June 7, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: "Larry Bensky, Pacifica, and 40 Years of Radio Journalism." (2007).
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 25:13.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:37.
This historical retrospective on Larry Bensky comes to us from "From the Vault," Pacifica Radio's program that weaves together programs based on the many aural treasures that reside in Pacifica Radio's extensive audio archive. The program focuses on the many stories covered by Bensky, who, after nearly 40 years at Pacifica Radio, recently retired from hosting his last Pacifica show. "Perhaps best known as National Affairs Correspondent on Pacifica Radio from 1987 to 1998, Larry Bensky covered many national and international events for Pacifica, including the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987, the confirmation hearings for four Supreme Court Justices, the 1990 elections in Nicaragua, and demonstrations and protests in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Most recently he anchored Pacifica�s coverage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez�s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee." Bensky has won many awards in his life, including the prestigious George Polk Award and five Golden Reel Awards from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. In addition to a distinguised radio broadcasting career, Bensky was also a noted print journalist and editor (managing editor of Ramparts Magazine in 1968; Paris editor of The Paris Review (1964-66); an editor of the New York Times Book Review). Bensky now teaches mass communications, journalism, and broadcasting at California State University, Hayward. Aileen Alfandary narrates this Bensky (and Pacifica) retrospective, whichwas Produced and edited by Aaron Glantz. Executive produced by Sasha Lilley. As always, our thanks to From the Vault!

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Vladimir Nabokov (10/4/1969)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:59.
Vladimir Nabokov was a writer, teacher, outspoken literary critic, and noted lepidopterist. Our live segment on him focused on his years in Ithaca and his unique connection to the Capital Region of New York where his work on the Karner Blue buttefly helped lay the foundation for the preservation of the Albany Pine Bush, a unique ecoological habitat located in eastern New York between the cities of Albany and Schenectady, about 135 miles north of New York City. Among some of the rare species of wildlife who called (and still call) the Pine Bush home is the Federally listed endangered Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis). The Karner Blue was first identified by Nabokov in 1943. Though the audio we selected for this week's "From the Archives" segment does not focus on Nabokov's entomological work, it does offer us a glimpse into the man and his personality. Here are some excerpts from a 1969 interview with him. Nabokov speaks about genius and talent in writing and about his childhood in Russia. For more excerpts, go to the BBC Four Web site. For more information about Nabokov, see: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm.

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May 31, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: "South Africa: A Lesson of Freedom" (2007).
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:21.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 24:51.
Here is another treasure (slightly edited for time from the original) that comes to us from "From the Vault," Pacifica's program that focuses on the many aural treasures that reside in Pacifica Radio's archival collections. This program is titled "South Africa: A Lesson of Freedom" and examines the "inspiring story of South Africa�s struggle for freedom and social justice." Here is Pacifica's full description of the program: "Rhodesia came into existence as a colonial slave state, established during the halcyon days of the British Raj. A quick glance at a modern world map, however, attests that the powerful colony would eventually assert the right of self-rule� that from the belly of Rhodesia, the independent nation of South Africa would be born.
National independence, however, is not synonymous with freedom. The it possible that the oppressed could set a new standard for freedom-fighters the world over? In the face of modern technological warfare, could they succeed? And if so, how without the gutters of Johannesburgh running red with blood?
Stephen Biko, a soon-to-be martyred activist, Desmond Tutu - a catholic priest from a township parish, and Nelson Mandela, and imprisoned social activist, would inform history of a new process of emancipation. Together they would prevail upon the state and the world to recognize humanism as the true basis for national sovereignty, and demonstrate a method whereby, for the first time in history, the slave would free their masters. This week, From the Vault explores the stories of three heroic South African leaders, woven together by the songs of Mama Afrique, Miriam Makeba, and the recollections of Pacifica�s own Eva Georgia and Bridgette Ramasodi, women who grew up in South Africa under Apartheid."

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Dick Gregory on Vietnam (1965)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 7:25.
Here is a short selection from a speech delivered by Dick Gregory in opposition to the war in Vietnam. It was broadcast on one of Pacifica's sister stations, KPFA, in 1965. Gregory was a controversial comedian and human rights activist for much of his adult life -- and remains still active today. He often combined a powerful political message, a willingness to engage in countless hunger strikes, and a biting comedic style to make his statements about a variety of political issues. There's an on-line biography of Gregory at his own Web site (he became a vegetarian and a commercial nutritional consultant in the 1970s, which explains much of what you'll find at that Web site): http://www.dickgregory.com/about_dick_gregory.html.

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May 24, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: "Barbara Weinstein on 'The Color of Modernity: S�o Paulo and the Whitening of Brazilian Regional History.'"
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 25:19.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:35.
Dr. Barbara Weinstein, President of the American Historical Association and Professor of History, New York University, delivered the 27th Annual Phi Alpha Theta Distinguished Lecture recently at the University at Albany, SUNY. Her talk was titled: "The Color of Modernity: S�o Paulo and the Whitening of Brazilian Regional History." Weinstein is the author of numerous articles and books on the history of industrial relations, slavery, gender, and regionalism in Brazil, including The Amazon Rubber Boom, 1850-1920 and For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in S�o Paulo, 1920-1964.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "JFK's Reiterates the Monroe Doctrine: Inauguration Address January 20, 1961 (excerpt)"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 2:28.
On Friday, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States by Chief Justice Earl Warren. Kennedy's inaugural address that followed contained some of the most memorable phrases of all inaugural addresses in this nation's history ("ask not what your country can do for you�ask what you can do for your country"), but it also contained a reiteration of President James Monroe's December 2, 1823 message to Congress -- which came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. Like Monroe, who was reacting to France's and Spain's potential threats to newly emerging hemispheric republics (Monroe declared American continents as no longer open to European colonization), Kennedy essentially informed the Soviet Union to stay out of the affairs of the nations of the Western Hemisphere. This short excerpt from Kennedy's 15-minute speech ends with the following passage: "To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge�to convert our good words into good deeds�in a new alliance for progress�to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house."

