Democracy Now! podcast review.

Democracy Now! 2011-06-08 Wednesday

Headlines for June 08, 2011; Bill Moyers on His Legendary Journalism Career: “Democracy Should Be a Brake on Unbridled Greed and Power”

Democracy Now! 2012-02-14 Tuesday

Headlines for February 14, 2012; “Real Despair” Sweeps Through Greece as Severe Austerity Measures Demanded by E.U.-IMF Cripple Nation; “All There Is”: Love Stories from the StoryCorps Oral History Project with Founder Dave Isay

Democracy Now! 2012-02-17 Friday

Headlines for February 17, 2012; “Where Are the Women?”: Lawmakers Walk Out on Contraception Rule Hearing After Female Witness Barred ; Anthony Shadid (1968-2012): Pulitzer-Winning NY Times Middle East Correspondent Dies in Syria; Florida Lawmakers Defeat Prison Privatization amid National Push for For-Profit Jails.

Democracy Now! 2012-07-06 Friday

Headlines for July 06, 2012; As Japan Says Fukushima Disaster “Man-Made” & “Preventable,” Fears Grow for Nuclear Plants Worldwide; Peru Declares State of Emergency As 5 Die in Protest Against Gold Mine Owned by U.S. Firm, Newmont; Rendered, Tortured & Discarded: A Shocking Story of an Innocent Man’s Ordeal in U.S. Prisons Abroad; Amy Goodman in Spain on the 75th Anniversary of Guernica Bombing, Portrayed by Picasso Painting.

Democracy Now! 2012-07-13 Friday

Headlines for July 13, 2012; Green New Deal: Organizer, Physician Jill Stein Poised to Win Green Party’s Presidential Nomination; Green Party Nominee Jill Stein & Running Mate, Activist Cheri Honkala: “We Represent the 99 Percent”; Green Party Members Worldwide Join U.S. Counterparts to Forge Global Solidarity in Trying Times.

Democracy Now! 2012-07-19 Thursday

Headlines for July 19, 2012; Syrian Activist in Hiding: “We’re Not Looking for Intervention, We’re Looking for Support”; Back From Syria, Reporter David Enders Says Assad Regime Crumbling to “Grassroots Rebellion”; Assad Biographer: After Initial Hopes of Reform, Syrian Ruler Has Succumbed to Delusions of Power; Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Rate-fixing Scandal “Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine”

Democracy Now! 2012-07-20 Friday

Headlines for July 20, 2012; Denver Shooting Rampage Leaves 12 Dead, 50 Wounded in Latest of Unparalleled U.S. Gun Attacks; Subhankar Banerjee: Looming Deadline Creates Window for Protests to Stop Shell’s Arctic Drilling; Climate Parents: For Kids’ Future, Mark Hertsgaard Urges Families to Take On Global Warming.

Democracy Now! 2012-07-23 Monday

Democracy Now! 2012-08-10 Friday

Spotify podcast listening

(2011/07/03) The Backfire Effects (Media)

Edition #504 The Backfire Effects Visit BestOfTheLeft.com to share your favorite clips with your social networks! Join the virtuous cycle!

Act 1: Republican Scandal Hypocrisy – Rachel Maddow – Air Date: 06-16-11

Song 1: La Valse Des Vieux Os – Yann Tierse

Act 2: Chris Wallace Doesn’t Want to Talk about Fox News – Media Matters

Act 3: Cenk Interview re: Anthony Weiner, Republican Targets – Rachel Maddow – Air Date: 06-16-11

Song 3: M79 – Vampire Weekend

Act4: CNN Republican Debate co-sponsored by Tea Party Express – Counterspin – Air Date 06-16-11

Song 4: Kick drum heart – The Avett Brothers

Act 5: Examples of false comparisons – On the Media

Song 5: We’re simple minds – CLub 8

Act 6: Rational science facts Vs Human Emotions, Influence on Politics – Need to Know – Air Date: 06-17-11

Song 6: Burning heart – Survivor

Act 7: Why Facts Don’t Stop People from Believing Stupid Stuff – David Pakman – Air Date: 06-28-11

