A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

BABY BRAINIACS

Program 06-06-04-A	Listen!

They can talk to angels, they're intuitive, and their aura is an unusual vivid blue. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll find out about indigo children. The new age movement says they're here to save the world, but modern medicine says they're normal kids with attention deficit disorder. Also, a fifteen-year-old geography champ struts his stuff. And, the latest novel from Ayelet Waldman about ambivalence in motherhood and the precocious child.

SEGMENT 1:

James Maguire is the author of "American Bee." He tells Steve Paulson what sort of kid goes in for competitive spelling and what it takes to be a champion. Abd we hear some of the national spelling bee finals.

SEGMENT 2:

Ayelet Waldman is a fiction writer and essayist for salon.com. Her new book is "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits." She talks with Jim Fleming about maternal ambivalence and loving children when you don't like them. Also, John Leland is a New York Times Reporter who's written about "Indigo children." These kids, featured in a new documentary film called "The Indigo Evolution," may have an Indigo aura and a mission to change the world. Or they may be ordinary children with a tendency to ADHD. Leland tells Steve Paulson the concerns motivating the parents of these children are pretty universal.

SEGMENT 3:

Andrew Wojtanik triumphed at the National Geographic World Geography Bee in 2005. His study guide has become "Afghanistan to Zimbabwe." He tells Anne Strainchamps why he loves geography and how he prepared his book, and recalls some of the most obscure questions he's been asked. And, Ellen Handler-Spitz talks with Jim Fleming about the how imagination develops in childhood. Her book is "The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood."

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 06-06-04-A.

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Books:

• James Maguire, American Bee (Rodale)
  Ellen Handler Spitz, The Brightening Glance (Knopf)
• Ayalet Waldman, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (Doubleday)
• Andrew Wojtanik, Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (National Geographic Society)

Music:

• Texas Cadillac/ The Smokin' Joe Kubek Band/ Texas Cadillac/ Bullseye Blues
• Coconut Boogaloo/ Medeski Martin & Wood/ Combustion/ Blue Note
• Womb of the Earth/ Sashy Butterfly/ The Indigo Evolution (Soundtrack from the Film)/Emissary Productions
• It's a Small World/ Remix
• Theme from "Harrry Potter"/ Soundtrack from the "Harry Potter" films

Distribution dates:

week of 07/21/2007 - hour 1 week of 06/04/2006 - hour 1

Listen!

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