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MADE IN RUSSIA

Program 11-04-17-A

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Siberia is the name for a place we tend to think of as a metaphor as much as a destination on the map. Writer Ian Frazier indulged what he calls his dread Russia love with travels through Siberia, tracing the path of prisoners on their way to lonely exile and through mosquito-ridden swamps at the edge of the world. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore some history, stories and culture from Russia, from ballet to reality TV.

SEGMENT 1:

The cold war is over and democracy has begun. But the past is still with us in Russia. British TV Producer Peter Pomerantsev found that out when he was invited to move to Moscow to develop a Russian version of the west's popular reality shows. He tells Steve Paulson it was unlike anywhere he'd ever worked. Ballet is performed all over the world, but in Russia ballet is the route to stardom. Jennifer Homans wrote the first definitive history of ballet, called "Apollo's Angels." She tells Anne Strainchamps what makes "The Nutracker" one of the world's most popular ballets.

SEGMENT 2:

Siberia is enormous, but Ian Frazier has crossed it all, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, in a barely functioning van. He tells Jim Fleming about his "Travels in Siberia."

SEGMENT 3:

Films about the cold war were a staple of the American film industry for decades, symbols of the Atomic Age. Jim Hoberman is the senior film critic for the Village Voice and writes about cold war films in a book called "An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War." He tells Anne Strainchamps about a film called "The Next Voice You Hear."

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 11-04-17-A.

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Books & CDs:

Jennifer Homans, Apollos Angels: A History of Ballet (Random House)
Ian Frazier, Travels in Siberia (Farrar Straus & Giroux)
Jim Hoberman, An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War (New Press)

Websites:

• JIM HOBERMAN
  http://www.villagevoice.com/authors/jim-hoberman/
  
• IAN FRAZIER
  http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/08/03/090803_audioslideshow_sketchesofsiberia

Music:

• -Hawa Russia/Hawa Russian (Songs from the Film and TV Show)/Comedy Club Production
  
• -Midnight Garden/Bond/Classified/ Decca Group
  
• -Above the Clouds/ California Guitar Trio/Inviation/ California Guitar Trio
  
• -Space Race/ Steve Stanger/Space Race: Music from an Imaginary Sci-Fi Film/Steve Stanger
  

Distribution dates: week of 04/17/2011 - hour 1 click HERE for timings and cues

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

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