Song 7: Windossill – Arcade Fire

Act 8: Who Pays Limbaugh? Beck? Levine? – Young Turks

Song 8: New soul – Yael Na m

Act 9: Inaccuracies reprinted enough to become true – Counterspin – Air Date: 06-30-11

Song 9: Yeat’s grave – The Cranberries

Act 10: Jon Stewart Calls Out Fox News Bias – Young Turks Air Date: 06-20-11

Austin Music Minute: Mar 22

KUT Radio – Austin, TX

NPR: 04-16-2008 Music

NPR

NPR: Music Podcast

Stories:  1) The Raconteurs: New Music for Old Friends 2) Nine Inch Nails: ‘Ghosts’ of Songs 3) La India Canela: Hot-Blooded Accordion 4) Radio-Friendly: The Kooks, Carey and More

Echoes Interview feature – Celtic Christmas Music

Celtic music and Christmas go together as well as The Messiah by Handel and Christmas. If you want to tap into that contemplative, fireplace, snowflakes and Christmas tree mood, there is nothing like a good Celtic aire to get you there. John Diliberto looks at new releases from Enya, Loreena McKennitt and Aine Minogue.

The Progressive Magazine

Progressive Point of View

Wis. Republicans Stoop Lower

June 8, 2011 read more

Le Show – September 26, 2010

Podcast: Talk

KCRW’s Le Show (Harry Shearer)

This week from New Orleans, LA.

Musicheads for December 14, 2010

Ho Ho Ho… this time on Musicheads, Bill is joined by David Campbell and Mark Wheat. They have a little fun talking about a few of their favorite albums of 2010.   They also share a little egg nog and discuss a few musical stocking stuffer ideas!

89.3 The Current: Musicheads – Minnesota Public Radio

Hearts of Space

Produced by Stephen Hill, Steve Davis and Joseph Jacobs

Promo 835 “WUSHU”

Far East contemplative sounds from China and Japan

This week we find inspiration in a very strange place for Hearts of Space: the world of martial arts film soundtracks.

How martial arts and contemplative music relate…requires a bit of explanation. Chinese words are made of shorter words put together. The normal translation of the Chinese word “wu” is “fighting” or “military,” while “shu” is “art.” “Wushu,” therefore, means “the art of fighting” or martial arts.

But there’s a more philosophical translation, where “wu” is not “fighting” but “to stop fighting,” and “shu” means “technique.” So traditional Chinese wushu is about the technique of stopping or averting conflict. According to film director RONNY YU, “the better you are at wushu, the better peacemaker you are.” Now there’s a message that’s relevant today.

So if the most skillful form of conflict leads to peace, then the most effective martial arts music should exhibit calm, balance and serenity. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a journey in the world of Far East contemplative sound called WUSHU.

 

Flashpoints [KPFA 94.1 FM, Berkeley CA - kpfa.org]

Flashpoints for November 26th 2010

IndieFeed: Performance Poetry

IndieFeed.com Community

Big Poppa E -Frat Boy

Big Poppa E on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show Number 677.

On The Media newest podcast listenings

On the Media: September 23, 2011

It’s hack week! Discussing the meaning of the word “hacker,” the broad use of an anti-hacking law, and the Internet’s volunteer anti-hacker task force. Also, the resignation of Al Jazeera Director General Wadah Khanfar.

On the Media: September 30, 2011

The “Irvine 11″ conviction, Rick Santorum’s Google problem, and gaming as a real-life problem solving tool.

Occupy Wall Street and More

Paying attention to Occupy Wall Street, jumping the gun on reporting the Amanda Knox verdict, and a look back at Steve Jobs and Apple’s iconic advertising.

The Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street and More

The Tea Party attempts to vilify Occupy Wall Street, the Mormon church launches a PR campaign, swearing on TV as a comedic device, radical literature for children.

Occupy Everything and More

The Occupy protests go global, the shifting meaning of the word “occupy,” and Bob Garfield reports from South Africa on its state-run media, and the world of South African political satire.

