Weekly Program Highlights
Friday 10/9
NOON – 1:00 PM
Fresh Air… Today on Fresh Air, celebrate late songwriter and singer John Prine. He died in 2020 from complications of COVID. To mark what would be his 80th birthday, there are events being held in and around Chicago. Fresh Air will take a look back at an interview with Prine from 2018.
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Science Friday… How did some of the most important ideas in science almost not make it outside the lab? This week on Science Friday, David Byrne talks about why some breakthrough ideas go dormant and how they wake up. Plus, a new approach to flu vaccines, and the wonders of dust.
2:30 – 3:00 PM
Today, Explained… Football is the most popular in the United States, and it’s not even a close competition. The NFL is printing money, so why is it investing in a sport you wouldn't know how to find? On Today, Explained, a look at why the NFL is investing in flag football.
6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… Tribulations of Recording: In the early 1900s, the Gennett family inherited the Starr Piano Company. When piano sales began to wane, they decided to try their hand in the recording business. Their early attempts resulted in sub-par recordings, and although they did improve a little over the years, they never reached the standard set by Victor Talking Machine or Columbia. They were, however, willing to record artists the bigger labels overlooked. In this program, hear tunes by seldom-heard musicians.
Saturday 10/10
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!… This week on Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the panelists are Mo Rocca, Katie Nolan, and Joyelle Nicole Johnson. And, country singer/songwriter Margo Price talks about her craft and then plays Not My Job.
11:00 – NOON
Radiolab… This week on Radiolab, learn about a tragic fire in 1995 in Pittsburgh that set off a decades-long investigation that sent Greg Brown, Jr. to prison. But, after a series of remarkable twists, Brown found himself contemplating a path to freedom that involved a paradoxical plea deal—one that peels back the curtain on the criminal justice system and reveals it doesn’t work the way we think it does.
3:00 – 5:00 PM
American Routes… This week on American Routes, hear a live session with Davell Crawford and some of his piano heroes, such as Davell’s grandfather, Sugar Boy Crawford. Then, it’s a tribute to Indigenous Peoples’ Day with an array of Native American voices and music from the Black Lodge Singers, Dennis Banks, Link Wray, and Redbone. Plus, conversations with Assiniboine Cree Singers, French-speaking Houmas from Louisiana, and vocal harmonies from the women of Ulali.
Sunday 10/11
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Hidden Brain… When someone we know experiences a tragedy, most of us instinctively want to help. Our comfort and prayers are often sincere and generous, but they can also be driven by something we rarely acknowledge: other people's tragedies force us to confront the possibility that our own lives are not as predictable or secure as we'd like to believe. This week on Hidden Brain, hear from Duke University historian Kate Bowler, who became fascinated by the ways people try to impose order on uncontrollable events after she was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
11:00 – NOON
This American Life… The formula for Coca-Cola is one of the most jealously guarded trade secrets in the world, locked in a vault in Atlanta, supposedly unreplicable. This week on This American Life, the show thinks it may have found the original recipe.
NOON – 2:00 PM
Sunday Baroque… Canada celebrates its Thanksgiving Day on the second Monday in October as a Harvest Festival, an occasion for celebrating and expressing gratitude for an abundant harvest. There’s an abundant harvest of excellent Canadian musicians, too. This week on Sunday Baroque, hear some of the fruits of their labors.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!… This week on Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the panelists are Mo Rocca, Katie Nolan, and Joyelle Nicole Johnson. And, country singer/songwriter Margo Price talks about her craft and then plays Not My Job.
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Latino USA… This week on Latino USA, a look into what identified Nixon Azuaje Pérez as a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A confidential informant's testimony? A rose tattoo? That he was young and living in a housing complex? After seeking answers from local and federal law enforcement, travel to Peru to search for Nixon and find out whether he was a member of Tren de Aragua. And, Guillermo del Toro discusses the 20th-anniversary theatrical re-release of his seminal fantasy horror, Pan’s Labyrinth, and how its themes of fascism, machismo, and violence against women and girls still speak to our reality two decades later.
