Booksum723

TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE

from Wisconsin Public Radio

July 23, 1995 Programs

Click here to return to the Main Menu

1100 - 1159

The Good Life

1200 - 1259

Climate

1300 - 1359

Country Music

PROGRAM RUNDOWN

The Good Life

SEGMENT 1:

It's back to the land, 90's style! Howard Rheingold, editor of "The Millenium Whole Earth Catalogue," tells Judith Strasser that we need new tools for independent living. Also, Steve Paulson visits with Helen Nearing, who (with her late husband Scott) launched the back-to-the-land movement forty years ago with the classic book "Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World." Helen Nearing's recent memoir is called "Loving and Leaving the Good Life."

SEGMENT 2:

Sallyann Murphy is the author of "Bean Blossom Dreams: A City Family's Search for a Simple Country Life." She tells Jim Fleming how, thanks to her neighbors, she's learned to combine farming and faxing in southern Indiana.

SEGMENT 3:

Author and screenwriter Charles Gaines explains to Jim Fleming how he came to build a new family home in a remote community in Nova Scotia. Gaines' book describing the experience is "A Family Place: A Man Returns to the Center of His Life."

12-11-A

PROGRAM RUNDOWN

Climate

SEGMENT 1:

Francis Bretherton teaches atmospheric, oceanic and space science at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He tells Jim Fleming about the weather effects of the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruptions; El Nino; acid rain; and global warming, which he believes is modest, but real.

SEGMENT 2:

Scientists pretty much agree that the Earth is getting warmer. What they fight about is why it's happening and what we should do about it. Henry Jacoby, who directs MIT's Joint Program on the Sciences and Policy of Global Change, tells Margaret Andreasen that the global climate system is very complex, but we're learning more and more about it. And, self-styled "pyromantic" Stephen Pyne tells Steve Paulson that fire is central to human existence and the Earth needs more of it. Pyne's new book (the fourth in his "Cycle of Fire") is "World Fire: The Culture of Fire on Earth."

SEGMENT 3:

In 1990, the National Science Foundation sent Elizabeth Arthur to Antarctica as a part of the Antarctic Artists and Writers program. The result in a novel - "Antarctic Navigation." Elizabeth Arthur reads a bit from it and tells Judith Strasser that she's loved snow since she was a child in Vermont, but what really interests her is extreme weather of any sort.

2-5-B

PROGRAM RUNDOWN: HOUR 3:

Country Music

SEGMENT 1

If all you listen to is public radio, you might not have noticed, but country music is huge! It's by far the most popular music in America. According to Vanderbilt University's Cecilia Tichi, that's because it treats the great themes of American culture: home, the road and loneliness. And, as Tichi tells Judith Strasser, you can dance to it! Tichi is the author of a scholarly book on country music called "High Lonesome." Also, journalist Nicholas Dawidoff tells Jim Fleming about his visit to Nashville's annual Fan Fair.

SEGMENT 2:

Up-and-coming country music sensation Iris DeMent tells Steve Paulson why her father is central to her latest album, and we hear some excerpts. Also, country musicians at the other end of their careers are apt to be working in Branson, Missouri. Donald E. Westlake, who's set his latest comic mystery novel there, tells Margaret Andreasen that Branson is an irony-free zone that's generating millions of dollars a year for performers from Andy Williams to Willy Nelson. Westlake's book is "Baby, Would I Lie?."

SEGMENT 3:

There's a new biography, by Colin Escott, of Hank Williams, the country music legend who lived hard and died young. Escott tells Steve Paulson that the life amd legend are inseparable. And, of course, we get to hear some Hank Williams!

1-29-C