 

 

On The Media current podcast listenings

October 15, 2010

People in holes, plus candidates who lie and reporters who recap

October 22, 2010

November 5, 2010

Taking the public out of public broadcasting! Plus, journalists are people too

November 12, 2010

Garry Trudeau on 40 years of Doonesbury

November 26, 2010

The internet is full, know your meme and zero views

December 3, 2010

Bill Keller of the NY Times discusses WikiLeaks, and the Arab world responds to the controversial cable dump.

December 17, 2010

The New York Times is re-reporting a story about a plane crash from fifty years ago.

December 24, 2010

January 7, 2011

January 14, 2011

January 28, 2011

Newspaper special: are papers really dead? Can Google bring them back to life?

February 4, 2011

Al Jazeera in Cairo. What is the “Arab street” anyway? And an update on our “Blow the Whistle” project.

February 18, 2011

A special, live broadcast of On the Media. Brooke, Bob, Ethan Zuckerman and other guests on the question:  will the internet deliver us or destroy us?

February 25, 2011

Inside the Libyan diaspora’s resistance movement; cheating Google’s algorithm; secrets of “most e-mailed” stories

March 4, 2011

A hacker anthropologist on the shadowy internet group Anonymous; why there may never be a Canadian Fox News; a prison inmate becomes Bernie Madoff’s PR guy

March 11, 2011

NPR under fire

March 18, 2011

Investigating whether NPR has a liberal bias and James O’Keefe on James O’Keefe

March 25, 2011

Bias and public radio, part 3; how wars get named; pundits fill the information vacuum on Libya

April 1, 2011

The conclusion of our Blow the Whistle investigation of the secret hold that killed the Whistle Blower Protection Act

April 8, 2011

For the love of slang, reporting from Libya and defending the First

April 22, 2011

Copyright trolling, sock puppets and invisible ink

April29, 2011

PlayStation’s breach, iPhone’s privacy issues, WikiLeaks’ Guantanamo leak and Obama’s birth certificate.

May 13, 2011

Data Show.

May 20, 2011

French media reacts to DSK, the Syrian regime’s digital dirty tricks

June 3, 2011

Rumors pervade the media, journalists caught in Pakistan information war and tattoo copyrights

June 10, 2011

A Texas massacre that wasn’t, a visit to internet week and a new movie about the extremes of virtual life.

April 15, 2011

On the Media reports from Cairo, Egypt!

May 6, 2011

Bin Laden exits the scene

June 24, 2011

The rules of cyber war, how “conventional wisdom” comes to be, and remembering E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Guest hosted by Mike Pesca.

July 1, 2011

An encore broadcast of our one-hour look at the history, the culture and the future of video games.  Whether you know it or not you’re likely a gamer and games are creeping into nearly every aspect of life; an hour on how far video games have come and where they’re going.

July 8, 2011

On this week’s show it’s (nearly) all scandal – News of the World!, Casey Anthony!, the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit and … scandal magnet Lenny Dysktra.

July 15, 2011

This week we explore the ‘debt ceiling’, internet self-regulation and tabloids – both now and in the 1970′s.

July 29, 2011

Fact checking the debt ceiling showdown, a journalist’s analysis of the alleged Oslo gunman’s manifesto, literally burying a story in China

August 5, 2011

A special, live broadcast of On the Media. Brooke, Bob, Ethan Zuckerman and other guests on the question: will the internet deliver us or destroy us?

August 12, 2011

This week, we look into the monolithic impact Google has on our lives for better and for worse.

Blog: Hitting a stride

Later, I wrote MANY posts on recent Podcasts I was listening to. I would post the printed description and roll on. I began to group them together for those interested to find the programs and posts they were most interested in. That fell off as I needed space on my hard drive and traveled often for work. I have since been listening to a backlog of NPR Music emails, and clearing off podcasts without posting them. I will try to do better on this score.

Podcast Update

Horizon Podcast

AARP on Health Reform

Ritch Steven, Chair of the AARP Arizona Advocacy Network, explains some of the ways AARP members, and others, will be affected by the national health reform legislation.