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May 17, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: David Stewart on the Summer of 1787.
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 24:49.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:59.
David O. Stewart -- trial lawyer, former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, and a partner in the national law firm of Ropes & Gray -- is the author of The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution" (2007), an original and lively work of legal history. "In the book, Stewart applies decades of experience as a constitutional lawyer, and his skills as a prizewinning writer of short fiction, to craft an insightful and entertaining reexamination of the birth of America's founding document. The book presents the fiery debates and furious political bargaining that characterized the Philadelphia Convention, as well as the rich cast of characters that helped to create the world's first constitutional democracy. Leading personalities include the one-legged aristocrat, Gouverneur Morris; the slave-owning abolitionist, George Mason; Scottish immigrant and legal philosopher James Wilson; elder statesman and peacemaker Benjamin Franklin; pro-slavery advocate John Rutledge; and George Washington himself." Stewart delivered this talk, the Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck lecture, at the University at Albany, SUNY on April 26, 2007. The talk was co-sponsored by the Writer's Institute at U-Albany.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Federalist #10."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:23.
This is a reading, from Americana Phonic [http://www.americanaphonic.com], of Federalist #10, written by James Madison and originally published on November 22, 1787 under the pseudonym of "Publius." Federalist #10 was part of the Federalist Papers authored by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Madison and designed to win over support for the Constitution. Federalist #10 is probably one of the mmost cited and famous of the Federalist Papers and addresses the issue of control of political factions in large republics.

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May 10, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: A History of Cinco de Mayo
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 32:18.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 17:52.
From Pacifica, we bring you this one hour special on the history of Cinco de Mayo. It features an interview by Ernesto Aquilar with University of Houston Professor John Hart, the United States� foremost scholar on Mexican history. His books include Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico Since the Civil War, Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class, 1860-1931, and Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution. The special was executive produced by Ann Raber of KPFT.
Program Summary: "Although the date is not covered extensively in history books, Cinco de Mayo celebrates one of Mexico�s most legendary skirmishes, the Battle of Puebla. On May 5, 1862 in Puebla, Mexico, a small Mexican force defeated the imperial French Army. Napoleon III led French forces to victories around the globe, and most expected the French to crush Mexican troops, led by 33 year old General Ignacio Zaragoza. What happened on what�s now known as Cinco de Mayo has become some parts history and other parts myth. What isn�t in dispute is the outcome. Zaragoza�s soldiers handed the French one of military history�s most stunning defeats. France would later regroup, but the Battle of Puebla shaped Mexican nationalism; the debate between liberals and conservatives in Mexico; and perspectives on colonialism in Latin America. This program explores Mexico�s class conflicts and revolutionary history and the meaning of Cinco de Mayo today."
For more information about Cinco de Mayo, see http://www.nacnet.org/assunta/spa5may.htm.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Leon Troysky's From October to Brest Litovsk (1919)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 12:28.
This is a short reading selection, from LibriVox [http://librivox.org], of an account by Trotsky of the early events of the Russian Revolution -- taking events up to the Brest Litovsk Treaty with Germany (March 3, 1918), removing Russia out of WWI. Trotsky, who headed the Red Army, came to grow disenchanted with the course of the Russian Revolution and particularly with Stalin's leadership. In 1936, he published a scathing critique of the Revolution titled The Revolution Betrayed. Four years later, Stalin had Trotsky assasinated in Mexico, utilizing one of his agents, Ram�n Mercader, who drove an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. For more on Leon Trotsky, see: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/index.htm.

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May 3, 2007
Segment 1: "Kevin Willmott on CSA: Confederate States of America." (2007)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 31:06
This is a recording of a live interview conducted by Gerry Zahavi with Kevin Willmott on May 3, 2007. Willmott, who is an Associate Professor in the Film Studies Department of the University of Kansas, produced the film "C.S.A - THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA," as a counter-factual faux documentary -- modeled after a Ken Burns-style documentary -- about an America in which had the South won the Civil War. The film was selected for the 2004 Sundance Film festival and later sold to IFC Films (the film was also backed for distribution by Spike Lee). CSA has played in film festivals in Denver, Colorado, Stockholm, Sweden, Locarno, Switzerland and the Hamptons, New York and had its theatrical release in February of 2006. For more information about Willmott and the film, see: http://www.csathemovie.com.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Olaudah Equiano's 1789 Narrative" (selection).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:37
Olaudah Equiano, who's life and work is partially chronicled in the 2006 film Amazing Grace, was an African whose experiences as a slave led him to write one of the best known anti-slavery narratives and to became involved in the British abolitionist movement. This reading of a selection of chapter 5 of Equiano's narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African (1789), comes to us courtesy of Carl Manchester and LibriVox (http://librivox.org/the-interesting-narrative-of-the-life-of-olaudah-equiano-by-olaudah-equiano). For more information about Olaudah Equiano, see: http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/.

Segment 3: "Richmond Burning" (2004).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 15:28. This is a re-broadcast of a 2004 program in which Bryan Le Beau marked the anniversary of the burning of Richmond, Virginia with an interview with Nelson D. Lankford, author of Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital (Penguin, 2003). Lankford's book draws upon letters, diaries, memoirs and newspaper accounts of the event. Originally produced: March 2004.

