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Playlist: Spring 2013 Specials

Compiled By: PRX Editors

 Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-122931382/stock-photo-hot-air-balloon-over-blue-sky.html">Shutterstock</a>
Image by: Shutterstock 
Curated Playlist

These specials are new to PRX in 2013 and are from various producers and stations. All great topics -- take a look below!

Mapping Eliza: Decoding DNA Secrets

From Spectrum Radio | 59:01

In this one-hour special, IEEE Spectrum Magazine's Eliza Strickland takes listeners through her personal journey explaining what genome-sequencing is, and how this technology could shape the future of medical care.

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Genome sequencing is becoming affordable, fast, and poised to revolutionize medicine.  But, how much can your genes tell you about your medical fate?  And, will genome scans become a routine part of health care in our lifetimes? 
 
In this one-hour special, IEEE Spectrum Magazine's Eliza Strickland, who recently had her genome sequenced, takes listeners through her personal journey explaining what genome-sequencing is, what was revealed to her, and how this technology could shape the future of medical care.  

With the support of PRX and the Alfred P Sloan foundation -- enhancing public understanding of science, technology, and economic performance.  

Hidden Kitchens: The Raw & The Cooked

From The Kitchen Sisters | Part of the Hidden Kitchens series | 54:56

An hour-long journey into the world of clandestine cooking, kitchen rituals and traditions. Tales of kitchens that suddenly pop up, kitchens that stay underground to survive, kitchens that are the keepers of a culture. Cooking traditions that spring from the most unlikely moments of history. Hosted by Academy Award-winning actress, Frances McDormand.

Hk-raw_cooked-weenieroyale_small We travel the country and we travel in time in search of hidden kitchens and little-known corners of American food culture. From the Crossroads in Mississippi to the Birth of Rice-a-Roni in San Francisco. From the Sheepherder's Ball in the Basque Country in Boise to the Breadbasket of California's Central Valley. We hear kitchen stories and music from Michael Pollan, Rosemary Clooney, Robert Johnson, Super Chikan and more.

Entertaining, surprising, and soulful, a Kitchen Sisters' portrait of American life through food.

Some of the stories that are heard in this richly-layered documentary hour include: 

Kibbe at the Crossroads: A Delta Kitchen Vision: A story from the crossroads, in Clarksdale, Mississippi where barbeque, the blues and a kind of Lebanese meatloaf, meet.

Weenie Royale: Many hidden kitchen traditions come out of dark times, when surviving means adapting. We peer into a corner of America's not-too-distant past—the internment camps of World War II, where more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent—most American citizens—were incarcerated without trial for the duration of the war. Their homes, livelihoods, traditions and food taken from them. The Kitchen Sisters explore the impact of the internment on Japanese cooking and culture in America.  

The Sheepherder's Ball: Basque people fleeing Francisco Franco's dictatorship in Spain flocked to America. Many took jobs herding sheep across the West. We explore the world of Basque sheepherders and their outdoor, below-the-ground, Dutch oven cooking traditions.

Hidden Kitchen Mama: Kitchens and mothers. The food they cooked, or didn't. The stories they told, or couldn't.   

Breadbasket Blues: Travel down Interstate 5, straight into the agricultural heart of the California Central Valley, the nation's breadbasket, where the rates of juvenile obesity, type 2 diabetes and malnutrition are some of the highest in the country. The Kitchen Sisters explore some of the hidden causes of this epidemic and the local kitchen visionaries grappling with it.      

The Birth of Rice-a-Roni: Sometimes we find the story. Sometimes the story finds us. Nikki sat down next to this one at an NPR event in the Napa Valley. We were onstage interviewing Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. The topic was corn, and we played a little excerpt from our Hidden Kitchen story on the 1930s kitchen visionary who invented the Frito. Over dinner, the 80-year-old woman seated by Nikki confided that she too had a hidden kitchen, and began to tell the complicated saga of the birth of Rice-a-Roni.

And we take a little detour to visit Mozart's Hidden Kitchen.

Hidden Kitchens: The Raw & The Cooked. Stories from across America about the transformative power of food. With host, Academy Award-winning actress, Frances McDormand.

Culture Shock 1913

From WNYC | 59:00

What a year was 1913! Many have called it the true beginning of 20th century culture. From New York, where the first large-scale show of modern art alarmed viewers, to Vienna and Paris, where music by Schoenberg and Stravinsky sparked audience riots --- it was a year of artistic upset and audience apoplexy! A hundred years later, WNYC’s Sara Fishko and guests tell the story of this Mad Modernist moment of sweeping change, and the ways in which it mirrors our own uncertain age.

Playing
Culture Shock 1913
From
WNYC

Cslogoforweb_small Culture Shock 1913, 59 minutes (2 floating breaks)
From WNYC, New York Public Radio

Producer/Host Sara Fishko
Guests: Museum of Modern Art’s Ann Temkin; author Philipp Blom; pianist Jeremy Denk; Neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Dr. Eric Kandel; The New Yorker’s Joan Acocella and Alex Ross; author Frederic Morton; Conductor and educator Leon Botstein; others

Generation Putin - Hour Special

From Seattle Globalist | Part of the Generation Putin series | 59:01

"Generation Putin" is an hourlong special on young people and politics in the former Soviet Union. Embeddable on SoundCloud, too.

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It's been over 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Young people in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia are facing unemployment, democratic pressure, and the legacy of repression, while being influenced by the West, punk music, and the Pussy Riot trials. PRX sent a reporting team from the Seattle Globalist to explore the tensions in these countries, described by The Atlantic as 'uneasily suspended' between two political eras.