 

Shields and Brooks | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Health Care Overhaul Tops Week’s Agenda in Washington

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks analyze the top news of the week, including the fight over health care reform, the controversy surrounding the arrest of scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and the state of the economic crisis.

Shields, Brooks Consider Kennedy Legacy, Health Reform Prospects

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks discuss the week’s top news, including Sen. Edward Kennedy’s legacy, the health reform debate and detainee interrogation.

Shields, Brooks Examine Obama’s Moves on Iran, G-20

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks sift through this week’s headlines, including Iran’s nuclear surprise, the G-20 summit and U.N. talks.

Brooks, Marcus Discuss Potential Peace Prize Backfire, Rangel Controversy

Columnists David Brooks and Ruth Marcus discuss the week’s news, including the potential pitfalls in President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shields and Gerson Survey Health Care Outlook, Economy

Columnists Mark Shields and Michael Gerson sort through the top news of the past week, including a key vote on health care in the Senate Finance Committee, bank earning reports and conflicting data about the health of the economy.

Shields, Brooks: Obama Risks Looking Petty in Fox Fight

Columnists David Brooks and Mark Shields review the week’s news, including the coming Afghan runoff and the war of words between the White House and Fox News.

Shields and Brooks on ‘New Candor’ with Pakistan, Biden’s Poll Numbers

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks discuss the top stories of the past week, including Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan, Vice President Joe Biden’s poll numbers, and upcoming elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

Shields, Brooks Examine GOP’s ‘Morale Boost’

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks sort through the week’s news, including impending health care legislation and a worsening job market.

Shields and Brooks Gauge 9/11 Trials, Afghan Troop Decision

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks break down the top political headlines of the past week, including Justice Department plans to try five Guantanamo Bay detainees in federal court in New York, and President Obama’s Afghan strategy review.

Shields and Gerson Review Road Ahead for Health Reform

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, who is also a senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, break down the biggest stories of the week, including health care reform moves in Congress and President Obama’s pondering of a new Afghan strategy.

Shields, Brooks Analyze Obama’s Upcoming Afghanistan Announcement

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks go over the week’s headlines, including President Obama’s upcoming Afghanistan announcement and his promise to curb carbon emissions.

Latest Democracy Now! Podcast Listening 2

Democracy Now! 2010-09-22 Wednesday
Headlines for September 22, 2010; “A Departure to Be Welcomed”: Robert Scheer on Resignation of White House Economic Adviser and Deregulation Proponent Lawrence Summers; Chilean Economist Manfred Max-Neef: US Is Becoming an “Underdeveloping Nation”; As Competing films offer differing views on Faulkner killing, new evidence suggests key witnesses lied at Mumia Abu-Jamal’s trial.

Democracy Now! 2010-09-24 Friday
Headlines for September 24, 2010; Obama UN Speech on Mideast Talks “Filled with Empty Words” – Palestinian Attorney Diana Buttu; Paul Mason on _Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global_; Fatima Bhutto on the Floods in Pakistan, the Government response and her memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword

Democracy Now! 2010-09-27 Monday
Headlines for September 27, 2010; FBI Raids Homes of Antiwar and Pro-Palestinian Activists in Chicago and Minneapolis; Ingrid Betancourt: “Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle”

Democracy Now! 2010-09-28 Tuesday
Headlines for September 28, 2010; Freed American Hiker Sarah Shourd Reflects on 14 Months in Iranian Prison and Calls on Iran to Release Her Two Friends; Appalachia Rising: 100 Arrested at White House Calling for End to Mountaintop Coal Removal; As Settlement construction begins again in the West Bank, Israel blocks Jewish activists on aid boat headed to Gaza.