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April 26, 2007
Segment 1: "New Perspectives on Jamestown: What Pochahantas Saw." (2007)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 27:35
"The story of Jamestown begins before the arrival of Europeans, when up to 25,000 Indians lived on the coastal plains of what is now Mid-Atlantic America. These diverse tribes flourished by working the land for food and trade. Four hundred years later, their rich history has been popularly reduced to a myth about Pochahontas' love for--and rescue of--Captain John Smith. In a special feature, Virginia Indians reflect on Jamestown in their own words. Then, national experts Helen Rountree and Camilla Townsend unravel the Pocahontas myth by taking listeners back to the sources--Indian oral histories and the writings of Jamestown settlers to reveal what the world of 1607 was really like." This is the first of five episodes produced to commemorate the founding of Jamestown in 1609. It was produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities for the Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium. Jesse Dukes and Elliot Majerczyk, associate producers. Andrew Wyndham, executive producer.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Roger Baldwin Recalls Clarence Darrow and the Scopes Trial" (1955).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:48
This is a selection from the Dec. 18, 1955 NBC broadcast of Biography in Sound: Clarence Darrow for the Defense. It features Roger Baldwin's recollections of famous U.S. defense attorney Clarence Darrow and his involvement in the Scopes Monkey Trial. The full one-hour program includes first-person accounts of individuals who worked with and knew Darrow quite well, including: Quinn Ryan, Norman Thomas, Irving Stone, Victor Yarrows (a law partner of Darrow), Roger Baldwin (of the A. C. L. U.), T. V. Smith, James Daniels, Slim Brundage, William L. Carlin (anothe Darrow law partner), Paul Muni, and Clifford Richards. It recounts Darrow's work on the Scopes Trial, Eugene V. Debs' defense, and the Leopold and Loeb trial. For more information about the Scopes Monkey Trial, see: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm. For information about Clarence Darrow, see: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/darrow.htm. For information on Roger Baldwin, see: http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/baldwin_r.html.

Segment 3: "The Pueblo Incident" (1968).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 15:28. The USS Pueblo, an intelligence gathering ship operating off the coast of North Korea, was boarded and captured by military personnel of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 23 January 1968. Its crew of more than 80 were taken captive and held for 11 months. The DPRK stated that the ship had strayed into their territorial waters, but the United States asserted that the ship was operating in international waters. For more information about the event, see: http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/wed_archives_02fall/lerner.htm. This recording, selections from the full transmission, comes from a radio broadcast of a press conference and public appearance by the crew of the ship and includes admissions of the intelligence gathering mission of the ship. The transmission dates from February 15, 1968 and comes to us from recordings in the Records of the Department of State, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

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April 19, 2007
Segment 1: "Biography in Sound: F. Scott Fitzgerald" (1966).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 29:19
This January 20, 1966 Voice of America broadcast, part of a series from Studio One, focuses on the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It contains many rare first-person recollections of the writer. For more information about Fitzgerald, see: http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/. This recording comes to us from the Voice of America (VOA)tape collection, available at Archives II, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Songs from General Electric's Association Island" (circa 1930s).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:25
Association Island is situated just off the coast of the northeastern edge of Lake Ontario in New York State near the outlet of the Great Lakes and the beginning of the St. Lawrence River. From 1907 until the mid-1950s it served as a summer retreat and conference center for managers and engineers from the National Electric Lamp Company and later the General Electric Company (GE), the National's corporate parent. The Island is perhaps more widely familiar to avid modern fiction readers as the satirized "Meadows" in Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). In Vonnegut's novel the "flat, grassy island" located on the St. Lawrence River, was a corporate playground that also served as a rite-of-passage to status and power within a technocratic dystopia. There, in Vonnegut's fictional realm-as in real life-managers and engineers, all male, "spent a week each summer in an orgy of morale building." Through "team athletics, group sings, bonfires and skyrockets, bawdy entertainment, free whiskey and cigars; and through plays, put on by professional actors, which pleasantly but unmistakably made clear the nature of good deportment within the system, and the shape of firm resolves for the challenging year ahead," the Island worked "its magic" on its temporary inhabitants, helping to forge a male-centered brotherhood of managers. Yet, ironically, Association Island in 1952, when Player Piano was published, was entering the final years of usefulness to the corporation. Soon, a new corporate structure and ethos emerged and swept away the seemingly quaint fraternalism of the serene Island. In 1959, the company turned the Island over to the YMCA.
The two songs featured in this selection, come from the GE archival collection of the Hall of History, at the Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, NY. We digitized it for the Museum some years ago, in an attempt to preserve these very rare recordings of the "Island Chorus," recordings of songs that reflect the culture of the Island during its heyday. For more information about Association Island, see: http://www.elfun.org/history/history.asp. For the post-GE fate of Association Island, see http://www.airvresort.com/History.htm.

Segment 3: "From the Pacifica Vault: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on Writing" (1970).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 58:18.
From Pacifica Radio Archives, we present a talk by the novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., delivered in November 1970 to New York University students. Vonnegut, after spending two years at the University of Chicago as a graduate anthropology student and working as a reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau, moved to Schenectedy, NY to work as a publicist for General Electric at their Research and Development Laboratory. His brother, Dr. Bernard Vonnegut, an Atmospheric Science specialist, was already employed there and was an important factor in his brother's choice of coming to GE (several years earlier, in 1946, Bernard Vonnegut had demonstrated the use of silver iodide as ice-forming nuclei useful to "seeding" clouds to augment rainfall -- important work that inspired Kurt Vonnegut's later work,Cat's Cradle). It was at General Electric, surrounded by brilliant scientists and engineers, that Kurt Vonnegut's fiction writing career began. While employed by the firm, he began writing short stories. On February 11, 1950, Collier's published his first story, "Report on the Barnhouse Effect." By the following year, he was already successful enough as a writer to quit his job at GE and move to Cape Cod. In 1952, he published his first novel, Player Piano, a sort of dystopian roman � clef,which was -- on one level -- a critique of the technocratic society represented by General Electric.
Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007. For more information about him, see any of the widely available obituaries now on line.

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April 12, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: Pastures of Plenty (Program 4): 1990s-Present ~ The Future of Farm Labor
Pastures of Plenty is a four-part radio series exploring the lives of farm workers in California from Statehood to the present. It was produced by Rachel Anne Goodman, who has been producing short features and documentaries since the early 1980's. Her many productions include "Southern Songbirds: The Women of Early Country Music", "The DNA Files" (Managing Editor) and "The Boomtown Chronicles". When not producing, she teaches radio journalism. This is her latest documentary production.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: "What does it mean that the vast majority of California farm workers are illegal immigrants? As border control efforts close off the pipeline for workers, who grows the crops? Will a guest worker program be any different from the Bracero program? Is California�s growing organic industry any more just to its workers? Where are the unions in all of this? In this program, we hear from berry pickers and flower workers about border crossings, unions, immigration, and living beneath the radar. Jim Hightower speaks about American farm worker policy, and we meet a farmer, Delphina Corcoles, who has moved from being a farm worker, to owning her own organic farm. We also hear from a college graduate who chose to go back to berry picking rather than leave the land and work in an office." For more information about this and the other segments -- and about how you can obtain CD copies, go to: http://www.coastridge.org/.
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 33:58.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:11.

