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Roundup

Audio/Video History

This page lists Internet video, audio and podcast interviews and stories that relate history to current events -- or history that politicians and pundits repeatedly allude to when commenting on current events. Also included: interviews with historians about new books. Prominent audio history sites include Talking History, NPR and BBC Radio 4.

Week of 8-1-05 VJ DAY 60TH ANNIVERSARY

  • August 7th 1945: In the 5th of the 12-part series"August 1945," marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, reporter Chris Lowe recalls events in Hiroshima -- and in Los Alamos, New Mexico -- the day after the Enola Gay dropped the first atom bomb. (BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, RealPlayer 3min)

  • Hiroshima revisited: This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II. Fiction writer Naomi Hirahara's parents were there. One parent talks about it and the other one thinks it's better to forget. Weekend America host Bill Radke talks with them about dealing with the past and their responsibility to future generations. (APM, Weekend America, RealAudio 11min)

  • Diaries tell story of Japan's war at home: Relatively little attention has been paid to the diaries of ordinary Japanese people during World War II. Samuel Hideo Yamashita, a historian of modern Japan at Pomona College, tells Scott Simon about his book, Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies. It translates the diaries of eight people who endured the war. (NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 11min)

  • 60th anniversary of Hiroshima bomb comes at watershed time for Japan: The Japanese city of Hiroshima is marking the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city by a U.S. military aircraft in the closing days of World War II. More than 50,000 people attended a somber ceremony on Saturday, and, elsewhere in the city, international groups met to renew vows to eliminate all nuclear weapons. Thousands of elderly survivors of the bombing, joined by Japanese and foreign dignitaries, bowed their heads at 8:15 a.m. -- the exact moment of the attack -- offering silent prayers for world peace and for the souls of those who died in the atomic detonation. Those who addressed the crowd at the hypocenter of the atomic explosion repeated their annual vow of no more Hiroshimas. (Voice of America, RealPlayer 3min).

  • Hiroshima today: Sandi Toksvig -- solicitor, novelist, traveller, raconteur -- discusses the 60th anniversary of one of the most notorious bombings in history, and its legacy on the vibrant modern Japanese city of Hiroshima. Her guests are Hiroko Kawanami, an anthropology lecturer in religious studies at Lancaster University, who visited Hiroshima just over 3 years ago; and BBC producer Stephen Walker, author of Shockwave: The Countdown to Hiroshima, in which he focuses on the three weeks that led up to the attack and on the stories of individuals, policymakers, diplomats, physicists, soldiers, airmen and residents of Hiroshima. (BBC Radio 4, Excess Baggage, RealPlayer 21min [00:00-21:00])

  • August 6th 1945: In the 4th of the 12-part series"August 1945," marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, reporter Chris Lowe looks back at the events of August 1945 and the final days of the Second World War. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 4min)

  • Hiroshima commemorates, Pt 1 of 2: Hiroshima commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the city's destruction by an American atom bomb. Correspondent Chris Hogg reports from Hiroshima. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 3min)

  • Hiroshima commemorates, Pt 2 of 2: Correspondent Chris Hogg in Hiroshima describes the scene at the ceremony to commemorate the moment an atomic bomb destroyed the Japanese city 60 years ago. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 3min)

  • A glare brighter than the sun: Sixty years ago Saturday, Hiroshima was devastated by a nuclear bomb that killed thousands. A German missionary who lived in the Japanese city at the time recollects the event. (Deutsche Welle, Journal, RealPlayer 2min)

  • 60 years late -- An untold story: When the atomic bomb exploded over the port city of Nagasaki, Japan in the late morning of August 9th 1945, tens of thousands of civilian Japanese died immediately. By October, many thousands more were dying of a mysterious disease, but journalists were barred from the affected areas so few accounts of the suffering would reach readers here at home. Host and managing editor Brooke Gladstone talks with Editor& Publisher's Greg Mitchell about the very first reporter on the scene, George Weller, who wrote a series of articles that were never published, until this year. (NPR On the Media, MP3 7min)

  • Keeping secrets: New York Times reporter William L. Laurence witnessed the dropping of the atomic bomb, flying with American troops over Nagasaki while the bomb was dropped. He won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories he subsequently published, many of which included details about the development and production of the bomb that he had kept secret until after the first atomic bomb was dropped. It turns out, however, that this wasn't the only secret Laurence was keeping. Host Bob Garfield speaks with author David Goodman about Laurence's secret employment as a CIA disinformation spokesman. (NPR On the Media, MP3 6min)