Democracy Now! 2010-09-29 Wednesday
Headlines for September 29, 2010; 1st US Soldier of Alleged “Kill Team” Targeting Afghan Civilians Faces Military Tribunal for War Crimes; Mudslide Buries Scores of Homes in Indigenous Mexican Town, But Massive Toll Said to Be Averted; “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration”: Isabel Wilkerson tracks exodus of blacks from US South.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-09 Tuesday
Headlines for November 09, 2010; EXCLUSIVE: As Obama Arrives in Jakarta, Secret Docs Show U.S.-backed Indonesian Special Forces Unit Targets Papuan Churches, Civilians; Widow of Murdered Indonesian Human Rights Activist Munir Calls on Indonesia to Hold His Govt. killers responsible.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-10 Wednesday
Headlines for November 10, 2010; Nir Rosen on “Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World”; “Wartorn 1861-2010″ New Doc Chronicles Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Civil War to Iraq & Afghanistan.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-11 Thursday
Headlines for November 11, 2010; Obama Deficit Commission Criticized for Proposals to Slash Social Security, Medicare; Over 50,000 Students Protest in London over Planned Cuts to Education Funding; Bloomberg Taps Wealthy Media Exec to Replace Joel Klein as NYC School Chief; Haiti cholera outbreak reaches Port-au-Prince, Congress continues to block release of aid funds; Haitian American novelist on “The Immigrant Artist at Work”.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-12 Friday
Headlines for November 12, 2010; East Timorese Journalist Marks 19th Anniversary of Santa Cruz Massacre; A Look at Argentina’s Economic Rebellion and the Social Movements that Led It; “Nieto Recuperado” – Born to Parents Disappeared by Argentina’s Dictatorship, kidnapped and raised by a military family, a “Recovered Grandchild” finds his way home; Argentine torture survivor Patricia Isasa tells of her struggle to bring her torturers to justice.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-15 Monday
Headlines for November 15, 2010; Burmese Pro-Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Freed After 15 of Past 21 Years in Detention; Moroccan Forces Raid Protest Camp in Western Sahara, Thousands Demonstrate in Madrid Against Crackdown; Author and Activist Derrick Jensen: “The Dominant Culture is Killing the Planet…It’s Very Important for Us to Start to Build a Culture of Resistance”.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-16 Tuesday
Headlines for November 16, 2010; In First Interview Since Critical Injury at West Bank Protest, U.S. Peace Activist Tristan Anderson Urges Iran to Free Jailed Hikers; Wendell Potter on “Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans”.

“Push Michael Moore Off a Cliff:” Health Insurance Whistleblower Wendell Potter Details How the Industry Attacked Michael Moore’s Film _Sicko_

Democracy Now! 2010-11-17 Wednesday
Headlines for November 17, 2010; Jury Appears Deadlocked in Landmark Civilian Trial of Gitmo Prisoner ; 45 Years Later, Former Alabama State Trooper Pleads Guilty to Killing Black Civil Rights Worker Jimmie Lee Jackson; Rep. John Lewis on Congress After GOP victory, closing Gitmo, Afghan War and Ethics Conviction of Charles Rangel; “Push Michael Moore Off a Cliff”: Health Insurance Whistleblower Wendell Potter details how the industry attacked Michael Moore’s film _Sicko_

Democracy Now! 2010-11-18 Thursday
Headlines for November 18, 2010; Haitians Barricading Streets with Coffins as Protests against U.N. Continue over Cholera Outbreak; As New York Debates Secure Communities Program, Study Challenges Controversial Policy to Deport Immigrant Prisoners; Student, prisoner advocate Tam Phan faces deportation order to Vietnam; Punk Rock legend Patti Smith wins National Book Award for memoir _Just Kids_.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-19 Friday
Headlines for November 19, 2010; National Outcry Over TSA Body Scanners and Invasive Pat-Downs; Cornel West on Charles Rangel, Bush & Kanye West and Why Obama Admin “Seems to Have Very Little Concern for Poor People”; Economist Ha-Joon Chang on Currency Wars, the G20, and Why “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Market”.

Democracy Now! 2010-11-22 Monday
Headlines for November 22, 2010; Video Report From Afghanistan: How the U.S. Counter-insurgency Campaign Is Failing; Anthony DePalma on “City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance and 9/11″; Chalmers Johnson, 1931-2010, on the Last Days of the American Republic

Latest To The Best Of Our Knowledge podcast listening.