Segment 2: "From the Archives: Vox Pop, Ed Sullivan, Merrill's Marauder's, and Japanese-American Soldiers in World War II(1944).
Parks Johnson, an advertising salesman for KTRH in Houston, Texas, created an on-the-street radio quiz show which soon turned into a traveling audience participation radio program broadcast from around the U.S. (and even abroad). The program lasted from 1932 until 1948 and was affiliated with NBC until 1939, and then CBS. Though it changed over the years, the show's dedication to giving the public access to the airwaves was one constant throughout its life. Occasionally, Johnson would bring in guest co-hosts to interview various inviduals from the audience, as he did on August 21, 1994, when Ed Sullivan joined him in the Army Redistribution Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey to interview various armed force personnel returning from abroad. In this short excerpt from the show, one lieutenant -- a member of the famous Merrill's Marauders -- narrates the intelligence work of a Japanese-American soldier's contribution to the war effort and expresses his regrets over how Japanese-Americans are being treated at home, in the U.S.
At the time of this broadcast, byt he way, Sullivan was a well-known entertainment reporter for The New York Daily News as well as New York radio broadcaster. It wasn't until 1948, when CBS hired him, that he became a TV variety show host. For more information about Vox Pop, go to http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/COLLECTIONS/voxpophome.html, the University at Maryland's Library of American Broadcasting's excellent on line Vox Pop history site. For a short biography of Sullivan, go to: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sullivaned/sullivaned.htm.
Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:07.

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April 5, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: Pastures of Plenty (Program 3): 1950�s - 1980�s Destination, El Norte: Braceros, Campesinos and the U.F.W.
Pastures of Plenty is a four-part radio series exploring the lives of farm workers in California from Statehood to the present. It was produced by Rachel Anne Goodman, who has been producing short features and documentaries since the early 1980's. Her many productions include "Southern Songbirds: The Women of Early Country Music", "The DNA Files" (Managing Editor) and "The Boomtown Chronicles". When not producing, she teaches radio journalism. This is her latest documentary production.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: "The Bracero program was a guest worker program which allowed growers to bring workers under contract as field laborers for a specified time. Ignacio Gomez was a Bracero in the 1950�s and talks about how his view of America changed after he got to Salinas, and why he�s seeking money still owed to him. Sabino Lopez, who came to Salinas to pick lettuce, was a UFW leader for years until they parted ways. Luis Valdez and Andy Imutan were both part of the United Farm Workers movement, from different angles. Luis Valdez was a migrant farm worker as a child, moving from one farming town to another, then back to their home in Delano. Later he would become involved with Cesar Chavez� movement for justice in the fields by creating Teatro Campesino. Andy Imutan, a Filipino labor organizer, was a leader during the early years of the United Farm Workers union. Cesar Chavez talks about how his early experiences as a migrant farm worker shaped his view of the world." For more information about this and the other segments -- and about how you can obtain CD copies, go to: http://www.coastridge.org/.
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 33:24.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 18:59.

Segment 2: "Deportee (1948) ~ A History of the Song and What Inspired It." (1940).
Due to copyright restrictions, we can't archive any version of Woody Guthrie's Deportee on our site, but many are widely available -- sung by Joan Baez, the Byrds, Woody himself, Arlo Guthrie, and dozens of other singers. Our brief on-air segment -- linked to the subject of our main documentary -- focused on the history of the 1948 song, what inspired Guthrie to write it, and on Martin Hoffman, the man who wrote the music for it several years later. For the article about the original plane crash that inspired Woody Guthrie's lyrics, see: http://www.picacho.org/interest/dc3-site.html. Marty Hoffman, a schoolteacher friend of Woody Guthrie who taught at an Indian reservation, wrote the lyrics for the song in the 1950s. Hoffman, by the way, committed suicide and inspired a tribute song by another friend, Judy Collins (see "Song for Martin" on Judy Collin's 1973 album True Stories and Other Dreams).

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March 29, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: Pastures of Plenty: Part 2 ~ The 1920-1940�s, Hard Times in the Country: Europeans, Okies and Fruit Tramps.
Pastures of Plenty is a four-part radio series exploring the lives of farm workers in California from Statehood to the present. It was produced by Rachel Anne Goodman, who has been producing short features and documentaries since the early 1980's. Her many productions include "Southern Songbirds: The Women of Early Country Music", "The DNA Files" (Managing Editor) and "The Boomtown Chronicles". When not producing, she teaches radio journalism. This is her latest documentary production.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: "This program looks at the European immigrants who came to work the fields of California. We�ll tour the farms of Ivano Comelli, son of an Italian farm worker, and Nita Gizdich, Croatian-American apple farmer. The decade of the 1930�s was marked by bloody labor battles across the state, in places like Pixley and Salinas, as workers began to demand their rights. As times got harder, thousands of families took to the roads, picking crops up and down the Central Valley. The Okies joined the migrant stream in 1935, swelling the ranks of unemployed pickers. We also hear about El Repatriacion, where law enforcement and immigration officials deported nearly 400,000 Mexican and American citizens of Mexican descent. We think we know this chapter of our history, but we haven�t heard this part. Hosted by Luis Valdez. Produced and narrated by Rachel Anne Goodman."
Our thanks to Rachel Goodman for permission to archive her series here. For more information about it -- and about how you can obtain CD copies, go to: http://www.coastridge.org/.
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 33:40.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:03.

