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Wisconsin Public Radio

SNOW AND ICE

Program 06-01-22-A

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Ice is amazing stuff. A few cubes in a glass and you have a refreshing drink. A light glaze on a highway and you have a tragedy waiting to happen. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a visit with a woman who knows pretty much all there is to know about ice. And, where there's ice, there's often snow. We'll also hear from the woman who runs the Alaska Mountain Safety Center and is one of the world's leading experts on avalanches.

SEGMENT 1:

Jill Fredston, Co-Director of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center, and author of "Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches" tells Jim Fleming how avalanches happen. She says it has everything to do with the terrain and the condition of the snowpack. Also, Bernd Heinrich has written many nature books, including "Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival." He tells Steve Paulson about frogs that survive being frozen solid and bears that convert nitrogen into protein while they hibernate sleep so that they're still in shape after sleeping for five months.

SEGMENT 2:

Piers Vitebsky is an anthrpologist who studies the Eveny or Reindeer People of Siberia. He tells Steve Paulson they keep herds of reindeer for meat, but also have personal, consecrated reindeer animal doubles, which they believe will die for them. Vitebsky's book is "The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia." Also, Mariana Gosnell is the author of "Ice: The Nature, the History and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance." She tells Anne Strainchamps why ice floats, and stories about ice bergs.

SEGMENT 3:

Lawrence Millman wrote the foreward and saw through the publication of Edward Beauclerk Maurice's diary, called "The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic." Millman tells Jim Fleming that Maurice signed up at the age of 16 with the Hudson's Bay Company and was sent to the remote Canadian Arctic in 1930. He taught himself the Inuit language and fell in love with the Inuit culture. Actor Ryan Winkles reads excerpts from the diary.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 06-01-22-A.

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Books:

• Jill Fredston, Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches (Harcourt)
  
• Mariana Gosnell, Ice: the Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance (Knopf)
  
• Bernd Heinrich, Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival (Ecco)
  
• Edward Beauclerk Maurice, (forward by Lawrence Millman), The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic (Houghton Mifflin)
  
• Piers Vitebsky, The Reindeer People: Living With Animals and Spirits in Siberia (Houghton Mifflin)

Music:

• After Vitebsky: Reindeer Migration; Music from the Far North, Argo ZRG 533
  
• Under Maurice readings and after Millman: : Inuit Throat & Harp Songs; Canadian Music Heritage Collection MH001
  
• All other music from: The Sweet Sunny North, Henry Kaiser & David Lindley in Norway; Shanachie 64057

Distribution dates:

week of 12/24/2006 - hour 1 week of 01/22/2006 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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