December 2009
23 posts
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“I saw it as a sign from God that this was the right thing to do.”
– —Urban Meyer, head coach of the University of Florida football team, on his 18-year-old daughter’s jubilant reaction (“I get my daddy back!”) when he told their family on Christmas day that he is stepping down from his position.
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How I Am Preparing to Get Alzheimer’s Disease
by Alanna Shaikh, guest contributor
My father has Alzheimer’s disease. I am losing him in inches and pieces. It hurts. He is my hero and my mentor, and now I help him remember how to put on his clothes every morning.
My father has Alzheimer’s disease. There is a powerful genetic component to the disease, and I share a lot of my father’s risk factors, including bad triglycerides, a viral...
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Fact-checking Sitting Bull
by Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
We’re nearing the finish line of a new show: “Reimagining Sitting Bull, Tatanka Iyotake” (that’s Sitting Bull’s name in Lakota). This program has been a year-and-a-half in the making, and we’re eager to put it out in the world. Kate, our managing producer, has said she’s always known a show about Sitting Bull would create...
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WatchOffice Chair Exploration Andy Dayton, associate web producer
One part that stood out to me from Krista’s conversation with Bill McKibben was his statement that “we’re going to have to learn to do a lot more travel via Google than American Airlines.” I was a bit skeptical of the idea that virtual globe-trotting could ever replace experiencing a different landscape and...
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“I feel more of these questions have been answered by being able to listen to...”
– —Abigail Mente, who submitted this reflection after listening to the Muslim voices featured in our programs “Revealing Ramadan” and “Living Islam.”
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Thich Nhat Hanh Followers Harrassed →
Kate Moos, managing producer
For a few weeks I’ve been tracking scanty headlines out of Viet Nam about the harassment of followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk whom we interviewed in 2003. He was forced out of his native country decades ago because of his opposition to the Vietnamese War and lived in exile, primarily in France. A few years ago, he was allowed to return on a visit...
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Hanukkah in the Heartland
Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
Last night was the first night of Hanukkah — the Jewish festival of lights. I’ve been so busy burning the midnight oil (that’s a Hanukkah joke, by the way) for next week’s show on Sitting Bull, I haven’t made any formal plans to celebrate. Last December, a friend organized a Hanukkah throw-down replete with piles of steaming latkes and...
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Fact-checking Climate Change
Colleen Scheck, Producer
The image to the right (larger version) is a scan of one of the pages from our script that I marked up during our last editorial listen for “The Moral Math of Climate Change.” It may not seem like it, but one of the very interesting aspects of working as a producer is fact-checking scripts and interviews to ensure that what we present to our audience is...
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Climate Change Explained in Four Minutes »...
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Approaching Improv
by Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
Anoushka Shankar performs at the Wychwood Music Festival in 2007. (photo: Damian Rafferty/Fly)
While listening to a classic SOF program, “Approaching Prayer” last week, I was struck by musician Anoushka Shankar’s wise words about improvisation:
“…when you’re improvising, it completely forces you to be in the moment, and...
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“I started praying when I came to Treasury. At Goldman, I didn’t pray. Not...”
– —Neel Kashkari, as quoted in “The $700 Billion Man.” Known as the “bailout czar,” Kashkari was appointed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in October 2008 to head the Office for Financial Stability, which oversaw the $700 billion program that bought distressed assets...
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Scheduling Changes in Boston
Trent Gilliss, online editor
There’s a lot of activity in Boston these days. We recently learned that WGBH will now be carrying Speaking of Faith on Sundays at 7 a.m. Yeah!
Also, later this week WBUR made significant changes to their weekend schedule, including moving SOF from noon on Sunday to the 6 a.m. time slot that same day. If you have opinions on this decision to move SOF from...
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One Man's Trash, Another Man's Treasure
by Colleen Scheck, producer
I was watching television news on the couch with my 10-year-old nephew last weekend and was captivated by a segment that profiled the work of Dan Phillips, a 64 year-old man from Huntsville, Texas who builds low-income houses out of trash. Yep, trash.
The segment has stuck with me in a few ways during this week’s production activities. Phillips’ work...
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Guided by Orisas
Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
While in New York over Thanksgiving, I saw Fela!, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones — a new musical on Broadway that celebrates the life and legacy of Fela Kuti, a Nigerian-born musician who pioneered a new form of music called Afrobeat in the 1970s. Fela frequently used his music to condemn the corrupt military regime that held power in his...
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WatchIn the Room, with Doris Taylor Trent Gilliss, online editor
Unfortunately, one of Krista’s recent interviews wasn’t available for viewing by the time “Stem Cells, Untold Stories” was available for download and broadcast. I say unfortunate because it’s a rare opportunity when Krista is able to interview a guest in our home studios at Minnesota Public Radio — and...