Segment 2: Excerpt from Dr. Rexford G. Tugwell on 'What should America do for the Joads?' -- from "America's Town Meeting of the Air." (1940).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 9:48.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck's most famous novel, focuses on the plight of agricultural workers during the Great Depression. It stimulated considerable controversy in the 1930s about the nature of agrarian labor exploitation. On March 7, 1940, "America's Town Meeting of the Air" (a public affairs radio program broadcast on the NBC Blue Network from 1935 to 1956) addressed that issue with a program titled, "What should America do for the Joads?" from which this audio excerpt is taken. In the segment aired, former New Dealer Rexford Tugwell offers his reading of the problem and its roots. For more information about Tugwell, see this short on-line bio: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USARtugwell.htm, or read on.
The following bio comes from the Rexford Tugwell Papers finding aid, at the FDR Library: "Rexford G. Tugwell was born in Sinclairville, New York, on July 10, 1891, and grew up in the rural areas of western New York. He was educated at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania, obtaining his doctorate in economics from that institution in 1922. Throughout most of his adult life, Tugwell was associated with the academic community. In 1932 he had an opportunity to put his economic theories to practical use. With two Columbia colleagues, Raymond Moley and Adolf Berle, he became a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Brains Trust". Among other things, he was involved in planning the Agriculture Adjustment Act. Tugwell was a champion of the public interest and advocated more government control over business. His strong opinions and aversion to compromise made him a very controversial figure during his years in public life. In 1933 Tugwell was appointed an assistant secretary in the Department of Agriculture. He soon became involved in an attempt to reform the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. A year later he was made Under Secretary of Agriculture and, in 1935, Director of the Resettlement Administration. His particular interest was in suburban resettlement, which included the concept of the greenbelt or garden city. After the 1936 election, Tugwell resigned from the Government. Following a brief stint as a vice president of the American Molasses Company, he was appointed chairman of the planning department of the New York City Planning Commission in 1938. In this post Tugwell displayed both a thorough knowledge of planning and a talent for administration, which won for him the admiration of his colleagues. He was also able to use these talents effectively as governor of Puerto Rico. When he was appointed governor in 1942, plans for a socio-economic revolution in Puerto Rico had already been made. Tugwell's greatest contribution was in helping to set up a strong and efficient administration to serve as a base for the revolution. He was the last colonial governor appointed to office. After his term in office, the citizens of Puerto Rico were given the power to elect their own public officials. Tugwell returned to teaching in 1946, becoming professor of economics and director of the Institute of Planning at the University of Chicago. He continued to serve as a member of the Caribbean Commission and as an advisor on Puerto Rican affairs. In 1957 Tugwell retired from the University of Chicago and from the Caribbean Commission but remained active as a lecturer and writer. The many books he wrote include THE STRICKEN LAND, 1946; A CHRONICLE OF JEOPARDY, 1955; THE DEMOCRATIC ROOSEVELT, 1957; THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY, 1960; THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS, 1962; F.D.R.: ARCHITECT OF AN ERA, 1967; THE BRAINS TRUST, 1968; and IN SEARCH OF ROOSEVELT, 1972. Tugwell was affiliated with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California, from 1957 until his death on July 21, 1979."

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March 22, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: Pastures of Plenty: Part 1 ~ Sailing East: Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos in the Fields.
Pastures of Plenty is a four-part radio series exploring the lives of farm workers in California from Statehood to the present. It was produced by Rachel Anne Goodman, who has been producing short features and documentaries since the early 1980's. Her many productions include "Southern Songbirds: The Women of Early Country Music", "The DNA Files" (Managing Editor) and "The Boomtown Chronicles". When not producing, she teaches radio journalism. This is her latest documentary production.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: "California is the top-producing agricultural state in the U.S., and as such, relies heavily on manual labor to feed the nation and the world. But who are those people bent over the rows? We usually see them from a distance. This series brings them up close. Through oral histories of workers and their descendants, historians, and archival audio, we hear about how lives were built, and some times broken, in the fields of California. We begin with Part 1: "Sailing East: Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos in the Fields." This segment charts the arrival of three different immigrant groups to the fields of California: the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Filipinos. Each brought their own culture, religion and farming skills to this country, and each endured racist attacks of one kind or another.Through their horticultural skills and relentless labor, they laid the groundwork for California's rise as the premier agricultural state in the U.S. The program contains oral histories, visits to historic sites, readings, music and anaylsis from historians. Hosted by Luis Valdez. Produced and narrated by Rachel Anne Goodman."
Our thanks to Rachel Goodman for permission to archive her series here. For more information about it -- and about how you can obtain CD copies, go to: http://www.coastridge.org/.
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 34:00.
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:00.

Segment 2: Excerpts from John Muir's The Yosemite (1912).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 13:37.
From the California fields to the California mountains -- today we visit the life and career of John Muir with this selection from one of his classic works, The Yosemite (1912). And once again, kudos to the folks and volunteers at LibriVox who helped bring us this reading (specifically pur appreciation to Denny Sayers, who reads this selection). Scotch-born Muir (1938-1914) is perhaps one of this nation's most famous preservationists; his life and works influenced several generations of nature lovers. In 1892, he helped found one of America's most famous preservationist organizations, the Sierra Club.
As the Sierra Club's extensive Web sit on Muir notes, he was "one of California's most important historical personalities. He has been called 'The Father of our National Parks,' 'Wilderness Prophet,' and 'Citizen of the Universe.' . . . As a wilderness explorer, he is renowned for his exciting adventures in California's Sierra Nevada, among Alaska's glaciers, and world wide travels in search of nature's beauty. As a writer, he taught the people of his time and ours the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage. His writings contributed greatly to the creation of Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks. His words and deeds helped inspire President Theodore Roosevelt's innovative conservation programs, including establishing the first National Monuments by Presidential Proclamation, and Yosemite National Park by congressional action." In our audio selection, Muir describes his early explorations of the Yosemite Valley. For John Muir's writings, go to: http://www.yosemite.ca.us/john_muir_writings/; for information about the man, go to the Sierra Clib site devoted to his life and work: http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/. For the full reading of The Yosemite, go to the LibriVox site: http://librivox.org/the-yosemite-by-john-muir/.

