provide needed protection for people? Lots of people get mauled by dogs each year. I can think of three cases in Baltimore City that got press just this summer. Two of the victims were seven year old children. Today we will talk with people on different sides of this issue.
Let us know if you have a Pit Bull story, as an owner, or someone who knows a Pit Bull. Good or bad experiences, share them here.
"Why is the Steiner Show having a candidate on?" You might say. "The elections are over! Dixon and Rawlings-Blake won!"
Ah, Baltimore. Where the primary decides it all. Or at least that's the accepted wisdom. Maria Allwine would have it differently. She's running as a Green Party candidate for President of the Baltimore City Council.
People loved her at our debates (go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the links to listen). Her comments elicited lots of applause and cheering, especially when she talked about the War on Drugs and her anger at the treatment developers get and affordable housing. A lot of people seemed to like what she was selling. Is she going to surprise all of us in this election by doing better than expected?
Join us with your comments and questions for Ms. Allwine, today at One.
from the New York Times. Read the accompanying article here.
California is one of those places that sets trends. Making restaurants smoke free...the fitness craze..."green living" and nutrition. And if you think about it, they also show us what problems the rest of the country can expect. Illegal immigration, water shortages, gang activity, a real estate market more and more people are getting priced out of....California began to struggle with these problems before anyone else.
With that in mind we were interested when we heard about a documentary that will air on the Discovery Channel on Sunday at 9pm called Breaking Point. It is an investigation into the problems of overcrowding in California prisons. Those prisons were built to house about 100,000 people. Today they have more than 170,000 inmates. Prisoners are being segregated by race and gang affiliation in an attempt to keep some kind of peace. Inmates are sleeping on cots in hallways and gyms. And it costs as much to house, clothe, and feed a prisoner each year as it does to send someone to Harvard.
We'll talk with Ted Koppel who hosted and produced this documentary, and James Blue, an award w
inning producer who worked on the documentary who just happens to live in Baltimore!
and then....
"I'm coming for you, WYPR."
He's not seeking the Democratic nomination for President of the United States this time around, but he still has a LOT to say about leadership, citizenship, and politics in America. Marc talks with retired General Wesley Clark about his new book A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country.
-Jessica
When they came out with the "new money" a couple of years ago, there were massive technological advancements in the bills in order to deter counterfeiting. I think on the whole the American public feels very confident about our money. When I am given change I don't inspect it, and when I give money to a clerk, unless it is a $100 bill, they don't inspect it. It just changes hands without so much as a cursory glance.
Now put yourself in the early 1800's. You go down to Ye Olde Shoppe to purchase some dry goods. You present the shop-keep with a one dollar bill from the Fairhaven Bank, a respected banking institution in Massachusetts. The shop-keep reaches behind the counter and pulls out a pamphlet called a counterfeit detector. He goes through the book, which includes a page that says that the Fairhaven bank has several known counterfeits. He inspects your bill, checks the pamphlet, inspects your bill again. Finally, he declares that he cannot be sure this is not a counterfeit. He'll still accept your bill-but not for the full price. You haggle with the shop-keep until you both finally agree on a reduced value of the bill, and then you purchase your item, receive less change then you had hoped, and you exit the shop.
Can you imagine? In a time when money was printed not by a central government branch but instead by individual banks, counterfeiting was a great way to "make money" (you love my puns). We'll learn today at one o'clock of the political and cultural system that allowed such a situation to develop. Why did the government shy away from creating it's own money? What caused us to develop the system we have today? We'll talk with author Stephen Mihm, whose new book is A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States.
I'll be honest. I originally decided to do a segment on Banned Books Week because I was fishing around for a last minute show idea. I thought, "Oh, this will be interesting. We can talk about all the great classics that were once banned!"
Basically, I equated the practice of banning books with history. As in, that doesn't happen anymore.
Oh boy, was I wrong.
Do you know the federal government is banning some books in prisons? Or that books about gay penguins are being challenged in libraries across the country? I remember a series of books I loved when I was a preteen. It was a series about a girl named Alice and her two best friends by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I loved this series. The main character was wondering all the same things I was, feeling all the same things I did, was perplexed by everything I was perplexed by. It felt like having a friend. It made me feel less alone, and safe. I was looking at the list of the 10 most challenged books of 2006, and the Alice series is STILL on it! The books started being written in the 80's!
Now on the other hand, I was in a bookstore last week and I went into the young adult section and I have to admit, I was pretty horrified. Some of the titles and covers were shockingly grownup and seemed to encourage girls to subscribe to a mindset where pretty, popular, sexy, and sophisticated is all that matters. I grabbed one of the books from the Gossip Girl series and leafed through it. Scotch, sex, smoking. All of these things were discussed casually or actually occurred in the first 10 pages of this book. I certainly don't think I would want my (nonexistent) daughter reading this book.
But I guess I feel like that is a choice I as a parent should make. Not the government. What do you think? Did you realize we lived in a world where Toni Morrison still has two books on the most challenged list?
Palin, Palin, Palin. The mainstream media is obsessed and the feminist blogosphere has been very interested in the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. On many feminist blogs you'll see questions like "Is Sarah Palin a feminist?" or "Can someone who was given a free ride break a glass ceiling?" and an old favorite "Can someone who doesn't support reproductive choice be a feminist?" The Palin pick may cause a feminist identity crisis just as the Obama-Clinton primary season did.
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Beverly McIver "Oh Happy Day" 2001 Oil on Canvas 60 x 55 3/4 in.
I first became aware of Beverly McIver in the November 2006 episode of 
