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SALT OF THE EARTH
To The Best of Our Knowledge
from Wisconsin Public Radio
Homer called salt a divine substance. Salt taxes built
empires across Europe and Asia. They even sparked a revolution.
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why salt is
no ordinary rock. We'll tell you how it's changed the course of
history. Also, the gourmet salt that will cost you sixty bucks for
a small bag.
SEGMENT 1:
Mark Kurlansky
is the author of "Salt: A World History."
He tells Steve Paulson that salt made food a tradable commodity
and that it inspired revolutions from India to France. Because
people have to have salt, governments want to control and tax
it. Also, Corby Kummer, food
writer for the Atlantic Monthly,
tells Anne Strainchamps about French fleur de sel and it's
Portugese cousin flor de sal. They're exotic and expensive
gourmet sea salts that taste fabulous.
SEGMENT 2:
Salt even shows up on Star Trek™, and we have
a clip to prove it. Also, French chemist Pierre
Laszlo tells Steve Paulson that our bodies need salt
to prevent dehydration and that removing the salt from seawater
isn't that hard, but it's very expensive. Also, Goshen college
theologian Jo Ann Brant talks
about interpreting the story of Lot's wife, who gets turned into
a pillar of salt.
SEGMENT 3:
Field biologist Alan Rabinowitz
has spent decades studying tigers and leopards in Thailand. His
book "Beyond the Last Village,"
recounts his time in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma.) He tells
Steve Paulson that even the Burmese government didn't really know
what was there. He found a new species of deer; met the remnants
of a tribe of pygmies who've chosen to let their race become extinct;
and learned that the locals hunt animals for the Chinese medicine
trade in exchange for salt.
Cassette copies are available
at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 02-05-05-A.
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Books:
- Mark Kurlansky,
Salt: a World History (Walker)
- Pierre Laszlo, translated by Mary Beth Mader,
Grain of Life (Columbia)
- Alan Rabinowitz, Beyond the Last Village:
A Journey of Discover in Asia's Forbidden Wilderness (Island
Press)
Music:
- After Mark Kurlansky: Dan Berggren & Dan Duggan
w/ "White Sand and Salt Water" Sleeping Giant Records
- After Corby Kummer: Michael Cooney w/ "NaCl (The
Sodium Chloride Song)"
- Steve & Rosalind Barnes w/ "Sea Salt" Western Wave
Productions
- After Pierre Laszlo: Iris w/ "Salty Fish" Voix
Celeste Records
- After Jo Ann Brant: Judy Collins w/ "Salt of the
Earth" Elektra
- After Alan Rabinowitz: Banco de Gaia w/ "No Rain"
Distribution dates:
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Questions and comments can
be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org
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