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1.05.17: Presidential Kids, Half Wild, & 10MWW

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The framers of American democracy rejected monarchy and its tradition of passing power through bloodline ...that has not stopped presidents past from relying on their kids. Today, Brady Carlson on first children who've made presidential politics a family business. 

Also today, hold-outs, hippies, haves and have-nots live side-by-side in a collection of stories set in Vermont...not the picture postcard version.

Plus, the 10-Minute Writer's Workshop talks with a longtime copy writer for the LL Bean catalog.  

Listen to the full show. 

Presidential Kids

Donald Trump's candidacy, conduct and communication style are historically unprecedented. So, news announcement that his wife Melania will not move directly to the white house after the inauguration but that his daughter Ivanka will have an office there, and that family members may sit in on cabinet meetings was not entirely surprising. And, as it turns out, not unparalleled.

Brady Carlson is Word of Mouth's presidential historian and author of Dead Presidents. He's joining us from Wisconsin Public Radio to talk about presidential kids past.     

WOM01052017A.mp3
Presidential Kids

Oakland Black Cowboy Association Rides Again

For decades, American presidents looked westward for the nation's growth. Teddy Roosevelt developed a reputation as a rough rider - a fitting representative of the rugged, indomitable spirit of those who ventured forth to expand frontier. Julie Caine brings us a lesser-known story of settlers largely left out of history books.  

You can listen to this story again at PRX.org

Half Wild

The characters in Robin MacArthur's stories live in a slice of Vermont where mobile homes molder and barns sink into the sod, where the abandoned fields of burned-out dairy farms sit alongside swanky second homes. There, hollowed-out hippies and solitary loggers cling to their land. Over the forty years covered in her new collection of stories, they and their children resign themselves to waiting out the days or dream of leaving.

Robin MacArthur lives in Vermont, where she and her husband make music together as Red Heart the TickerHer debut collection of stories is called Half Wild. Virginia spoke with Robin last summer when the book came out.

Robin will be at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord along with Vermont's Poet Laureate Chard deNiord tomorrow night, Friday, 1/6 at 5:30

Listen to the original segment again here

10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Catalog Writer Jeff Ryan

Today's 10-Minute Writer’s Workshop veers off the beaten path of literary fiction, non-fiction and genre writers. Fitting, in this case for a guy who perfected his craft writing about rugged, versatile pieces of clothing that makes the jump from sidewalk to summit. That'd be Jeffrey Ryan, who for many years wrote blurbs and product descriptions the venerable LL Bean catalogue. 

You can listen to this full episode again here: 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Catalog Writer Jeff Ryan

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