Best of Public Radio

Host Ellis Cose profiles survivors of foster care, including two sisters who, in 2009, graduated from Smith and Virginia Polytechnic respectively. Abandoned by their parents, the two girls were taken in by another aunt. Overwhelmed by her own life, she put them into foster care. Then she committed suicide. Despite all, they persevered and are doing well. We also meet two brothers whose father murdered their mother before their eyes. Despite the trauma, the brothers have thrived. One is studying and working in London. The other is a teacher and a coach. The triumphs of these young people are truly inspirational, but their stories also serve to raise larger questions about foster care in America.

In "Nerds in the Hood," we meet young people from some of America's toughest streets, who, despite their backgrounds, have managed to become exemplary achievers. We hear from former drug dealer Walter Simon, whose business cost him his legs, but whose second act includes study at UCLA. And the show also introduces others who, with the help of some special mentors, have transformed their lives in similar ways.

In "Breaking the Bonds of Tradition," we hear about several remarkable people in India who have said "no" to prejudice and low expectations. The show profiles a Dalit (i.e., Untouchable) leader who provides scores of young people from poor villages with their first chance ever of receiving an education with dignity. We are introduced to a group of women widowed by the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots of 2002. Next, the program shares the stories of women in other poor villages and through their various enterprises they are overcoming centuries of male chauvinism en route to re-creating their own lives and a better future for their children.

"Hope on a Pile of Bones" introduces a range of people who are building the new Rwanda. It profiles a young genocide survivor who escaped the slaughter by pretending to be a woman. That young man is now studying sociology to better understand what happened to his country. We also meet an Anglican archbishop who has built a boarding school for orphans and has founded a village where victims and perpetrators live in harmony. Finally, we meet a group of remarkable individuals on a mission to build a new medical school. April 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.

For each of the families of "Five Farms," the question looms large: Who will take over the farm? "Family Farm" features the next generation — the young people in each farm family. Who will continue to farm, who won't, and why? Some have gone away to college or to explore work off the farm, and have returned with new ideas and new energy. Others leave farming for good. The program also explores community connections that are part of rural life.

Autumn is harvest time. That means Iowa corn and soybeans; fruit dried in the California sun; greens, beans, and potatoes; slaughtered hogs and beef trucked to market. It also means Thanksgiving turkeys. "Harvest" follows the families to the grain elevator, the farmers markets and, in a welcome break from work, the State Fair. It's the time of summing up after the long growing season, — the time to decide whether the gamble of early spring planting season has paid off.

"Stewardship" focuses on the daily choices farming families make to preserve their land, water and air — the fundamentals of farming. During mid-summer visits to a Massachusetts milking barn, an Iowa soybean field, an apricot orchard in California, a hog farm in North Carolina and a desert corn field in Arizona, five families describe and demonstrate what sustainability means on their farms.

Early summer is a time of long days on the family farm, perfect for nurturing crops and animals as they approach the peak of growing season. "Growing" illuminates the daily work of farming through the parents and children in each farm family. It also reveals the distinctive challenges and joys of raising a family — and growing up — in farm country.

Spring planting on the family farm is the time of the annual gamble — on the alchemies of nature, the health of livestock, on future fall harvest market prices. "Planting" introduces five families who are among the one-percent of Americans who live and work on farms: the Griffieon family of Iowa; the Pecusas of Hopi, Arizona; the Mains of northern California; the Wise family of North Carolina; and the Hagers, western Massachusetts dairy farmers.

Mark Twain called India a place of “splendor and rags…palaces and hovels…famine and pestilence.” A century later in this one-hour documentary, David Brown and an award-winning team of reporters follow in Twain’s footsteps. They find Twain’s land of “fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty” now faces enormous challenges in its quest for superpower status. Nuclear-armed and IT-driven, India is battling vast social inequalities as well as the consequences of the global financial crisis, and the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. What does this mean for India, the United States and the world? This is a Stanley Foundation production in association with KQED Public Radio and KUT Austin.