  • On this day, August 5th 1945 -- US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima: The first atomic bomb has been dropped by a United States aircraft on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. President Harry S Truman, announcing the news from the cruiser Augusta in the mid-Atlantic, said the device contained 20,000 tons of TNT and was more than 2,000 times more powerful than the largest bomb used to date. An accurate assessment of the damage caused has so far been impossible due to a huge cloud of impenetrable dust covering the target. Hiroshima is one of the chief supply depots for the Japanese army. The bomb was dropped from an American B-29 Superfortress, known as Enola Gay, at 0815 local time. The plane's crew say they saw a column of smoke rising and intense fires springing up. The President said the atomic bomb heralded the"harnessing of the basic power of the universe". It also marked a victory over the Germans in the race to be first to develop a weapon using atomic energy. President Truman went on to warn the Japanese the Allies would completely destroy their capacity to make war. The Potsdam declaration issued 10 days ago, which called for the unconditional surrender of Japan, was a last chance for the country to avoid utter destruction, the President said."If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on Earth. Behind this air attack will follow by sea and land forces in such number and power as they have not yet seen, but with fighting skill of which they are already aware." The British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who has replaced Winston Churchill at Number 10, read out a statement prepared by his predecessor to MPs in the Commons. It said the atomic project had such great potential the government felt it was right to pursue the research and to pool information with atomic scientists in the US. As Britain was considered within easy reach of Germany and its bombers, the decision was made to set up the bomb-making plants in the US. The statement continued:"By God's mercy, Britain and American science outpaced all German efforts. These were on a considerable scale, but far behind. The possession of these powers by the Germans at any time might have altered the result of the war." Mr Churchill's statement said considerable efforts had been made to disrupt German progress -- including attacks on plants making constituent parts of the bomb. He ended:"We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce peace among the nations and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe they become a perennial fountain of world prosperity." (BBC Radio News, RealPlayer 22sec)

  • Seeing the horror of Hiroshima: After the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, Washington sent a team of researchers to interview eyewitnesses. Only one interview was conducted in English. A Russian woman living near the destroyed city tells her tale of seeing people caught by the blast. Hear a part of her story. (NPR, All Things Considered, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 5min)

  • Would you have dropped the atomic bomb? Sixty years ago tomorrow, the crew of an American B-25 bomber dropped the first of two atomic bombs on Japan. Madeleine Brand talks with Mark Straus, editor of the magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which published a roundtable giving the responses of historians, physicists and diplomats who were asked if they would or would not have used atomic weapons to end the war with Japan. Note: This page includes links to essays by three contributors to the roundtable -- ' Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; Thomas Donnelly, resident fellow in defense and national security studies at the American Enterprise Institute; and Robert l. Gallucci, dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. (NPR, Day to Day, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 4min)

  • How is Hiroshima remembered in America? Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Producer Richard Paul examines American public opinion on the bombing that ended World War II in the Pacific. (NPR, Morning Edition, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 7min)

  • War & peace report: Host and executive producer Amy Goodman devotes today's program to the 60th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In"Hiroshima cover-up," she and journalist David Goodman call for the Pulitzer Prize Board to strip the Pulitzer Prize awarded to William Laurence and his paper, The New York Times, for Laurence's coverage of the bombings while also on the US government payroll. In"The atomic bombers speak," reporter Juan Gonzalez interviews former Col. Paul Tibbets, who named his plane Enola Gay after his mother, and former Capt. Kermit Beahan, who was part of the squadron that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, describes the bombing of Nagasaki. In"Long-suppressed Nagasaki article discovered," Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman interview the son of George Weller, the first reporter into Nagasaki after the US dropped the atomic bomb, whose 25,000-word report did not get past the US military censors. In"Film suppressed," Goodman reports on footage of the devastation after the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that was commissioned by the US occupying forces, and then suppressed for decades. In"From Oak Ridge to Lawrence Livermore to Los Alamos," grass-roots activists from around the nation commemorate the 60th anniversary of the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by speaking about the ongoing nuclear weapons activity and community resistance. In"No more Hiroshimas, no more Nagasakis, no more war," Hiroshima survivor Sunao Tsuboi is heard speaking at an anti-nuclear weapons rally in New York. (Democracy Now!, RealPlayer 46min [11:17-57:00])