TTBOOK: Animals and Us
Hal Herzog considers our mixed feelings about and relationships with animals. John Woestendiek wrote the story of the first commercially cloned dog. Jaron Lanier is one of the go-to thinkers about computers and society, and he loves cephalopods. T.C. Boyle’s new novel centers on the face-off between an animal rights activist and a biologist. Barbara King says human and animal history is so intertwined it’s hard to imagine one species without the others.

TTBOOK: Mind and Body
Shankar Vedantam found that a great deal of our thinking is shaped by our unconscious minds. Siri Husvedt’s seizure disorder has led her to some concludions about the nature of the self and personal identity. Francis Crick lays out his “astonishing hypothesis,” which is now the standard scientific view of consciousness. Alva Noe believes that we are not out brains. Don Lattin describes the history of the psychedelic movement of the 60′s. Sonu Shamdasani talks about the extraordinary artwork in the “Red Book” and the issues Carl Jung used it to work through.

TTBOOK: Inside Information
Shane Harris explains that our government is collecting masses of data on ordinary people in its efforts to catch terrorists. Cory Doctorow tells us why kids should know how to take their hardware apart to re-purpose it. Marilyn Johnson says librarians are emerging as heroes of the digital age. Robert Laughlin thinks the internet is full of information, but it may not be anything you want.

Latest Architecture, Urban and Sustainable Podcast listening

New Urban Architect
#008 – Designing Community: An Interview with Mike Watkins
What’s the big deal about community, anyway? How can it best be facilitated through design? Which design tools work best?Architect Mike Watkins specializes in the design and implementation of great places that foster community, and his work can be found both domestically and around the world.
In the New Urban Architect podcast #8, Mike discusses these questions and more. The audio can also be directly accessed here. Right-click to download or left-click to listen within a new window.

To the Best of Our Knowledge updates

Lost in the Supermarket: Consumerism
Rob Walker writes and talks about branding. Chuck Klosterman has some insights into TV’s “Mad Men.” Ellen Ruppel Shell discusses the hidden costs of low prices. Joel Waldfogel suggests Scrooge had the right idea, don’t buy presents. David Dalton was an assistant to Andy Warhol and talks about Warhol’s obsession with products.

The Course of Time
Brian Swimme discusses the nature of time and the human obsession with clock time. Astrophysicist Thebe Medupe relates stories he grew up hearing from his village elders and the astronomical legends of the Dogun people in Mali. Jim Crace thinks the current state of the world makes it all too easy to imagine a grim future. Ron Mallett wrote a memoir of his personal quest to travel back in time. Fleda Brown reads her poem “For My Daughter’s 40th Birthday.”

Change Over Time
Carl Honore suggests we can all improve our lives by just slowing down. Amy Gorman profiled six women aging gracefully. Father Thomas Keating believes everyone ought to practice contemplative meditation. Lera Auerbach fears the inexorable passage towards old age and death. Claire Tomalin wrote an extensive biography of Thomas Harvey, and how his wife Emma’s death transformed the rest of his life. Diana Athill reflects on time and her long editorial career.

Sequels and Spin-offs
Jonathan Gray explains what paratexts are, and why sometimes the trailer is as good as the movie. Constantine Verevis has some good reasons why so many movie sequels are being made. Susan Heyboer O’Keefe’s “Frankenstein’s Monster” picks up the story right where Mary Shelley left off. Sheenagh Pugh discusses sequels that are written by fans.

Unbridled Capitalism
David Harvey doesn’t focus on subprime loans or lending but at the internal contradictions of capitalism itself. Woody Tasch talks about the benefits of supporting locally produced agriculture and “green” companies. Margaret Atwood thinks that it’s a mistake to think about debt as simply a matter of money Anne Heller wrote about Ayn Rand, the power of capitalism, and her appeal for young people.