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March 15, 2007
Segment 1: "Crime Without Punishment: Sexual Slavery In World War II"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:10
Dialogue host George Liston Seay talks with T. Kumar, Director of Advocacy for Asia with Amnesty International, about a new Amnesty International report focusing on the imprisonment and forced sexual slavery of women by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. The report particularly tells the stories of women who talk about the ways in which their experience have affected their entire lives. This discussion is particularly timely given reports this week that the Japanese government denies involvement in the sexual slavery of women in World War II. "The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe repeated Friday that there was no proof that the Japanese military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II. In a written statement endorsed by the cabinet, the government referred to a study from the early 1990s and said that �among the materials it discovered, it did not come across any that directly show that the military or authorities so-called forcibly led away� the women, known euphemistically as comfort women." (New York Times, March 17, 2007.)

Segment 2: From the Archives: FDR Promise of Phillipine Independence
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:53
At the Treaty of Paris in December of 1898, following the Spanish-American War, Spain sold the Phillipines to the United States for 20 million dollars. In this 1943 speech, which comes from the National Archives, President Franklin Roosevelt promises independence for the Phillipines as soon as the dangers of war no longer posed a threat.

Segment 3: Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz on Ending the Bracero Program (1966).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 8:23.
The Bracero Program, initiated in 1942, was a guest worker program that brought Mexican agricultural workers to the US to meet the need for unskilled labor during World War II. The Program continued through 1964 when Secretary of Labor Wirtz ended the program in an effort to make these jobs available to US citizens. In this audio segment from the National Archives Wirtz outlines his assessment of the labor market in the aftermath of the end of the Bracero Program and provides some insight into the attitudes and perceptions surrounding a significant episode in American immigration history. William Willard Wirtz was Secretary of Labor between 1962 and 1969, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, Archives II, College Park, Maryland. For a short biography of Wirtz, go to the Miller Center of Public Affairs' Web site devoted to him: William Willad Wirtz Biography.

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March 8, 2007
Segment 1: Squonk Opera
Excerpts from a special live Talking History with the creators and performers of Squonk Opera, preparing for the premiere performance of Albany: the Opera coming up in April at the University at Albany Performing Arts Center. We talked with them about how they use historical, archival, and contemporary research to create multimedia artistic works based on a specific place-and we listened to musical excerpts from some of their previous works. More details about our guests, Artistic Directors Jackie Dempsey and Steve O�Hearn, and Video Designer Buzz Miller are available at the Squonk Opera Web site.
Part I: Real Media. MP3. Time: 18:08
Part II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 18:39

Segment 2: From the Archives: Excerpts from Nellie Bly's "Ten Days in a Madhouse"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 8:22.
Born in 1864 to a wealthy Pittsburgh family, Elizabeth Jane Cochran changed her name to Nellie Bly to avoid embarrassing her family when she pursued a career as a journalist. Tired of reporting on the theater and arts, she convinced Joseph Pulitzer to let her go undercover at the Women's Lunatic Hospital, feigning insanity, so that she could report on conditions of neglect and mistreatment for the New York World. The result was Ten Days In A Madhouse. The audio excerpts are from LibriVox, at librivox.org Bly was among the early practioners of this form of investigative journalism that was a precursor to the muckraking journalists of the Progressive Era.

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March 1, 2007
Segment 1: "W. Willard Wirtz (former Secretary of Labor) on 'Employment and Civil Rights.'" (1966).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 13:40.
William Willard Wirtz was Secretary of Labor between 1962 and 1969, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He worked aggressively to insure employment rights for African Americans and to implement a policy of affirmative action without quotas. Here, in a selection from a speech delivered before the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund Conference, in New York City, on May 18, 1966, he explains some of his views on employment on -- as his speech was titled -- "Employment and Civil Rights." Source: National Archives and Records Administration, Archives II, College Park, Maryland. For a short biography of Wirtz, go to the Miller Center of Public Affairs' Web site devoted to him: William Willad Wirtz Biography.

Segment 2: "Dr. Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram on Uncrowned Queens." (January 3, 2007)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 17:35
Dr. Barbara A. Seals Nevergold, Ph.D. and Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram, founders of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc., talk about the origins and goals of "Uncrowned Queens," a project devoted to recognizing and celebrating the varied accomplishments and contributions of African American women in the last century in Buffalo, N.Y. and in other communities around the nation. For more information about the project, go to: www.uncrowned.queens.

Segment 3: "From the Archives: Lyndon Baines Johnson Senatorial Campaign Speech, 1941."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:14.
This is a rare recording of Lyndon Baines Johnson during his first senatorial campaign. It was recorded at San Marcos, Texas in 1941. Johnson was running for the remaining term of Senator Morris Sheppard, who had recently died. Johnson lost the race to W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel by 1,311 votes. Source: National Archives, Archives II, College Park, Maryland. For more information on Johnson's Senatorial career, see: Lyndon B. Johnson: Master of the Senate .

Segment 4: "An Uncrowned Queen: Eva M. Noles."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 20:24.
This edited segment of an interview with Eva M. Noles, the first black nurse to train in Buffalo and the former Director of Nursing at Buffalo's world-renowned Roswell Park Cancer Institute, is part of the growing collection of autobiographical accounts of African American women collected by the Uncrowned Queens Project. For more information about Eva M. Noles, go to: http://wings.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens/files/noles.htm. See www.uncrowned.queens for more information on the Uncrowned Queens project.

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February 22, 2007
Segment 1: "Is Freedom Academic?" Part I
Real Media. MP3. Time:37:04
From the the Vault of the Pacifica Archives: "In 1964 the Free Speech Movement took place the University of California at Berkeley. Journalists from KPFA and Pacifica caught the whole thing on magnetic audio tape, which has since been securely housed deep within the vault of Pacifica Radio Archives. In 1965, KPFA, using the actuality they had just recorded, produced a gripping and incredibly informative documentary on the protests entitled "Is Freedom Academic?" These are excerpts from this documentary.

