Bksm1119

TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE

from Wisconsin Public Radio

November 19, 1995 Programs

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1100 - 1159

Middle East

1200 - 1259

DNA

1300 - 1359

Words and Music

PROGRAM RUNDOWN

Middle East

SEGMENT 1:

Distinguished American literary scholar and prominent Palestinian activist Edward Said talks with Steve Paulson about the Middle East Peace process, Yasir Arafat, and what's really going on in the West Bank. Said teaches comparative literature at Columbia University. His most recent book is "Peace and Its Discontents."

SEGMENT 2:

Yossi Halevi is an Israeli journalist and the author of "Memoir of a Jewish Extremist." He tells Jim Fleming how his father's legacy as a Holocaust survivor resulted in his becoming a follower of Jewish extremist Meier Kahane and why he eventually changed his mind. Also, journalist Kati Marton recounts the assassination of Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte in Israel in 1948 by a gang of extremists - one of whom later became Prime Minister! Marton's book is "A Death in Jerusalem." She talks with Steve Paulson.

SEGMENT 3:

Owen Chadwick, a religious historian at Cambridge University and the author of many books, including "The Christian Chuch and the Cold War" tells Judith Strasser that religion (and certainly not the religion of Israel) does not advocate murder, but that it can be used as a weapon by nationalists and politicians to advance their own secular agendas.

11-19-A

PROGRAM RUNDOWN

DNA

SEGMENT 1:

Mary-Claire King teaches medicine and genetics at the University of Washington in Seattle. From a conference in Japan, she tells Judith Strasser that the gene she linked some years ago with some forms of breast cancer has now been shown to be implicated in non-hereditary breast cancers. She explains what the new research shows. Also, journalist Jerry Bishop tells Judith Strasser about the work on ApoE4 (being done at Duke University by Allen Roses) which links this "housekeeping gene" to Alzheimer's disease.

SEGMENT 2:

Dorothy Nelkin, a member of the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications working group of the Human Genome Project, talks with Steve Paulson about the emergence of DNA as a cultural icon. Nelkin's latest book is "The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon." Also, Ted Goertzel tells Steve Paulson that the work of Linus Pauling was critical to our understanding of the structure of DNA. Goertzel and his son Ben are the co-authors of a new biography: "Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics."

SEGMENT 3:

Robert Massie, author of "The Romanovs: The Final Chapter," tells Jim Fleming how DNA testing was used to solve the mystery of what happened to the bodies of the Czar and his family - murdered in St. Petersburg in July, 1918. And no, Anastasia is not alive and well and living in New Jersey.

11-19-B

PROGRAM RUNDOWN: HOUR 3:

Words and Music

SEGMENT 1

Composer John Harbison, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur "genius" fellowship, is writing an opera based on "The Great Gatsby." It will premiere at the Met on New Year's Day, 2000. Harbison tells Judith Strasser about the process of writing both words and music for opera, how the process is different in song composition and why poets have to be prepared to see their work changed when a composer takes it up.

SEGMENT 2:

Soprano Dawn Upshaw won a Grammy for her recording of songs by John Harbison and will appear in his "Gatsby." She tells Jim Fleming that understanding the text is crucial to her interpretation of the music, and gives some examples.

SEGMENT 3:

Meredith Monk is a composer, choreographer and director whose music uses extensive vocalizations but almost no actual words. She tells Judith Strasser that she was trained in the art song tradition but had a revelation: the voice can be as flexible, expressive and mysterious as the body. Monk's new opera is called "Atlas."

11-19-C