Join host Brooke Gladstone for Generation Putin, an in-depth look at the millennial generation in the post-Soviet states. Embed, stream and share the special and segments on SoundCloud.

Autism Grows Up

From Capital Public Radio | Part of the The View From Here series | 54:02

A one-hour documentary exploring what's happening twenty years after a sharp rise in autism rates. Thousands of children are aging out of special education. Each one enters adulthood with a unique combination of social deficits that promises a challenging life, even with support. Is the adult world ready for them?

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In the 1990s autism rates around the US began to rise. Each year since then thousands of California children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Now, these children are “aging out” of school-based special education programs.

 

They are the first generation of adults with autism spectrum disorders to be diagnosed early enough to participate in these programs for most of their school years. Once they turn 22, they’re no longer eligible. It will be left to them and their families to find the employment, education, housing and other services they need to live as independently as possible for the rest of their lives. Each of them enters adulthood with a unique combination of social, behavioral and communication deficits that promises an unusually challenging life. Depending on the severity of the disorder, they may or may not be able to live independently, find a job, go to college, date or marry. 

The View From Here: Autism Grows Up follows four adults with autism who are aiming for a life of choice and opportunity. 

Multimedia content includes videos, slideshows, info-graphics and resource links.  We encourage you to link to this site or embed videos on your station site as long as the Capital Public Radio logo remains intact at the end.  

You may also use the included photos with proper attribution.

Permission to Speak

From Anna Sussman | 59:00

As Burma transitions from dictatorship to democracy, hundreds of political prisoners have been freed after decades behind bars. In this story, eight of these freed political prisoners struggle to rebuild their lives, and test the emerging democracy. They suffer from severe PTSD, their friends and family are scared to speak with them, fearing they too will be arrested, and many are shunned by a public that still lives in fear the long arm of the military dictatorship. Some freed political prisoners are denied access to university, denied passports and denied professional licenses. Still, many of the freed political prisoners continue to test the limits of the emerging democracy, and face profound consequences. This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

Win_maw_pic_small As Burma transitions from dictatorship to democracy, hundreds of political prisoners have been freed after decades behind bars. Many former political prisoners suffer from PTSD from decades of torture, others have family and friends who refuse to speak with them, still fearing they will be arrested. In "Permission to Speak " we travel through Burma and  meet former political prisoners who are trying to rebuild their lives, and build a democracy from the ground up. The characters are both national heroes and broken people. We meet a former army captain who resigned from the military and was then arrested for pro-democracy activities,  a hip-hop artist, turned political prisoner who now represents the National League for Democracy in Burma's new parliament and a Burmese rock star who was imprisoned for rewriting the words to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." Some freed political prisoners are being denied access to university, passports and professional licenses.  Still, many of them continue to test the limits of the emerging democracy, and face profound consequences.  In the end we learn that many of these former political prisoners are still at risk of being re-imprisoned for peaceful activities, and we meet a new generation of pro-democracy activists, the children of former political prisoners, who themselves are on trial and facing ten years in prison.

Walking Across America ~ Advice for a Young Man

From Atlantic Public Media | Part of the The Transom Radio Specials series | 53:57

Andrew Forsthoefel set out at age 23 to walk across America, East to West, 4000 miles, with a sign on him that said, "Walking to Listen". This hour, co-produced with Jay Allison, tracks his epic journey. It's a coming of age story, and a portrait of this country - big-hearted, wild, innocent, and wise.

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From Andrew Forsthoefel:

I decided to walk across the country for several reasons. Producing an hour-long radio essay about it was not one of them. When I left home, I had no idea what would become of the tape I hoped to record.

At the beginning of the walk, I thought it would be a good idea to have a focus question for the interviews. The question was about transformation. What does it mean to you and when have you experienced it? I was at a transformative time in my own life, so that question seemed right.

I quickly abandoned the idea, though. It seemed too contrived or constraining. Instead, I just started talking to people about their lives and, sometimes, what their lives had taught them. I’d ask people about the idea of home, aloneness, family, love, death; all sorts of stuff.

I thought people would be resistant to being interviewed. Not so. The vast majority wanted to be heard, and they didn’t mind the recorder. Nearly every time, they had something they wanted to share.  I was wearing a sign that said “Walking to Listen,” and there was no shortage of people to listen to.

Support for this work comes from National Endowment for the Arts and the Transom Donor Fund:


                                                 

Louder Than A Bomb 2013 Radio Special

From WBEZ | Part of the Louder Than a Bomb 2013 series | 59:03

Over the past 13 years, Louder than a Bomb, Chicago’s youth poetry competition, has grown from humble roots in the basement of a Division Street theater to selling out the Cadillac Palace Theater. In this hour, we explore the lasting effects of the program on the students and teachers who are a part of it. Even more poignant now that 8 other US cities have launched Louder Than a Bomb in their community. How has this spoken word program changed their trajectories?

Timeout_credit-jeff_kroll_photo-kevin_aprilspecialtp_small Over the past 13 years, Louder than a Bomb, Chicago’s youth poetry competition, has grown from humble roots in the basement of a Division Street theater to selling out the Cadillac Palace Theater. In this hour, we explore the lasting effects of the program on the students and teachers who are a part of it. Even more poignant now that 8 other US cities have launched Louder Than a Bomb in their community. How has this spoken word program changed their trajectories?