Segment 2: "Is Freedom Academic?" Part II
Real Media. MP3. Time: 15:50
In a recent interview, From the Vault producer Christopher Sprinkle speaks with New York University Professor Robert Cohen, co-editor of the 2002 book The Free Speech Movement, Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s and author of a yet-to-be-released book on the political life of Mario Savio.

Segment 3: "The British Riot Act of 1714/15"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:30
At a time of social unrest, the British Parliament passed the Riot Act in 1714 during the reign of George II. The act sought to put an end to unruly gatherings by providing for dispersal of assembled groups of 12 or more "on pain of death." Further details at librivox.org

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February 15, 2007
Segment 1: "Cavalry, Caravans and Christians: Genghis Khan and Europe's First Global Age."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 29:31
From Radio Netherlands, this 2006 documentary produced by Marijke van der Mee 800 years after Genghis Khan united the Mongols into one nation, focuses on the lasting impact of the Mongol invasions on Europe. As described by the producer: "Within a generation of uniting the nomad tribes of the Eurasian Steppes into one unified Mongol nation in 1206, Genghis Khan and his sons gained control of the largest contiguous land empire in history. This [last] year's 800th anniversary of the rise to power of Genghis Khan offers a welcome opportunity to look at the immeasurable impact that the Mongol empire and conquests have had on Europe to this day."

Segment 2: "John Foster Dulles: 'America and Korea: The Interdependence of Independence'" (1950).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 11:08
This speech by John Foster Dulles, "America and Korea: The Interdependence of Independence," was delivered at the Sesquicentennial Fourth of July Celebration at the Washington Monument, in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 1950. It addresses the implications of the recent invasion of South Korea by North Korea. In that same year, Dulles published War or Peace, a critical analysis of the American policy of "containment" of Communism -- then promoted by many foreign policy pundits. Dulles criticized President Harry S. Truman adn encouraged him to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy of "liberation." When Dwight D. Eisenhower became President in January of 1953, he appointed Dulles as his Secretary of State."

Segment 3: "Viet Minh Interviews on French Colonialism, April 3, 1947" (Alfred Wagg interviews Tran Van Giao and Tran Van Lon at the Inter-Asia Relations Conference in New Delhi).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 25:37.
Correspondent Alfred Wagg, covering the Inter-Asia Relations Conference in New Delhi, India, for the Mutual Broadcasting System, interviewed Viet Minh officials Tran Van Giao and Tran Van Lon. In the interview, the two discuss their "determination to expel the French from Vietnam, the non-Communist nature of the Viet Minh political program, and the difficulties attending negotiations with Indochina." The recording comes to us from the National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

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February 8, 2007
Segment 1: "Dialogue: A Past Revealed ~ Excavating Slave Burial Grounds."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:40
From Dialogue, we bring you "A Past Revealed: Excavating Slave Burial Grounds," a conversation between George Liston Seay and Dr Edna Greene Medford of the African Burial Ground Project at Howard University in Washington, DC: "When it was discovered that there were extensive slave burial grounds in Manhattan in 1991 an extraordinary aspect of American history came to light. For 21st century New Yorkers, the extensive nature of their city�s role in the slave trade came as a distinct shock. But the discovery of those graves will now give voices to the silent and assure the memory of those who were so brutally treated in life. Dr. Edna Greene Medford explains how the Burial Ground Project has uncovered their stories."

Segment 2: "Thoreau's Walden."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 08:56
Published in 1854, Walden, Henry David Thoreau's classic account of two years of near solitary living along the shores of Walden Pond, is an ode to simplicity. It is also a standing challenge to the encroaching industrial/urban civilization that was beginning to transform America. Here is an excerpt, from LibriVox [librivox.org/completed-books], taken from chapter 9 ("Ponds") of the book. For the full text of Walden, see: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/205. For more information on Thoreau, Walden, and the Transcendentalism movement, of which he was a part, see: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/.

Segment 3: "Looking Back at Winnie the Pooh."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:01.
A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books are some of the best-loved and best-selling books of all time. This segment from the Pacifica Archives' "From the Vault Remixed" series, includes a breif history of the series, 1964 readings from Frederick Crews' literary parody "The Pooh Perplex," and excerpts from a 1970 production for KPFK "Doing Nothing" (a series of readings from the Pooh books).

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February 1, 2007
Segments 1 and 3: "Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lincoln and His Cabinet."
PART I:  Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:14.
PART II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:41.

Segment 2 ~ From the Archives: A Political Radio Diatribe Against Wendell Willkie (1940).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 8:02.
This is a 1940 political broadcast targeting the Wendell Willkie/Charles L. McNary ticket. McNary and Wilkie, like Lincoln and several of his cabinet members in the previous segment, were rivals. They came together at the close of the divided Philadelphia Republican convention of 1940. At the time, McNary was Senate Minority leader from Oregon. When the obsure Willkie began to rise in popularity over the course of the convention, McNary spearheaded a "Stop Willkie" campaign -- with little success. He finally agreed to join the victorious Willkie when the latter offered him the vice presidential ticket. For more information about the campaign and election of 1940, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1940.

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January 25, 2007
Segment 1: "From the Archives: U.S. Military Films ~ Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (edited soundtrack compilation)." (1945)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:02

In 1945, military photographers were sent into various Nazi concentration camps to document the crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany. Out tens of thousands of feet of film footage, the U.S. government put together a one-hour compilation. We have extracted, edited, and slightly cleaned up the deteriorating soundtrack from this powerful cinematic document in this audio piece. Although the graphic and horrific images on the film cannot be fully captured in aural descriptions alone, the narration and interviews included here are powerful enough to stand alone. The original of the film is available at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland [NAIL#: 238.2]. Multiple copies have been made and are widely available commercially. You can find a full and free downloadable copy of the film at the Open Source Video site of the Internet Archive: www.archive.org. We will be bringing you more aural edits of important government films in the future on Talking History, so keep on visiting this Web site.