Join host Majora Carter as she travels from California to New York to Northern Ireland, navigating the intersection of environmental, social, and health issues. She takes us to her Bronx neighborhood, one of the nation’s poorest congressional districts, where construction of the new Yankee Stadium on the site of a 100-year-old park (the so-called “Central Park of the Bronx”) has raised questions about how resources are best spent in our communities. She travels to east Belfast, where the Connswater Community Greenway is underway, a £30 million project that will bring new parks, bridges, and walkways to one of the most underserved areas of Northern Ireland. In Los Angeles, she pays a visit to Andy Lipkis and his group, TreePeople. They are changing the way the city looks and works by fostering green approaches to urban life. She gets a tour of a pilot project for water reclamation and a forest planted with giant redwoods — in the middle of L.A. Majora talks to Robert Redford, active in environmental and ecological matters for some 40 years, about his work, learning why he spends his time and energy on such causes and where he thinks we’re headed.

Hosted by Carl Hancock Rux, "Walt Whitman: Song of Myself" explores how a 36-year old freelance journalist and part-time house-builder living in Brooklyn created his outrageous, groundbreaking work “Leaves of Grass.” We join Whitman on a walk through the urban streets, imagining the sights, sounds and music that profoundly affected him and indelibly shaped his poetry. In this hour-long special, Rux speaks with writers, poets, musicians, and scholars who tell the story of this extraordinary, self-styled celebrity. Guests include writers Michael Cunningham and Phillip Lopate; poets Martin Espada, hailed by some as a contemporary Whitman, and Ishle Yi Park, Queens poet laureate; composers John Adams and Ned Rorem; choreographer Bill T. Jones; Whitman scholars Karen Karbiener and David Reynolds; and many, many others. Actors including Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giammatti share readings of Whitman's poetry, which, one hundred and fifty years on, still astonishes.

Guests include Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, on microloans, Greg Mortenson, building schools for Muslim girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Jeffrey Sachs on the economics of ending poverty, Naomi Klein with a critique of global capitalism, Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in economics on the role of economics and Sermon from Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

Guests include Richard Davidson, the Dalai Lama's favorite psychologist, on meditation and its affects on the brain, Jill Bolte Taylor, a top brain scientist, on finding God through her own massive stroke, Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of the country's leading researchers in Positive Psychology and Al Green, soul and gospel legend speaking about love and happiness. The show also features a discussion of the report on the GNH (Gross National Happiness) Movement from Bhutan and a session with India's famous Laughing Guru in which Jim Fleming gets a lesson in daily laughter.

Guests include Jane Goodall on primates and activism, Geir Haarde, president of Iceland, on his country's hydrogen economy, Paul Hawken, head of the PAX Group and the Natural Capital Institute, Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, on planting trees, Thomas Friedman, "New York Times" columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, on the environment as foreign policy and DJ Spooky, aka that subliminal kid with an acoustic portrait of a melting Antarctic.

Guests include Lawrence Lessig, founder of the Creative Commons, Ward Cunnigham, inventor of the wiki, Katie Salen, designing the world's first public school based on computer games for grades 6–12, James Hughes on his radical vision of our "post-human future" and Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT Media Lab, on the $100 laptop for the developing world.

Born in 1922, Rose Marie McCoy grew up in a tin shack in rural Arkansas. By the 1960s, she had become one of the most prolific songwriters of her generation. McCoy's songs have been recorded by Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Dizzy Gillespie, Ike & Tina Turner, Ruth Brown, James Brown, Bette Midler, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Mathis and Aretha Franklin. Her success was even more remarkable since she worked in an era when blacks and women were largely excluded from the business side of the music industry. But despite publishing over 850 songs, McCoy remains largely unknown. Hosted by singer-songwriter Maxine Brown, "Lady Writes the Blues: The Rose Marie McCoy Story" shines a long overdue spotlight on McCoy, presenting interviews with such iconic performers as Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Scott and McCoy herself and includes previously unreleased songs and a rare recording of McCoy performing in her final concert at the age of 86.

