February 2008
27 posts
5 tags
Move On Up, with Marva
Kate Moos, Managing Producer I can’t think of my mother without thinking of Mahalia Jackson’s recording of “Move On Up a Little Higher”, with its promise of seeing one’s loving mother in heaven, and its crazy-ecstatic refrain, It’ll be always howdy howdy and never goodbye, that makes me just fall apart. The heart-stopping idea is that loss is erased, that...
6 tags
Your Help Is Our Musical Gain
Mitch Hanley, Senior Producer Just a few notes regarding the songs on this week’s SOF Playlist. Thanks, to Padraig for his suggestion of Lasairfhiona Ní Chonaola’s music, which I was able to find and place in this week’s program. Also, many thanks to Gerard O’Shea who wrote about attending a John O’Donohue memorial in his blog. In which he mentions that at the end of...
11 tags
John O'Donohue's Landscape
Colleen Scheck, Producer One of the exciting aspects of my job as a producer is the opportunities our web site opens up for multimedia content. As soon as we started producing this week’s program, I wanted our audience to be able to see the Irish landscape John O’Donohue described in his conversation with Krista. I desperately wanted to see it. I’m of Irish ancestry (75%!, I’d proudly tell people...
8 tags
11 tags
Poems of a Late Wandering Irishman
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor One thing we know about our fan base — they (you?) love words, especially poesy. The response to Tess Gallagher’s poem about her time with Thich Nhat Hanh made that clear. So, in one of Krista’s limited face-to-face interviews (see Shiraz’s post about what a more typical interview looks like), she was regaled by the lilting tongue and picturesque...
6 tags
Calling Up the Elephant Lady
Rob McGinley Myers, Associate Producer As the newest member of the Speaking of Faith staff (I’ve been working for the show for almost 3 months now), I’m still navigating the somewhat awkward transition from fan to employee. This week’s upcoming show really brought that into relief. Before I got this job, Whale Songs and Elephant Loves was perhaps my favorite show in the history...
7 tags
Interview Day. Do You Know the Way?
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer Most of the interviews Krista does with her guests are remote interviews, meaning that we’re here in our studios while our guest is in another studio in another city. We connect through the magic of technology using a broadcast-quality line. From Studio P at American Public Media, Krista interviews Steve Waldman, founder of Beliefnet, on some of the themes...
5 tags
For Muslim Students, a Debate on Inclusion →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer One of our recent shows featured Ed Husain, an ex-member of radical student Islamist groups in Britain in the 1990s. The natural question for American listeners is, “What about the college scene here, now?” Neil MacFarquhar does a piece on this very question in the New York Times. “Experts in American Islam believe college campuses have become...
8 tags
“Whenever I was on the plane heading to Washington, my wife was kind of looking...”
– — Andy Pettitte, All-Star pitcher for the New York Yankees, at a press conference several days after he gave a deposition to a congressional committee testifying that he used HGH in 2002 and 2004. The verses read: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority...
4 tags
Martial Arts Meets Ethical Living
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer I’ve been really drawn to this idea, brought to our attention by a listener, of the Ultimate Black Belt Test. It’s a very intense 13-month martial-arts training course. This course involves many things, some more traditionally “martial” than others: 1,000 rounds of sparring, 10,000 push-ups, and other grueling physical exercises. Having...
6 tags
5 tags
Taking Play Seriously
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor Our program on the spirit of play continues to garner attention. This time Krista’s appearance at the New York Public Library with Stuart Brown is the entry point for Robin Marantz Henig’s long-form piece in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. The program’s trajectory has been a curious one, with a long tail no doubt. I watched the PUSH...
5 tags
Language Is Never Innocent →
Kate Moos, Managing Producer The former New York Times and Bloomberg journalist Doug McGill is someone we have tried to have on the show a few times and will certainly have on at some point. Schedules just kept getting in the way — mainly ours, come to think of it. He writes wisely and compassionately about communications and the responsibilities of people who get paid to communicate, and he...
7 tags
3 tags
“Unfortunately, it’s an existential question. It’s far more important...”
– — said by Kate Moos when discussing how to implement the American Public Media brand more effectively in working with potential guests and media companies Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
5 tags
Krista and SoF as Blogonauts →
Kate Moos, Managing Producer The blogosphere serves many masters. A personal space for rumination and reflection. An op-ed page. A “Dear Diary” for the literary aspirant. A free training ground for the next great essayist. Not wanting to blog a dead horse, but as new as we are to blogging here at SoF, we are now blogging hand over fist. This week Krista is the featured author-blogger...
3 tags
On the Archbishop of Canterbury →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer Our recent guest Ed Husain brought this to our attention: British scholar Abdal Hakim Murad (originally T.J. Winter) weighs in on the latest controversy, this one about comments the Archbishop of Canterbury made regarding shariah law in Britain.
4 tags
Generating Some Discussion on WNYC
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor Brian Lehrer interviewed Krista for his daily program on WNYC this morning. As a listener, I was appreciative that he read her book and asked open, insightful questions. (Sure, I’m guilty of being a little bit protective since I work with her. *grin*) The interview generated some engaging — and sometimes loud — discussion on their Web site. You can listen to the...
8 tags
4 tags
The Association of Religion Data Archives →
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor I know, I know. The title of this post doesn’t necessarily grab you like a YouTube video labeled “puppies do backflips on spinning wheel in lake.” But if you look beneath the hood of this Dodge Dart, you’ll find an amazing amount of information and some telling graphics. And, you don’t have to be a researcher or a pollster to appreciate...