Segment 2: "Elie Wiesel on Nazi Doctor's Complicity in the Holocaust."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 04:44
In the spring of 2005, Elie Wiesel -- Holocaust survivor, author, Noble Peace Prize winner -- published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) focusing on Nazi doctors' complicity in the Holocaust. As a "data" supplement to that article, the NEJM made available an interview with Wiesel conducted by Rachel Gotbaum. We present here a short excerpt from that interview. The full version can be heard at the NEJM Web site: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/15/1511/DC1. The article by Wiesel, "Without Concience," appeared in the April 14, 2005 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 352, no. 15):1511-1513. It is available on line at: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/15/1511/DC1. For a short biography of Wiesel, go to: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/HOLO/ELIEBIO.HTM.

Segment 3: "Life After the Holocaust: Thomas Buergenthal" (2006).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 24:32.
From the program description: "With the end of World War II and collapse of the Nazi regime, survivors of the Holocaust faced the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. With little in the way of financial resources and few, if any, surviving family members, most eventually emigrated from Europe to start their lives again. Between 1945 and 1952, more than 80,000 Holocaust survivors immigrated to the United States." This piece, produced by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in May of 2006, offers a glimpse into one holocaust survivor's life -- Thomas Buergenthal. Buergenthal, after his rescue from Auschwitz, went on to become a jurist for the International Court of Justice in the Hague. For more on Holocaust survivors, see the Holocaust Museum Web site: http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/life_after_holocaust/. For a transcript, see: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007192.

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January 18, 2007
Segment 1 and 3: "Taylor Branch on 'Miracles and Myths from the King Era' (Chatauqua Lecture, 8-23-2006)."
PART I:  Real Media. MP3. Time: 31:40.
PART II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:48.
In this Chautauqua lecture, Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian Taylor Branch speaks about the legacies of the King Era and their implications for social and political justice struggles around the world. Branch is the author of the award winning trilogy, America in the King Years, chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the history of the civil rights movement.

Segment 2 ~ From the Archives: "Reinhold Niebuhr on Modern Civilization: From NBC's Town Meeting of the Air (1939)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 10:17.
Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 � June 1, 1971) was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th Century. He had a profound impact on many social and political thinkers, including Martin Luther King Jr. Niebuhr's notion of Christian realism and Christian activism resonated through the Civil Rights movement. Here he is speaking on one of NBC's Town Meeting of the Air programs, originally broadcast on February 16, 1939. The recording comes to us from the National Archives II, College Park, Maryland. For those interested in learning more about Niebuhr, see: Richard Wightman, Reinhold Niebuhr: A Biography (Pantheon). Niebuhr's papers are deposited at the Library of Congress; a finding aid is available on line at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/niebuhr.html. On-line biographical information on Niebuhr can be found at: niebuhr biography.

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January 12, 2007
Segment 1: "Fidel!" - Excerpts from a Documentary
Real Media. MP3. Time: 31:52

These audio excerpts from Estela Bravo's 2001 documentary on Fidel Castro come to us from C.S. Soong and Sasha Lily, and were originaly broadcast on 10/09/2002 on Against the Grain. The documentary, spanning 40 years of the Cuban Revolution, examines the public and the private life of Fidel Castro, a larger-than-life figure who has been both lionized as well as demonized.

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ Martin Luther King: Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance, Excerpts"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 05:52
In 1964, at the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. This week's archival audio segment is a significant portion of King's Noble Prize acceptance speech. King committed his prize money of $54,123 to the support of the civil rights movement. For a brief biography and more information about the Nobel Peace Prize see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html.

Segment 3: "Preserving the Pacifica Radio Archives: Brian DeShazor Testimony Before Library of Congress"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 16:36.
In recent years, as many of our listeners know, increasing attention has been paid to recovering and preserving our aural heritage. With more than 50 year's of broadcast recordings, the Pacifica Radio Archives holds a significant part of that history. On 11/29/06 Brian DeShazor, Director of the Pacifica Radio Archives, described the holdings and their importance at the Library of Congress' National Recorded Sound Preservation Board Public Hearing on the State of Preservation in America.

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January 4, 2007
Segment 1: "Tepe Gawra."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 20:19.
Tepe Gawra (te'pe gour�'), a rich archaeological site encompassing a series of ancient settlements dating back to 5000 BC, is located in Northern Iraq (around 15 miles to the northeast of Mosul). It was first discovered n 1927 and later explored and documented in the 1930s by Ephraim Alvagor Speiser, an Archaeologist/Philologist, and his student Arthur Tobler. Tepe Gawra is considered one of the most important and oldest archaeological sites in northern Mesopotamia. In this Smithsonian radio segment, produced around 1940, Speiser's excavation of this ancient site is recounted (with highly speculative dramartic reconstructions of the life and culture of the various communities that were represented in the two dozen distinct layers of the excavation). For a full account of the original exploration of the site, see E. A. Speiser et al., Excavations at Tepe Gawra (2 vol., 1935�50). For an excellent updating and corrective essay on Speiser's analysis, see: http://130.91.80.97:591/PDFs/45-3/One%20of%20Iraq.pdf.

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ Upton Sinclair, 1963." OFF-SITE LINK.
By way of a preface to our next segment, we present here two anecdotes by the political activist and writer Upton Sinclair. This segment comes to us from The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Audio Archive at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The full audio is available on their Web site at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/csdi/a7598.html. For a brief biography of Sinclair, see: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jupton.htm.

Segment 3: "Anthony Arthur on Upton Sinclair."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:33.
Barry Vogel, producer of Radio Curious, interviews retired English Professor Anthony Arthur about his book, Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair.� Arthur's biography was published by Random House in June of 2006, 100 years after the publication of Sinclair's classic, The Jungle. Together, Vogel and Arthur they explore some of the highlights of Upton Sinclair's life and career. Produced in August, 2006.

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