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Playlist: Roger McDonough's Portfolio

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Remembering the Buenos Aires Herald

From Roger McDonough | 12:34

Earlier this year, a revered newspaper in Argentina closed up shop after more than 140 years of publication. The Buenos Aires Herald was one of a rare (and dwindling) handful of English Language newspapers in Latin America. A small publication, it was known for some gutsy journalism - including printing the names of disappeared people during Argentina's brutal dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s, a move that led to the paper's editor and news editor being exiled. The closure of the Herald came after ownership changes, and after a move from a daily to weekly format. In June, employees of the paper were told one Tuesday afternoon that the previous Friday's edition had been the paper's last.

Radio producer Roger McDonough was a onetime intern at the storied paper. He compiled memories from a few of his former colleagues at the Herald, and sent this elegy.

Herald-twitter_small Earlier this year, a revered newspaper in Argentina closed up shop after more than 140 years of publication. The Buenos Aires Herald was one of a rare (and dwindling) handful of English Language newspapers in Latin America. A small publication, it was known for some gutsy journalism - including printing the names of disappeared people during Argentina's brutal dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s, a move that led to the paper's editor and news editor being exiled. The closure of the Herald came after ownership changes, and after a move from a daily to weekly format. In June, employees of the paper were told one Tuesday afternoon that the previous Friday's edition had been the paper's last. Radio producer Roger McDonough was a onetime intern at the storied paper. He compiled memories from a few of his former colleagues at the Herald, and sent this elegy.

The Last Thing You See

From Roger McDonough | 14:21

An exploration of "forensic optography" - the theory advanced by some 19th and early 20th c. detectives that you could obtain an image of a murderer by photographing the retina of a murder victim. The belief was that the last thing you saw before you died was fixed on your retina. The idea has its origin in some bizarre experiments...with rabbits. Featuring Simon Ings, author of A Natural History of Seeing, and Arthur Conan Doyle scholar Michael Homer.

Retina_small An exploration of "forensic optography" - the theory advanced by some 19th and early 20th c. detectives that you could obtain an image of a murderer by photographing the retina of a murder victim. The belief was that the last thing you saw before you died was fixed on your retina. The idea has its origin in some bizarre experiments...with rabbits. Featuring Simon Ings, author of A Natural History of Seeing, and Arthur Conan Doyle scholar Michael Homer.

The Legacy of Lamb's Grill Cafe

From Roger McDonough | 09:22

An audio postcard with reflections on Utah's oldest restaurant - and its role in the history and development of Salt Lake City. After 98 years, Lamb's Grill Cafe closed in April of 2017.

Lambs1_small An audio postcard with reflections on Utah's oldest restaurant - and its role in the history and development of Salt Lake City. After 98 years, Lamb's Grill Cafe closed in April of 2017.

Panic, Mayhem, Hysteria – War of the Worlds

From Roger McDonough | 06:58

On October 30th, 1938, American radio audiences - believing that a Martian invasion was underway - went absolutely nuts. Panicked masses fled to the hills, or went underground, or said teary farewells to their loved-ones, believing the end was nigh. Did the radio adaptation of H.G. Wells famous tale really inspire mass hysteria? KCPW Producer Roger McDonough takes a look.

1938-war-of-worlds-welles-300x228_small On October 30th, 1938, American radio audiences - believing that a Martian invasion was underway - went absolutely nuts. Panicked masses fled to the hills, or went underground, or said teary farewells to their loved-ones, believing the end was nigh. Did the radio adaptation of H.G. Wells famous tale really inspire mass hysteria? KCPW Producer Roger McDonough takes a look.

Salt Lake City: Birthplace of The New Yorker magazine and Sherlock Holmes?

From Roger McDonough | 26:00

You likely know a couple of facts about Salt Lake City, Utah. That it was founded by the Mormon Pioneers. Or maybe that it hosted the Winter Olympics. But there are some surprising aspects of this place you might not know about - like the strange tie between an early, 20th Century Salt Lake brothel and the birth of The New Yorker Magazine. Featuring audio producer and author Scott Carrier, Western historian Will Bagley, Sherlockian Michael Homer, and Catalyst Magazine Editor Greta deJong.

Ross-web_small You likely know a couple of facts about Salt Lake City, Utah. That it was founded by the Mormon Pioneers. Or maybe that it hosted the Winter Olympics. But there are some surprising aspects of this place you might not know about - like the strange tie between an early, 20th Century Salt Lake brothel and the birth of The New Yorker Magazine. Featuring audio producer and author Scott Carrier, Western historian Will Bagley, Sherlockian Michael Homer, and Catalyst Magazine Editor Greta deJong.

Flooding Madidi

From Roger McDonough | 16:12

Bolivian President Evo Morales has given the go-ahead for a mega dam that will flood one of the earth's last great expanses of biodiversity while forcing the relocation of indigenous tribes from their Amazon home. The announcement comes on the heels of a presidential decree allowing oil and gas exploration in Bolivian National Parks. To learn more, producer Roger McDonough speaks to Bolivian agro-ecologist Dan Robison, who has long been involved in promoting sustainable resource use in the Amazon.