Miles Davis released his landmark jazz recording Kind Of Blue on August 17th, 1959 and 50 years later, it is not only considered on of the most important jazz albums ever recorded, but is also the best selling jazz album of all time. In October 2008, Kind Of Blue was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album's influence has reached beyond jazz and many rock musicians through the decades have taken their inspiration from Kind of Blue. In this 50th Anniversary commemoration of Kind of Blue, we’ll hear interviews with Miles Davis contemporaries Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Cobb, Jackie McLean and others, plus lots of great music.

From The Kitchen Sisters and PRX comes a new Black History Month Special with host, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress, Alfre Woodard. These stories come from The Kitchen Sisters collection -- stories of black pioneers, self-made men and self-taught women, neighborhood heroes and visionaries, people who said "yes we can" and then did. A man tapes the history of his town with a scavenged cassette recorder, a woman fights for social justice with a pie, a DJ ignites his community with a sound. Join us for this richly produced and deeply layered hour long special that resonates for Black History Month, or any month.

It’s more that four decades since Martin Luther King said "we, as a people, will get to the promised land" — words that still ring in our ears, especially as we celebrate what would have been Dr. King’s 80th birthday. Activist, environmentalist, humanitarian Majora Carter gauges the reach of King’s influence. How far have we come? What has been the impact on our kids? On our communities?

CAROLE KING: TAPESTRY is a one-hour radio special that tells the story of Carole King's classic album, Tapestry through its songs and insightful interviews with Carole King, producer Lou Adler, her friend Graham Nash and journalist David Wild of Rolling Stone. Their comments touch on nearly every aspect of the album's production, its impact on the music industry, Carole King's songwriting process, and how her career developed from the Brill Building to Tapestry and beyond. Besides the album tracks, you will also hear bonus live performances.

Nancy Sinatra hosts this one-hour special looking back at Frank Sinatra's early years (1939-1952). During this often-overlooked period of his life, Sinatra first recorded many of the songs that we now regard as the great pop standards. Music from his Bluebird and Columbia catalogs are featured among comments by Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, historian Chuck Granata, and even some archival clips from "Ol' Blue Eyes," himself.

This one-hour radio special looks back on Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's influence on the music and culture of Philadelphia. 2008 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff discuss the history of their collaboration, the stories behind their biggest hits, and their successful community development projects throughout Philadelphia. Legendary Philadelphia International Records artists Teddy Pendergrass, Patti Labelle and Billy Paul also chime in about their work with Gamble & Huff.

This one-hour radio documentary explores Benny Goodman's life and music, and the impact it had on both jazz and popular culture. Once upon a time in America, Jazz music was the chart topping mainstream music of the day. Jazz bands travelled the country, spreading swing and soul to huge crowds. At the top of the superstar list was a man titled "The King of Swing," clarinetist Benny Goodman. From the mid 1930's to the early 40's, Goodman led bands from big to small, but his influence went far beyond music. He was the first popular national artist to integrate his musicians on stage and screen. In this one-hour radio special, host Gary Walker (WBGO-FM, Newark, NJ) will lead you through this part of Goodman's live and music.

FATS WALLER: IF YOU GOTTA ASK is a one-hour music intensive documentary about Fats Waller, one of America's great composers and performers of the 20th century. His songs, stride piano style and on-stage and on-screen antics were legendary and made him one of the first African-American superstars. Count Basie sat at his feet to learn, Art Tatum considered Fats the best, and Waller's stride style influenced Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck and many others. During this documentary, host Dick Hyman talks with Murray Horowitz, who wrote the play “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, pianists Eric Reed and Judy Carmicheal and a lot of great music.