Three Presidents and a Queen
Stacy Schiff describes Cleopatra as a shrewd political strategist and a brilliant leader. Ron Chernow thinks George Washington was complicated and flawed, and an extraordinary political leader. Edmund Morris’s three part biography of Theodore Roosevelt picks up the story after TR left the White House. Joseph Ellis says it’s just not possible to understand John Adams without also knowing his wife Abigail.

Going Ape
Vanessa Woods explains what we should know about bonobo apes. Jane Goodall discusses chimpanzees, animal rights and spirituality. Jon Cohen asks, if we share most of our DNA with chimpanzees, what is it that makes us different? Laurence Gonzales wrote a novel about a mysterious 15 year old girl discovered in the Congo. Novelist Sara Gruen studied linguistics so she could communicate directly with the apes at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa.

Singing the Revolution
Sean Wilentz says the birth of Bob Dylan’s music is deeply bound up in the politics of his times. Stuart Stotts has written a biography of the song “We Shall Overcome.” Deb Olin Unferth describes being a vocational revolutionary in 1980s Central America. Joshua Clover leads a tour through the music of “the end of history.”

Hive Mind
Thomas Seeley describes the social organization of a bee colony. Mary Seeley is a bee keeper; TTBOOK intern John Pederson recorded her as she set up some new hives. Len Fisher differentiates “swarm intelligence” from “group think.” E.O. Wilson wrote about organization and communication among the millions of members of the colonies of certain species of ants. Jaron Lanier thinks Web 2.0 technology is erasing our sense of our own identity.

Graphic Art Grows Up
Jules Feiffer recalls that comic books were one of his greatest escapes as a kid. Michael Schumacher recently published a biography of Will Eisner, the man who is often credited with inventing the graphic novel. Denis Kitchen is an illustrator, the founder Kitchen Sink Press, and the publisher who brought Eisner’s work to the public. Robert Crumb has published a compendium of drawings by his daughter, Sophie Crumb.

Telling Addiction
Gabor Mat? is a physician at a detox facility; he says addiction is far more common in our society than we want to admit. Mary Karr chronicles her alcoholism and alcoholic family. Marshall Boswell recalls David Foster Wallace’s fictional take on Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Olivier Ameisen was an alcoholic who found relief with a drug that eliminates his cravings for alcohol. Jason Spingarn-Koff documented the experiences of people addicted to the “Second Life” computer game.

Seeing and Perceiving
Oliver Sacks has done a study of rare visual impairments caused by neurological disorders. Susan Krieger is not completely blind, but she recently got a guide dog who is now her constant companion. Ken Nordine recites his word poem “yellow,” which leads to a discussion of synesthesia. David Eagleman is a neurologist who studies synesthesia. Painter Chuck Close and his biographer Christopher Finch talk about the neurological condition that prevents Close from recognizing people’s faces.

How To Disappear Completely
Frank Ahearn is a former skip tracer who helps people disappear. Gerald Shur is the founder of the Federal Witness Protection Program. Keren David chronicles the life of a 14 year old boy who’s living as a protected witness. Paul Kinsler is an optical physicist and explains how his team carved a hole out of space-time. David Bond decided to see if he could disappear himself, and put together a film called “Erasing David.”

New Music
Musician and novelist Wesley Stace has written his first novel specifically about music. David Stubbs argues that new music doesn’t get the same respect as new art. Biographer Kenneth Silverman explores the life of composer John Cage. Lang Lang has played piano with many of the world’s top orchestras, and has written his autobiography at the age of 28.

Religion in a Secular Age
Karen Armstrong says that any god we can imagine is only a symbol for the true nature of god. Russell Shorto describes the life and work of Rene Descartes and what happened to his mortal remains. Hope Edelman sought help from native spiritual healers during a trip to Belize. Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein are atheists, and they talk about the debates pitting reason against faith.

Aging: Dying Young As Late As Possible
David Greenberger transforms the words of elderly people in his series of “Duplex Planet” zines, comic books, spoken-word performances and radio plays. Henry Alford is the author of “How To Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth.) Greg Critser describes the scientific progress against aging and the several varieties of snake oil you can buy trying to stay young forever. Meghan O’Rourke wonders if there’s a better way to be bereaved