Weekly Program Highlights
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Friday 10/15
1:30 – 2:00 PM
Making Contact… As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017, a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover. Hear part two of stories about community-rooted responses to disaster in California, from the fires to the pandemic. Learn about the mutual aid networks people built, how they translated emergency messages into Spanish and indigenous languages, and disseminated crucial recovery information to their communities.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Hidden Brain… Self-criticism is often seen as a virtue, but psychologist Kristin Neff says there’s a better path to self-improvement: self-compassion.
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Fresh Air… Hear an interview with Stephanie Land, author of the memoir Maid. The Netflix miniseries of the same name is adapted from the book, which chronicles her life as a single mother after fleeing an abusive relationship. Land cleaned houses for a living, lived temporarily in a homeless shelter with her daughter, and eventually went to college and became a writer.
6:30 – 7:30 PM
Club McKenzie… Phrasing: Whether it’s through voice or a musical instrument, in order to stand out, jazz performers realized they had to have their own identity rather than copying someone else. Phrase and intonation created originality that captured the listeners’ ear.
Saturday 10/16
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!… This week on the NPR news quiz, hear a “Best of” show with panelists Joel McHale, Dr. Ellen Stofan, Tariq Trotter, and Phillipa Soo. Plus, more from Dulcé Sloan’s first live appearance on the show.
11:00 – NOON
Radiolab… Explore three topics with nothing in common, other than they are all questions asked by Radiolab. Find out why a small tribe in Kenya is home to the world's fastest runners, what happens to New York City's poop after it's flushed, and why kids aren't afraid of quicksand anymore.
3:00 – 5:00 PM
American Routes… It’s a celebration of epic moments in American music from the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals. First, a tribute to the Newport Jazz Festival with performances by Ray Charles, Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, and a visit from trumpet legend Clark Terry, who played with Duke Ellington during his 1956 comeback. Then, the late festival founder George Wein shares his memories, such as the 1959 founding of the Folk Festival, and folk singer Joan Baez recalls her Newport experiences. Plus, Newport performances from Doc Watson, John Lee Hooker, and more.
5:00 – 6:00 PM
The Thistle and Shamrock… Nature often inspires scientists to create technologies that benefit humanity with innovations known as biomimicry. Similarly, hear music that takes a leaf out of nature’s book by turning to the natural world for inspiration, and sometimes even echoing the sounds of nature, including songs from John Doyle and Nickel Creek.
Sunday 10/17
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Reveal… Billey Joe Johnson, Jr., was a Black teenager and Mississippi high school football star headed for the big time. In 2008, he died during a traffic stop with a white deputy, and police say the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But for Johnson’s family, that explanation never made sense, and they’ve been searching for answers ever since. In the first episode of this seven-part series, take a look at what happened to Johnson — and what justice means in a place haunted by its history.
11:00 – NOON
This American Life… Hear stories about getting from point A to point B—with expert assistance.
NOON – 3:00 PM
Sunday Baroque… Improvising was an important skill for musicians in the baroque era. This weekend, hear tunes that feature sixteenth century music played by performers with a twenty-first century sensibility.
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Our Body Politic… Hear from Dr. Anita Hill on the intersection of gender and race-based assault, and how to protect Black women in the workplace. Thirty years after catapulting into the public eye, she reflects on the work left to be done to end gender violence.
6:00 – 7:00 PM
The Moth Radio Hour… Stories about Red Sox, Jerusalem, and coming home: a father bonds with his son over baseball; a boy realizes that his single father is not a superhero; a worker gets a knife pulled on her at a homeless shelter; a newly divorced mother is evicted from her home; and a young writer moves to Jerusalem with the hope that peace will break out.
Monday 10/18
1:00 – 2:00 PM
SPECIAL: Windfall… The United States is poised for the birth of a massive, lucrative, and promising new industry: offshore wind energy. Offshore wind represents one of the world’s sharpest knives in the fight against climate change. This special investigates the launch of a brand new American industry, the political chicanery that has delayed it, and how past failures define future success at a time when the government is poised to take real action on climate change. Ultimately, this is a story about power – who has power, where does it come from, and who benefits.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
The Splendid Table… This week, it's all about Chinese food in America. Hear a conversation with chef Lucas Sin of Junzi Kitchen, who also sticks around to help host Francis Lam answer listeners’ Chinese cooking questions. Then, head to Kansas City to hear the story of the Ng family’s legendary Chinese food empire.
Tuesday 10/19
1:00 – 2:00 PM
TED Radio Hour… After an exhausting year for everyone, how can we bring what's been dormant back to life? This hour, TED speakers explore ways to revitalize our minds, bodies, buildings — and even populations.
Wednesday 10/20
1:00 – 1:30 PM
Bioneers… From the Canadian tar sands to the oil and natural gas fields of North America and the Amazon jungle, Indigenous peoples of the North and South are converging in one struggle. Part of the struggle is also the reconciliation of two different ways of knowing and being between the head and heart, a prophecy sometimes called The Eagle and The Condor. Five Indigenous women explain how to keep fossil fuels in the ground and uphold humanity’s role in the hoop of life.
1:30 – 2:00 PM
IdeaSphere… According to former executive Morris Pearl, if you want to rig an economy, start with the tax code. He and co-author Erica Payne take readers on an enlightening tour of America’s tax code in their new book, Tax the Rich!: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
On Being… We’re in a time as thick with uncertainty as with possibility. Many of us are exhausted and yet opening to what we’ve learned and have been called to at this moment. Toward nourishing that, this is the second offering in a new series called “The Future of Hope” with social creative Darnell Moore in conversation with filmmaker dream hampton. The influence they wield spans from hip-hop to Netflix to the Oscars; from the Movement for Black Lives to Surviving R. Kelly.
Thursday 10/21
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Central Coast Voices… Often through the media, young boys learn the way to earn respect is to react through violence and to limit their emotional expression of anger, jealousy, and despondence. In partnership with Lumina Alliance, ReDefineSLO is a new county-wide social marketing campaign focused on the emotional, physical, and relational well-being of San Luis Obispo’s pre-teen boys in an effort to decrease incidents of violence in the community. Host Kris Kington-Barker speaks with guests from Lumina Alliance, including Christina Kaviani, education and communications director, and Janae Sargent, prevention manager. They discuss the campaign’s goal to equip parents, teachers, and influential adults with the tools needed to have meaningful conversations and raise emotionally intelligent children.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Latino USA… In 2019, hundreds of ICE agents descended upon chicken processing plants and arrested nearly 700 workers within a community of Guatemalan immigrants in central Mississippi. In this episode, return to Mississippi to follow up with some of the people impacted by the largest single-state immigration raid in US history to see what’s changed – and what hasn’t – in their lives and in their communities.
Friday 10/22
6:30 – 7:30 PM
Club McKenzie… Jazz Speaks: In the early years, jazz was heard in the brothels and barrel houses. As it matured, the cabarets and small clubs welcomed the new music. But it took over 20 years to reach Carnegie Hall.