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FRIDAY, December 7 | Journey of Loss
With the eyes of the world glued on Afghanistan, the timing of the new film, Kandahar, couldn't be more appropriate. The film fictionalizes the true story of one Afghan woman's return to her homeland, twelve years after fleeing to Canada, to try to find an old friend. The friend has suggested to her in a letter that she can no longer survive under Taliban control. Directed by the creator of the film, The Cyclist, the film uses no professional actors and has gained wide acclaim for its portrayal of the shared realities faced by all Afghan people. [Morning Edition]
Listen (length of clip 6 min 22 sec).

:: Learn more about the film, Kandahar. [ still more ]


SATURDAY, December 8 | Homage to History
The Panama Hotel is a celebrated cornerstone of Seattle's International District, long a vibrant community for recent East Asian immigrants to the city. The Panama was a commercial nexus for the neighborhood until the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor put the world at war. The Panama soon became a temporary holding area for Japanese-Americans who were, sadly, to be transferred to wartime internment camps all over the American West. The current owner of the Panama, Jan Johnson, has spent the past fifteen years restoring the hotel to its former glory and has turned its basement into a tea room and extraordinary memorial, featuring many photographs and period belongings of those whose lives were changed there during World War II. [Weekend All Things Considered]
Listen (4:15).

:: Learn more about the Panama Hotel and Seattle's International District.


SUNDAY, December 9 | The "Stubborn Art"
Poet Edward Hirsch, author of the book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, believes the world needs poetry. Never has this been more apparent to him than in the months since September 11, when we all seem to have developed a "hunger for seriousness." Hirsch thinks of poetry as a kind of elixir with the power to strengthen our emotional fiber despite our being overwhelmed by a certain superficiality in our culture. Poetry allows those who read and write it to experience grief and other such fundamental emotions with an uncommon depth. Citing the recent resurgent interest in poems like W.H. Auden's September 1, 1939, Hirsch suggests poetry has a way of helping us to make meaning out of the unthinkable. [Weekend All Things Considered]
Listen (4:10).

:: Buy a copy of Edward Hirsch's book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry.

:: Read W.H. Auden's poem September 1, 1939.


MONDAY, December 10 | A Precautionary Environmental Tale
Gordon Moore, founder of computer-chip maker INTEL, and his wife Betty have recently endowed the environmental group, Conservation International, with an historic $261 million program grant. To be spread out over ten years, the grant is, by far, the largest of its kind to support environmental protection and wildlife conservation and will enable the 14-year-old organization to protect some of the world's most biodiversity-rich areas. According to board chair and CEO Peter Seligmann, it's a wonderful beginning to the group's ambitious long-range quest to stabilize the world's ecosystem over the next century. Seligmann thinks that since September, many people have come to see the earth as the small place it actually is and are more committed than ever to supporting efforts that will guarantee its health. [Morning Edition]
Listen (3:37).

:: Learn more about the work of Conservation International.


TUESDAY, December 11 | Gardener's Paradise
One of the greatest treasures of Washington DC -- and the world, for many botanists and plant lovers -- is the US Botanic Gardens. But during the recent anthrax scare in the nation's capital, the gardens were off limits to the public because they were a known "anthrax-free" area being utilized by the Centers for Disease Control. Now, though, the gardens have reopened in all their former and newfound glory. The 1933 building has been magnificently restored and retrofitted with cutting-edge technology that makes even remote plant care and maintenance possible. Executive director Holly Shimizu discusses the gardens' highlights (the oldest plant is nearly 160 years old) and the reasons why people continue to cherish them. [Morning Edition]
Listen (4:51).

:: Learn more about the US Botanic Gardens. [ still more ]


WEDNESDAY, December 12 | The Invisible People
A new book by humanitarian activist Harsh Mander recounts stories he collected during twenty years of working to end poverty in developing countries around the world. His London-based organization, Action Aid, has established poverty-prevention programs in thirty countries in every part of the world, and his book -- Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives -- charts the lives of many of the people in need he's encountered over the years. In this interview, Mander discusses the sense of isolation that diseases like leprosy -- still rampant in much of the world -- create in people's lives. He also considers the process of building trust with those who share their personal stories with him and what it means to use storytelling to restore humanity. [Morning Edition]
Listen (7:04).

:: Learn more about Action Aid.

:: Buy a copy of Harsh Mander's book Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives.


THURSDAY, December 13 | Doing It for The Guys
In the days following September 11, Columbia University journalism professor Anne Nelson found herself faced with the heart-wrenching task of helping write eulogies for the firefighters lost when the World Trade Center collapsed. Asked by a fire captain to help him give beauty to their individual stories, Nelson was soon overcome with a deep sense of human duty, wanting "the world to know about these guys." She asked the captain for permission to write a play; what resulted was The Guys, a new play featuring Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray now playing at the Flea Theatre, not far from ground zero. Playwright Nelson knew nothing about the real bravery of firefighters before she began to working on some of the nearly 350 eulogies. Now, she's an articulate and creative voice helping give New Yorkers and the world a clearer picture of how dedicated firefighters are to the people who need them. [Morning Edition]
Listen (6:40).

:: Learn more about The Guys. [ still more ]

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