Madidi-from-above-rogermcdonough_small Flooding Madidi
An interview with Bolivian agro-ecologist Dan Robison

Background:


On May 20th of this year, Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous head of state, issued a decree opening up his country's 22 national parks to oil and gas drilling. Supreme Decree 2366 authorizes the national petroleum company YPBF, as well as international operators, to search for and extract hydrocarbon reserves inside of protected area boundaries. Two months before that decree, another presidential edict stripped local indigenous groups of a right to "prior consultation" in mining and drilling endeavors on their titled lands, a courtesy that had been enshrined in the Bolivian constitution.

Then, in June, Morales revealed that he was resurrecting a long-believed-dead plan to dam the Beni River for hydroelectric power (destined for the growing Brazilian market). In early July his administration contracted with the Italian engineering company Geodata to evaluate the site and design a dam that would flood a good portion of Madidi National Park, which National Geographic once called the most bio-diverse protected area on the planet. The dam, hydroelectric station, and energy infrastructure are predicted to cost up to 7 billion dollars, take 5 years to build (as well as two additional years to fill with water) and generate as much as 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

Several other hydroelectric projects are also in the works across the country's expansive Amazon rainforest and savanna lowlands. But the Bala project is by far the largest and most controversial. 

When it is complete, indigenous Tacana and Tsimán-Mosetén communities will be forced to abandon territory they have inhabited for generations. At the same time, Bolivian biologists have suggested that many yet-discovered-species face extinction from the flooding of pristine rainforest. Habitat for roaming jaguar, peccary, various species of monkey (including the only-recently-discovered Madidi Titi-Monkey), caiman, river dolphins and other emblematic species of the Amazon will be replaced on the map with an immense body of water.

In early July, 17 indigenous communities in and around Madidi National Park and the Pilón-Lajas Biosphere Reserve (which is equally threatened by the project) issued a collective statement rejecting the dam. "The El Bala mega-dam will result in a complete and utter destruction of the ecosystem and its resources, while indigenous and rural communities will be expelled from our lands, from our cultures, and thus [we face] a risk of disappearing," reads the statement, which was signed by representatives from each of the forest communities.

Meanwhile, environmentalists in the country - the poorest in South America - say that Decree 2366 strips the country's parks of any meaningful protective status - while giving international corporations a green light to ramp up production in the Amazon. They also fear more generally that efforts by the government of President Morales will erase decades of conservation gains.
 
Among the troubling signs identified by Bolivian conservationists:
  • Statements by President Morales that Bolivia "refuses to be a forest reserve for industrialized countries any longer," and his threat to expel from Bolivia "nongovernmental environmental organizations that get in the way" of his strategy. 
  • Further characterizations by Morales of some indigenous and environmental organizations as being "in the service of foreigners." 
  • The peculiar assertion by vice-president Álvaro García Linera that protected areas were "created by neoliberal governments to safeguard oil reserves for outsiders from the north."
It is important to note the historical, cultural and geographic divisions between Bolivia's Andean and Amazonian populations: the so-called Colla-Camba divide. "Colla" is the informal name for the Quechua and Aymara residents of the country's Andean highlands and "Camba" is the term for lowland savanna and forest dwellers. 

The country's centers of political power have always been in the Altiplano. Sucre, at 9,214 feet above sea-level, is Bolivia's administrative capital, while La Paz (nearly 12,000 feet up) is the seat of government.

But the vast majority of the country's natural resources – from roaring rivers to vast, untapped stores of oil and natural gas – are found in its sprawling, forested, northern Amazon lowlands. 

Through the centuries, a series of economic booms here fed the exploitation of local indigenous workers, while filling the pockets of robber barons both domestic and foreign. 

Not long ago, huge profits were made tearing down and cutting up giant mahogany and jatoba trees, and then floating them down the Beni River to the Brazilian border, for export to America and Asia. Before that it was wild animal hides, and a decade prior, instead of timber floating down the river it was containers of raw cocaine paste bound for processing in Colombia (something that has resurged in recent years). And in the distant, dusty, hazy past stands the mother of all of these haywire economic booms: the rubber boom – when foreign tycoons reaped huge profits on the backs of indigenous slave labor, until synthetic materials made rubber harvesting obsolete, and the jungle spilled back over itself, erasing roads and history and “progress,” if only for a while.

Over the past few decades, the provinces of this wild region have been pushing for greater autonomy from the central government – and the resulting tension has, on more than one occasion, led to violent clashes. The history, distance, distinctiveness of climate and identity, and the disparity in resource-wealth are obstacles to reconciliation between Bolivia's two worlds. The current administration’s full-throttle attempt to consolidate control of the Bolivian Amazon's immense bio-wealth is likely to lead to greater turmoil in the country in the coming months and years. 