  • August 5th 1945: In the 3rd of the 12-part series"August 1945," marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, reporter Chris Lowe looks at the dramatic final days leading to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 4min)

  • Hiroshima prepares for A-bomb anniversary: Correspondent Chris Hogg reports from Hiroshima for tomorrow's 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 2min)

  • Radiation sickness: From Hiroshima, correspondent Chris Hogg analyses claims that survivors of the Hiroshima A-bomb could face even worse radiation in future. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 4min)

  • Hiroshima's survivors -- The last generation, Pt 4 of 4: This Saturday is a day of remembrance for survivors of the world's first nuclear attack. It was on August 6, 1945, that the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The event marked the beginning of the nuclear age. And it marked the beginning of the end of World War Two in the Pacific. Japan surrendered nine days later, after a second A-bomb hit Nagasaki. By the end of 1945, the death toll from the bombings stood at nearly 250,000. The victims were either killed instantly ... or died soon thereafter from radiation sickness. Today, a quarter of a million people are registered as A-bomb survivors. They're elderly now. What they saw, what they remember, and what they say will help shape how future generations understand nuclear war. Note: There are photos and a transcript for Pt 4 of Patrick Cox's report on The World's website. (BBC-PRI-WGBH, The World, Windows Media Player 10min)

  • Hiroshima's Shockwave, 60 years later: This weekend marks 60 years since the B-29 bomber Enola Gay banked over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on an August morning and loosed its cargo, a 10,000-pound atomic bomb known as Little Boy. In a new book, Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima, BBC producer Stephen Walker focuses on the three weeks that lead up to the attack and on the stories of individuals, policymakers, diplomats, physicists, soldiers, airmen and residents of Hiroshima. We talk to Walker, as well as two men who were aboard the Enola Gay on Aug. 6, 1945, navigator"Dutch" Van Kirk and weapons test officer Morris Jepson, about that fateful day. Note: This webpage includes an excerpt from Shockwave and three video clips from the BBC documentary about the countdown to the bombing of Hiroshima. (NPR, Talk of the Nation, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 38min)

  • August 4th 1945: In the 2nd of the 12-part series"August 1945," marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, reporter Chris Lowe uses archive reports and eyewitness interviews to look at the dramatic final days of World War II. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 4min)

  • Hiroshima's survivors -- The last generation, Pt 3 of 4: This Saturday, many thousands of survivors of the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima will gather to commemorate the bomb’s 60th anniversary. Most still live in Hiroshima, but some have moved away, to other parts of Japan and other countries. About a thousand survivors live in the United States. For US-based survivors, living in America has been a mixed blessing. Some have struggled with their own national identity; others have struggled with discrimination. Nearly all of them have run up against ignorance -- even among doctors -- about the effects of radiation. Note: There are photos and a transcript for Pt 3 of Patrick Cox's report on The World's website. (BBC-PRI-WGBH, The World, Windows Media Player 8min)

  • August 3rd 1945: In the 1st of the 12-part series"August 1945," marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, reporter Chris Lowe uses archive reports and eyewitness interviews to look back during peace time in Europe. (BBC Radio 4, Today, RealPlayer 4min)

  • Hiroshima's survivors -- The last generation, Pt 2 of 4: Most of the nearly quarter of million people killed when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But tens of thousands of Koreans were also among the dead. More than 50,000 Koreans were living in Hiroshima during World War Two. Most of them had left Japanese-occupied Korea in search of work. In Japan, they did manual labor and were treated as second-class citizens. As the war effort intensified, Japanese authorities began importing more Koreans. They forced them into slave labor in armament factories. Several of those factories were in Hiroshima. That’s why so many Koreans -- more than 30,000 -- died as a result of the Atomic bomb. Note: There are photos and a transcript for Pt 2 of Patrick Cox's report on The World's website. (BBC-PRI-WGBH, The World, Windows Media Player 5min)

