Weekly Program Highlights

Friday 4/10

1:00 – 2:00 PM
Science Friday… This week on Science Friday, learn how some of the most iconic sounds in movies were made, like Godzilla's roar and the grunts and screams of our favorite movie monsters. 

2:00 – 3:00 PM
Hidden Brain… We like to think that good financial decisions come down to discipline and basic math. This week on Hidden Brain, learn how the psychology of money turns out to be deeply complicated.

3:00 – 4:00 PM                                                                                             
Fresh Air… This week on Fresh Air, meet singer/songwriter, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist St. Vincent, known for her dark poetic songs, powerful guitar riffs, and raw self expression. In her latest album, she’s backed by a 60-piece orchestra.

6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… Patterns: History books of early jazz can contain numerous references to chord structure and common patterns, and for good reason. Early jazz musicians weren't being unoriginal by repeating the same chord patterns. Instead, those patterns were the shared language — the grammar everyone agreed on — that made spontaneous, collective music-making possible in the first place. 

Saturday 4/11

10:00 – 11:00 AM                                                                                                             Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!… This week on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, revisit some of the show’s favorite conversations with actors Delroy Lindo and Rhea Seahorn, Wicked director John M. Chu, and comedian Andy Richter. Plus, enjoy some never before heard moments with the panelists.

11:00 – NOON
Radiolab… This week on Radiolab, learn about the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria on a journey from the operating room to inside the body to the farm to the sewers and back again, searching for answers to an alarming threat to humanity’s existence as we know it.

3:00 – 4:00 PM
American Routes… This week on American Routes, it’s New Orleans jazz, Baton Rouge blues and Ethio-jazz played on keyboard and accordion by Hailu Mergia, who mixes Ethiopian music with jazz, funk and soul. Then, it’s a rare, intimate solo performance by Baton Rouge bluesman Lil Ray Neal, live at the West Baton Rouge Museum. Plus, music by Dr. John, Etta James, the Meters, Aretha Franklin, Big Mama Thornton and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.

Sunday 4/12
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Reveal… This week on Reveal, the rich don’t need to go offshore to hide assets; they can do it here in the US. Hear how states compete to become the most favored tax havens.

11:00 – NOON
This American Life… In this moment when the US government is trying to make American history tidier, we try to learn from the mess. This week on This American Life, the untold, messy tale of Paul and Essie Robeson.

NOON – 3:00 PM
Sunday Baroque… This week, Sunday Baroque features Baroque era composers and their sometimes complicated relationship with money. Francesco Geminiani, for example, lived way beyond his means. On the other hand, renaissance era composer Michael Praetorius was so successful that he established a charitable foundation for the poor. 

3:00 – 4:00 PM
Code Switch & Life Kit… This week on Code Switch, a show about the use of the terms “terrorist” and “terrorism.” Then on Life Kit, a show about finding community with Priya Parker.

6:00 – 7:00 PM
The Moth Radio Hour… This week on The Moth Radio Hour, four storytellers attempt to control the outcome as the universe laughs.

Monday 4/13

1:00 – 2:00 PM
Issues and Ideas… This week on Issues and Ideas, we present the first in a series of interviews with San Luis Obispo County Supervisor candidates. The KCBX News Department sat down with each of the candidates running for Districts 2 and 4. Over the next four weeks we’ll hear from all of the candidates. And later in the show, People and the Planet producer Gianna Patchen speaks with local environmental leaders about SLO Earthfest, scheduled for April 18th.

2:00 – 3:00 PM
The Splendid Table… This week, The Splendid Table talks elemental Mexican eating with Jorge Gaviria and Fermín Núñez, co-authors of Vitamina T: Your Daily Dose of Tacos, Tortas, Tamales, and More Mexican Street Food Classics. Then, turn to elemental and experimental baking with Tanya Bush, author of Will This Make You Happy: Stories & Recipes From a Year of Baking.

Tuesday 4/14

1:00 – 2:00 PM
TED Radio Hour… This week on TED Radio Hour, host Manoush Zomorodi talks to food systems expert Sarah Lake about plant-rich diets. Zomorodi also speaks with engineer Deb Chachra about infrastructure and psychologist Michele Gelfand about how social norms shape our decisions. Finally, Zomorodi talks to urban planner Jeff Speck and Tempe resident Ignacio Delgadillo about walkable cities. 

2:00 – 3:00 PM
The Reluctant Therapist…

Wednesday 4/15

1:00 – 1:30 PM
Bioneers… This week on Bioneers, hear from Karen Washington and Bryant Terry on how Black food culture is weaving the threads of a rich African agricultural heritage with the liberation of economics from an extractive corporate food oligarchy. The results can be health, conviviality, community wealth, and the power of self-determination.

1:30 – 2:00 PM
California Report Magazine… This week on California Report Magazine, comedian Jackie Keliiaa, who hosts an all-Native standup comedy tour known as Good Medicine, discusses why laughter and telling jokes can be healing.

2:00 – 3:00 PM
Freakonomics Radio… This week on Freakonomics Radio, take a look at why 95 percent of the world’s bourbon is made in Kentucky. Is it tradition, or protectionism? And, what happens when the bourbon boom turns into a glut?

6:30 – 8:00 PM
KCBX in Concert… This week on KCBX in Concert, host Lisa Nauful brings you an evening shaped by dance, tradition, and American spirit. It begins with the lively “Hoedown” from Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, followed by selections from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, recently performed on the PAC and the Clark Center Stages. Music by Johannes Brahms and Johann Sebastian Bach adds depth and contrast, before the program closes with Amy Beach’s sweeping Gaelic Symphony—a landmark of American orchestral music

Thursday 4/16

1:00 – 2:00 PM                                                                                                                     Central Coast Voices…

2:00 – 3:00 PM
Latino USA… This week on Latino USA, John Leguizamo has played characters that have become comedy cult classics; roles that he argues would have skyrocketed a white actor to stardom, but that didn’t happen. So John began asking questions, and one kept popping up: Where are all the Latinos in Hollywood? Later, producers Patricia Sulbarán and Jeanne Montalvo tell the story of music legend Petrona Martínez, one of the most important Black singers in Colombia's modern history, but it took many years for her to get recognized as an artist.

Friday 4/17

1:00 – 2:00 PM
Science Friday… 

6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… Left Out: Wilbur Coleman Sweatman was an American ragtime and traditional jazz composer, bandleader, clarinetist and one of the first African American musicians to have fans nationwide; he was a trailblazer in the racial integration of musical groups. Sweatman was the first African American musician to be offered a long-term recording contract, and he dazzled listeners with jazz clarinet solos. His first release with Columbia sold 140,000 copies at a time when selling a third of that was considered a huge hit. Sweatman's songs sold over a million copies in 1919 alone. Yet, he gets left out of the history of jazz, despite his extraordinary career arc.