RM 

Flooding Madidi

From Roger McDonough | 16:12

Bolivian President Evo Morales has given the go-ahead for a mega dam that will flood one of the earth's last great expanses of biodiversity while forcing the relocation of indigenous tribes from their Amazon home. The announcement comes on the heels of a presidential decree allowing oil and gas exploration in Bolivian National Parks. To learn more, producer Roger McDonough speaks to Bolivian agro-ecologist Dan Robison, who has long been involved in promoting sustainable resource use in the Amazon.

Madidi-from-above-rogermcdonough_small Flooding Madidi
An interview with Bolivian agro-ecologist Dan Robison

Background:


On May 20th of this year, Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous head of state, issued a decree opening up his country's 22 national parks to oil and gas drilling. Supreme Decree 2366 authorizes the national petroleum company YPBF, as well as international operators, to search for and extract hydrocarbon reserves inside of protected area boundaries. Two months before that decree, another presidential edict stripped local indigenous groups of a right to "prior consultation" in mining and drilling endeavors on their titled lands, a courtesy that had been enshrined in the Bolivian constitution.

Then, in June, Morales revealed that he was resurrecting a long-believed-dead plan to dam the Beni River for hydroelectric power (destined for the growing Brazilian market). In early July his administration contracted with the Italian engineering company Geodata to evaluate the site and design a dam that would flood a good portion of Madidi National Park, which National Geographic once called the most bio-diverse protected area on the planet. The dam, hydroelectric station, and energy infrastructure are predicted to cost up to 7 billion dollars, take 5 years to build (as well as two additional years to fill with water) and generate as much as 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

Several other hydroelectric projects are also in the works across the country's expansive Amazon rainforest and savanna lowlands. But the Bala project is by far the largest and most controversial. 

When it is complete, indigenous Tacana and Tsimán-Mosetén communities will be forced to abandon territory they have inhabited for generations. At the same time, Bolivian biologists have suggested that many yet-discovered-species face extinction from the flooding of pristine rainforest. Habitat for roaming jaguar, peccary, various species of monkey (including the only-recently-discovered Madidi Titi-Monkey), caiman, river dolphins and other emblematic species of the Amazon will be replaced on the map with an immense body of water.

In early July, 17 indigenous communities in and around Madidi National Park and the Pilón-Lajas Biosphere Reserve (which is equally threatened by the project) issued a collective statement rejecting the dam. "The El Bala mega-dam will result in a complete and utter destruction of the ecosystem and its resources, while indigenous and rural communities will be expelled from our lands, from our cultures, and thus [we face] a risk of disappearing," reads the statement, which was signed by representatives from each of the forest communities.

Meanwhile, environmentalists in the country - the poorest in South America - say that Decree 2366 strips the country's parks of any meaningful protective status - while giving international corporations a green light to ramp up production in the Amazon. They also fear more generally that efforts by the government of President Morales will erase decades of conservation gains.
 
Among the troubling signs identified by Bolivian conservationists:
  • Statements by President Morales that Bolivia "refuses to be a forest reserve for industrialized countries any longer," and his threat to expel from Bolivia "nongovernmental environmental organizations that get in the way" of his strategy. 
  • Further characterizations by Morales of some indigenous and environmental organizations as being "in the service of foreigners." 
  • The peculiar assertion by vice-president Álvaro García Linera that protected areas were "created by neoliberal governments to safeguard oil reserves for outsiders from the north."
It is important to note the historical, cultural and geographic divisions between Bolivia's Andean and Amazonian populations: the so-called Colla-Camba divide. "Colla" is the informal name for the Quechua and Aymara residents of the country's Andean highlands and "Camba" is the term for lowland savanna and forest dwellers. 

The country's centers of political power have always been in the Altiplano. Sucre, at 9,214 feet above sea-level, is Bolivia's administrative capital, while La Paz (nearly 12,000 feet up) is the seat of government.

But the vast majority of the country's natural resources – from roaring rivers to vast, untapped stores of oil and natural gas – are found in its sprawling, forested, northern Amazon lowlands. 

Through the centuries, a series of economic booms here fed the exploitation of local indigenous workers, while filling the pockets of robber barons both domestic and foreign. 

Not long ago, huge profits were made tearing down and cutting up giant mahogany and jatoba trees, and then floating them down the Beni River to the Brazilian border, for export to America and Asia. Before that it was wild animal hides, and a decade prior, instead of timber floating down the river it was containers of raw cocaine paste bound for processing in Colombia (something that has resurged in recent years). And in the distant, dusty, hazy past stands the mother of all of these haywire economic booms: the rubber boom – when foreign tycoons reaped huge profits on the backs of indigenous slave labor, until synthetic materials made rubber harvesting obsolete, and the jungle spilled back over itself, erasing roads and history and “progress,” if only for a while.

Over the past few decades, the provinces of this wild region have been pushing for greater autonomy from the central government – and the resulting tension has, on more than one occasion, led to violent clashes. The history, distance, distinctiveness of climate and identity, and the disparity in resource-wealth are obstacles to reconciliation between Bolivia's two worlds. The current administration’s full-throttle attempt to consolidate control of the Bolivian Amazon's immense bio-wealth is likely to lead to greater turmoil in the country in the coming months and years. 



RM