  • Hiroshima's survivors -- The last generation, Pt 1 of 4: Sixty years ago this coming Saturday a US warplane dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Little Boy was followed three days later by “Fat Man,” which exploded over Nagasaki. Six days after that Japan surrendered to U.S. forces. The Pacific War was over. Between them the two bombs killed 120,000 people outright and close to a quarter million more over time. Tens of thousands died from radiation sickness. The World's Patrick Cox has the first part of a series on Hiroshima survivors. Most of them were children in 1945. What they experienced on the morning of August 6th changed them for ever. Note: There are photos and a transcript for Pt 1 of Cox's report on The World's website. (BBC-PRI-WGBH, The World, Windows Media Player 5min)

  • Women scientists & the atomic bomb: This week marks the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb being dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In her new book, Before the Fall-Out, Diana Preston explains women's contribution to the science that helped develop the bomb, from Marie Curie's discovery of radium to Lise Meitner's work on nuclear fission. Diana also tells the rarely known story of Lise's refusal to join the British atomic development team on moral grounds by simply saying 'I will have nothing to do with a bomb'. (BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, RealPlayer 9min)

    Week of 8-1-05 SUNDAY

  • Rome stages artistic tribute to ancient cults: Senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli visits a new exhibit at Rome's Colosseum highlighting sculpture from the mystery cults of Greek and Roman antiquity. The display, accompanied by light and sound, documents many unofficial and secret religious rituals, some of whose traditions are still practiced today. Official state religion honored the greater gods of Olympus ... the gods honored in giant temples. In private, the mystery cults served as alternative religions, with Dionysian, Orphic and Mithraic rites, many imported from Egypt and Persia. The exhibit includes more than 70 statues, frescoes, Greek urns, bas-reliefs and idols discovered in central and southern Italy. Curator Angelo Bottino acknowledges that little is known about the details of the mystery rituals, since they were shrouded in secrecy. They were practiced at night, and initiation into a mystery cult was an experience of such emotional intensity that no one spoke of it. However, the cults seem to have gotten along well, and were open to all members of society, from patricians to slaves."In antiquity, there were many divinities," Bottino tells Poggioli."The important thing was to find the one that gave you hope and certainty." The exhibit will remain open until Jan. 8, 2006. Note: This page offers a photo gallery of artworks from the exhibit. (NPR, Weekend Edition Sunday, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 6min)

  • Java jive: Investigative journalist Mark Pendergast, author of Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World, talks with TTBOOK interviewer Steve Paulson about the cultural history of coffee. (WPR, To the Best of Our Knowledge, RealPlayer 11min [18:28-32:00])

  • Will Shakespeare: Stephen Greenblatt is the author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. He tells TTBOOK interviewer Steve Paulson he thinks Shakespeare's father was a drunk, leaving Will with complex feelings about alcohol, and that Shakespeare was probably the only literate member of his family (10min). Also, Grace Tiffany's new novel is called Will. She talks about the Will Shakespeare in her mind with TTBOOK interviewer Anne Strainchamps, and excerpts from her book are dramatized by actors James Ridge and Jonathan Smoots of the American Players Theater repertory company in Spring Green, Wisconsin (10min). The movie soundtrack montage at the end of the show contains Mel Gibson in Hamlet, Ethan Hawke in Hamlet, Gwyneth Paltrow as Juliet and Joseph Fiennes as Romeo in Shakespeare in Love, Emma Thompson as Beatrice and Kenneth Branagh as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and Leonardo diCaprio and others in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. (WPR, To the Best of Our Knowledge, RealPlayer 23min [29:19-52:00])

  • History of music & fashion, Pt 4 of 6 -- Fame:"Fame isn’t always linked to talent. Youth and beauty help," says presenter Andrew Ford;"So does being blind (eg Andrea Bocelli) or mentally disabled (eg David Helfgott). Death is the ultimate career break for some -- think Hendrix and Eva Cassidy -- but death can also lead to musical obscurity: Bach’s music might have been lost forever if it hadn’t been resurrected years later by Mendelssohn." Ford explores the transitory (and often unmusical) nature of fame. (Australian Broadcasting Corp, Radio National, Big Ideas, RealPlayer 55min [avail thru Sept 4th])

  • The Battle of Blue Mud Bay: Producer Tony Collins investigates a compelling story of first contact between Aboriginals and Europeans along the coast of Australia's Northern Territory, when the Dutch ship The Arnhem landed in Blue Mud Bay. While there are very few records about these events in the Dutch archives, and no written historical account, the meeting has a significant presence in Aboriginal oral accounts of their pre-colonial history, and offers an insight into Indigenous resistance against the first white men to set foot on Australian shores. (Australian Broadcasting Corp, Radio National, Big Ideas, RealPlayer 54min [avail thru Sept 4th])