4:00 – 5:00 PM
Reveal… This week on Reveal, take a look at debunked claims of fraud over the 2020 election that are driving an FBI investigation and attempts to change voting laws. Is this effort really about securing elections, or is it a power play that will end up impacting how Americans vote, which Americans can vote, and whether we can keep trusting the results of future elections?
6:00 – 7:00 PM
The Moth Radio Hour… This week on The Moth Radio Hour, an episode in honor of the International Day of the Girl Child, observed October 11. Hear stories from across continents and across generations about the challenges, the adventures, and the joys of girlhood.
Monday 10/12
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Special: Forever Chemicals… Tune in for a special from Collaborative for the Earth about forever chemicals. In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, the Make America Healthy Again movement and progressive environmentalists are both raising the alarm about toxic polluters. This special looks at the uphill fight to unite against PFAS and other industrial chemicals — found in everything from firefighting foam to nonstick pans. From communities living on contaminated sites and conflicting explanations for declining U.S. public health, this program asks: why has it taken so long to confront the chemical crisis hiding in plain sight?
2:30 – 3:00 PM
Today, Explained… Miles Bryan speaks with journalist and author Pamela Colloff about capital punishment and her new book, Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast.
Tuesday 10/13
2:30 – 3:00 PM
Today, Explained… Online misogyny is making frat culture even more toxic, so there’s an argument that they should be banned for good.
Wednesday 10/14
1:00 – 1:30 PM
Bioneers… We are facing the Sixth Age of Extinction and the cataclysmic loss of half the world’s biological diversity, and 80% of the remaining biodiversity is on Indigenous lands. This week on Bioneers, ethnobotanist and Indigenous rights advocate Mark Plotkin of the Amazon Conservation Team explains how scientists are helping protect the people who will protect the land, and the age-old wisdom that’s imperative for our future.
1:30 – 2:00 PM
California Report Magazine… This week on the California Report Magazine, hear from volunteers who are providing free care to unhoused people’s pets and how helping animals helps their human companions, too.
2:30 – 3:00 PM
Today, Explained… Growing anger at data centers has forced tech companies to find new strategies for marketing them to communities, including making them more environmentally friendly.
6:30 – 8:00 PM
KCBX in Concert… This week on KCBX in Concert, host Lisa Nauful brings Mozart’s lively Marriage of Figaro Overture, Bizet’s beautiful Symphony in C, and Chopin’s unforgettable Nocturne No. 1 in B-flat minor for piano. Plus, hear recordings by extraordinary musicians who have shared their talent with audiences on the Central Coast over the years: harpist Yolanda Kondonassis performing Carlos Salzedo’s Suite of Eight Dances, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers playing Piazzolla’s beloved Oblivion, and cellist Zuill Bailey in a stunning interpretation of Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1.
Thursday 10/15
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Central Coast Voices… Hear from Executive Director Esmeralda Garcia and three youth members of the Corazón del Pueblo Cultural and Creative Arts Center of the Santa Maria Valley as they speak with host Lata Murti about the organization, its recent and upcoming projects, and what Latinx Heritage Month means to Latinx and Indigenous Mixteco youth at this moment.
2:30 – 3:00 PM
Today, Explained… Learn how the left and right are now fighting to be the sexiest party.
Friday 10/16
6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… The Street: West 52nd Street in New York City began attracting musicians as the Depression arrived in 1929. At that time, it was mostly a strip of brownstone rowhouses littered with small Prohibition-era speakeasies, of which the best-known was Jack & Charlie’s. When the establishment moved in 1930 to 21 West 52nd, the name changed to the 21 Club. Prohibition’s repeal in 1933 turned those speakeasies into legal clubs, and the block became a jazz street. Spirits of Rhythm became a fixture at The Onyx, which was also where Stuff Smith and his Onyx Club Boys recorded in 1936. The Famous Door opened in 1935 with Louis Prima leading the band. The Hickory House, a steakhouse, added jazz in the mid-’30s. Kelly’s Stable, The Three Deuces, and Jimmy Ryan’s came later, as did the nickname “Swing Street.” Musicians, however, simply called it “the Street.”