Fresh Loaf

StoryCorps — the independent nonprofit that’s recorded the stories of more than 40,000 people — is celebrating the first annual “National Day of Listening” today.

This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives — it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.

It’s warm and fuzzy and will get you into heaven. But it’s also a great idea. I talked to my grandmother last night on the phone and she told me about the prejudice she faced as a young German immigrant in New York City. That and that “everything’s going to get worse, Thomas.” Love ya, nanny!

For more info about “National Day of Listening,” visit the site. They’ve got a do-it-yourself kit posted as well as a guideline.

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Bestselling author and National Public Radio commentator Bailey White speaks in a throaty but quavering drawl that’s so distinctive, you can imagine her spinning leisurely yarns for hours on a front porch in her hometown of Thomasville, Ga. Her voice can be a little misleading, however. White sounds so grandmotherly that a listener may underestimate her as merely quaint, when her writing can reveal unexpected precision and perceptiveness. (more…)

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Steve Goss, host of “Morning Edition” on WABE 90.1 FM (our local NPR affiliate), was kind enough to invite me on the show to talk about the Black Mafia Family.

BMF was a $270 million cocaine enterprise that had ties to some of the biggest names in hip-hop. Its co-leaders, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and his brother, Terry “Southwest T,” were sentenced in September to 30 years in federal prison.

My BMF interview with Goss aired this morning, but you can still listen to it online.

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NPR’s interview on the significance of Obama’s victory with Atlanta’s own U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

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NPR’s Michelle Norris interviewed the Huckster on “All Things Considered” today. Not a single question or answer on squirrel munching.

I was gravely disappointed. MSNBC’s Scarborough did a much better job getting to the bottom of this topic.

SQUIRREL SHAME? Is Huckabee hiding his culinary roots?
(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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One of my favorite moments from the inaugural AJC Decatur Book Festival last year was an appearance by public-TV journalist Ray Suarez, who was pushing his latest work, The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America (Rayo).

But then, Suarez is a hero of mine. In his best moments, as the host of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” he seemed like the best-prepared, most even-keeled and fair-minded of moderators, gliding conversations from multiple subjects to callers and back. As much as I enjoy his equally balanced segments as a senior correspondent for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” it feels like so much less compared to his NPR work — by about 50 minutes daily, in fact. But hey, Ray’s a rising star; he deserves the promotion onward and upward.
Suarez will be in town Thursday (Nov. 29), at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum for a little schmooze-down from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Save your pennies; the tickets range from $50-$75.

I haven’t yet had a chance to read The Holy Vote, but loved watching Suarez do his thing at the DBF, making a compelling case for how religion has become indelibly woven into the fabric of modern-day politics and wondering very critically whether it’s a good thing.
Check out this clip from a Suarez book appearance …

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In what amounts to a serious shakeup in its programming, WABE-FM (90.1)’s insertion of the first-rate news show “The World” caused quite the ripple effect starting today. The one-hour news show from Public Radio International, a co-op effort by the BBC and Boston’s WGBH-FM, slid into the 3-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday slot— thereby bumping talk show “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross later to 7 p.m. weekdays.

That’s where the real ripples occurred, because WABE previously had a different show for each weekday’s 7 p.m. time slot. That forced the following changes:

• “Between the Lines,” the locally produced literary show hosted by Valerie Jackson, moved to 7 p.m. Friday.
• “The Infinite Mind,” the syndicated human-behavior program, moves to 7-8 a.m. Saturday as a lead-in to “Saturday Weekend Edition.”
• “Speaking of Faith,” Krista Tippett’s syndicated program on faith, religion and spirituality, moves to 7-8 a.m. Sunday as a lead-in to “Sunday Weekend Edition.”
• “City Arts and Lectures,” the syndicated arts program hosted by actress Linda Hunt, moves to WABE’s HD Radio News & Information Channel (90.1-3) at 3 p.m. Sunday. It will be the only show bumped entirely off the regular radio-dial WABE programming.

With all due respect to Hunt, “City Arts and Lectures” is no great loss. The big trade-off, obviously, is quantity for quality. What evening listeners lose in the variety of so many different quality shows is the more logical placement of the popular and critically acclaimed “Fresh Air” in such a powerful evening slot where it can gain better ratings momentum.

Plus, the addition of “The World” helps deliver high-quality international news programming for WABE at a time when everyone seems to be screaming about keeping everything local. It’s a nice addition.

Check out podcast interviews with Terry Gross and Krista Tippett previously in Creative Loafing, as well as a print interview I did with Gross awhile back.

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