  • Robin Cook, former UK foreign secretary, 1946-2005: Politicians from all sides of the Commons have joined in paying tribute to the former Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook -- who died suddenly yesterday at the age of 59. He collapsed while hillwalking in the Scottish highlands. Colleagues described Mr Cook -- a Labour MP for more than 30 years -- as the greatest parliamentarian of his generation. We hear from some of those who knew him best ... friends and some foes ... including the man he sat down next to in the House of Commons on the day that he resigned -- CNN’s European political editor Frank Dobson. We also speak to Conservative Party leader Michael Howard and to CNN's European Political Editor -- and big racing buddy of Mr Cook -- Robin Oakley. (BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, RealPlayer 14min [10:30-24:30] & 3min [57:20-1:00:40] avail thru Aug 13th)

  • Robin Cook, former UK foreign secretary, 1946-2005: Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, 59, has died after collapsing while out hill walking in Scotland. The Labour MP for Livingston, Scotland was considered one of the Commons' most intelligent MPs and one of its most skilled debaters. He spectacularly resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet in March 2003 over the Iraq crisis. One of the highest profile figures in the Labour party, he delivered a withering speech on the decision to go to war with Iraq, as he quit government ranks. But many people regard Robin Cook's finest moment in the Commons as his devastating analysis of the Scott report on the arms-to-Iraq scandal. After a judicial enquiry set up under Lord Justice Scott by then Prime Minister John Major, a 2000-page report concluded that high-level British officials misled the public, the Parliament, the courts and even one another in their handling of policy on arms sales to Iraq during the late 1980s and into 1990. Cook was shadow foreign secretary at the time and, just two hours after being handed a copy of the report, he pulled apart the Conservative government's handling of the affair with what was regarded as a bravura performance. (BBC TV News, RealPlayer 3min)

  • On this day, 1958 -- Arthur Miller cleared of contempt: In a 1995 BBC interview Arthur Miller describes the"farcical" yet"deadly" nature of his 1958 contempt trial for refusing to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) the names of alleged Communist writers with whom he attended five or six meetings in New York in 1947. As the BBC reported the appeals court's quashing of Mr Miller's conviction,"Washington's Court of Appeals has quashed playwright Arthur Miller's conviction for contempt of Congress after a two-year legal battle. He had been questioned by the HUAC in 1956 over a supposed Communist conspiracy to misuse American passports and willingly answered all questions about himself. But the playwright, married to actress Marilyn Monroe, refused to name names on a point of principle saying: 'I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him.' Today his lawyer, Joseph Rauh, argued that the committee simply wanted to expose the playwright and that 'exposure for exposure's sake' was illegal. Mr Rauh added that the timing of the hearing -- just before his marriage to Marilyn Monroe -- would ensure maximum publicity and humiliation for the writer. He also said the questions he would not answer were not relevant to the passports issue. However the appeal court ignored this argument finding instead that the way the questions were put to Mr Miller by the HUAC made contempt charges untenable. Mr Miller had asked the committee not to ask him to name names and the chairman had agreed to defer the question. The court today ruled that at the time Mr Miller was led to believe this line of questioning had been suspended or even abandoned altogether" (BBC Radio News, RealPlayer 5min). Listen also to Arthur Miller in July 2000 discussing his play The Crucible and its allegory of the McCarthy witch-hunts (BBC Radio News, RealPlayer 5min).

    Week of 8-1-05 SATURDAY

  • Charles Chibitty, last surviving Comanche code talker, 1921-2005: Last Wednesday, Charles Chibitty died at age 83. Chibitty was the last of the Comanche code talkers who used their native language to prevent the Germans from deciphering Allied messages during World War II. A few years ago, he shared some memories with Oklahoma Public Radio. Producer Scott Gurian tells the story of a hero. (APM, Weekend America, RealAudio 2min)

  • Andrew Young and the Voting Rights Act of 1965: It has been 40 years since Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Blacks in the United States had been given the right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. But many counties imposed poll taxes, literacy tests and other obstacles for those who tried to cast a ballot. Andrew Young helped draft the Voting Rights Act while he was an executive assistant to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He went on to become a member of Congress, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and the mayor of Atlanta. Young talks with host Scott Simon about the fight to protect the right to vote for minorities and the current state of democracy in America. Note: This page includes a link to a 37-minute"Web Extra" audio interview with Andrew Young. (NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 8min)

  • Veterans of '60s voter-registration drive reflect: In the summer of 1965, Bruce Miroff joined hundreds of white northern college students in a voter-registration campaign called SCOPE. This summer, a reunion was held. Correspondent Nick Miroff sends an audio montage of the group's recollections. (NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 5min)

  • Creation of the media: It's often been observed that technological innovations are the primary force driving the evolution of the mass media. But make your way through the 402 pages of Paul Starr's book The Creation of the Media, and that notion will be left in dust -- along with many other common assumptions. In the book, Starr argues that the government has played a much more fundamental role in the growth of the American media than is commonly thought. He discusses his research with host and managing editor Brooke Gladstone. (NPR On the Media, MP3 10min)

  • DUP leader Ian Paisley: The Rev. Dr Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, is interviewed one week after the IRA publicly renounced violence. (BBC Radio Ulster, Inside Politics, RealPlayer 13min)

  • Goodbye Ukraine, Pt 1 of 2: Eugene Wilson was born in Ukraine in 1924, and emigrated to Australia in 1950. His first meeting with history came with the arrival of the Red Committees, and the disappearance of his father, who had spoken out against the Bolsheviks. In the first of two programs, Eugene recalls his experience during the Second World War, after the German occupation of his village. (Australian Broadcasting Corp, Radio National, Verbatim, RealPlayer 26min [avail thru Sept 3rd)

    Week of 8-1-05 FRIDAY

  • NCAA moves to curb Indian mascots in sports: The NCAA says it will ban the use of American Indian mascots in post-season championship play. The move comes after weeks of review. Melissa Block talks with Welch Suggs, associate director of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. (NPR, All Things Considered, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 4min)

  • The Voting Rights Act, 40 years later: Saturday, August 6, marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the measure into law, guaranteeing the right of all Americans to vote regardless of creed or color. But some provisions of the legislation may be in jeopardy when the Act comes up for renewal in two years. Ed Gordon talks with the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition and Barbara Arnwine, executive director of The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. (NPR, News & Notes with Ed Gordon, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 12min)

  • Selling policy with catchy language: Increasingly catchy terminology is used to package government missions and policies. Consider"War on Terror" and"No Child Left Behind," for instance. Linguist Geoff Nunberg offers his thoughts on the subject. (NPR, Fresh Air from WHYY, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 6min)

  • Robert Wright, musical theatre composer, 1914-2005: American composer Robert Wright, best known for the show Kismet, passed away this week. Wright wrote Broadway musical hits, but he did it with the inspiration of European classical music. Music expert Ron Della Chiesa of WGBH tells host Lisa Mullins that Wright can get the credit for being the bridge between traditional European music and standards we know and love. (BBC-PRI-WGBH, The World, Windows Media Player 6min)

  • Iron coffin is unexpected time capsule: An iron casket that remained sealed for over 100 years has been opened by researchers at the Smithsonian Institution. The well-preserved body offers clues to life in an era that has long passed. Scientists will try to read those clues before returning the body to the ground with a proper burial. Note: This page offers a photo gallery of the scientists' opening of the coffin. (NPR, Morning Edition, RealPlayer & Windows Media Player 6min)

  • History of curry: A new book is highlighting the fact that Indian food is the product of a fusion of different food traditions. The Mughals brought Persian dishes to northern India, Portuguese merchants introduced marinades and chillies they had discovered in the New World, and the British came with their passion for roast meat. Martha Kearney talks to Lizzie Collingham about her new book on the colourful and eventful history of curry and the creation of Britain's most popular food, Curry: A Biography. Note: This story is accompanied by a recipe for vindaloo.(BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, RealPlayer 8min)

  • On this day, 1962 -- Marilyn Monroe found dead: Film director John Huston said,"She fought her enemy, consciousness, with sedatives," after screen icon Marilyn Monroe was been found dead in bed at her Los Angeles home. The 36-year-old actress' body was discovered in the early hours of this morning by two doctors who were called to her Brentwood home by a concerned housekeeper. The doctors were forced to break into Miss Monroe's bedroom after being unable to open the door. She was found lying naked in her bed with an empty bottle of Nembutal sleeping pills by her side. The local coroner, who visited the scene later, said the circums