KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

Way out in Montana, at a little radio station called KGLT, independent producer Barratt Golding produces some very fine work. It's also a bit strange and that's why I like to air it. He's fond of quirky, creative producers. In this show (his new series is called "The Plan"), Golding focuses on the life of Him. (That capital "H" is intentional.) Him, of course, is our Lord and Savior, Jesus . This piece includes an excerpt from the band King Missle and a song called "Jesus Was Way Cool." Sample lyrics: "He turned water into wine. And if he wanted to he could have turned wheat into marijuana or sugar into cocaine or vitamin pills into amphetamines." You get the idea. This show also includes a story from the legendary Scott Carrier .

Many radio and print stories on environmental issues are tough to relate to for nonscientists. (And that includes me, I worked my butt off just to get a C in a college course called "Physics for Poets.") This show features stories from GLRC, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium that are far from typical. Reporter Rebecca Williams ponders a question many of us have faced: How Long Do You Keep a Polluting Heap? In this story, we ride along with Rebecca as mechanics and other experts tell her about all the environmental damage her piece-of-crap rust bucket is inflicting on the environment. This show also includes Prairie Burn Audio Postcard, a great aural experience produced by Mark Brush . GLRC does a lot of great work. If you want to track environmental issues on a regular basis, listen to their stories. A list of stations can be found here .

If you've ever driven through Chicago's South Side on the Dan Ryan Expressway, you've seen the towers. The high-rise public housing that dominates neighborhoods and imprisons people. What's it like to live there? This documentary takes you there. Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions produced this piece, which won an Edward R. Murrow award a few years ago. The story is narrated by a man who lives there. His name is Andre Williams. When you listen to his story, you'll get closer to the people who lived in the place that gangbangers call The House of Pain, also known as Stateway Gardens. This piece originally aired in 2002. One year later, the producers returned to Stateway to find out what happened to people forced to leave. That doc is called Movin' Out the Bricks and also originally aired on Chicago Public Radio.

This week we air five short pieces by or about youth. Fashion Obsession by Shakima Swain-Ridley gives us insight into the importance of teen fashion. At Risk Youth Design Sweatshop-Free Fashions by Jim Moses features a community arts prgram in Rhode Island that helps at-risk youth create clothing with an anti-sweatshop message. Blunt Youth Radio Project producer Sarah Smith seriously considered dropping out of high school in her piece, Hopeless in High School . The last two pieces are by Sarah Elzas, who delves inside the world of teen moms in School for Little Wanderers and Cathy, 16, Mom .

We are re-broadcasting this program from the Theory of Everything about the attempt to understand American Exceptionalism. It seems to work with Independence Day holiday... There are some great segments - a "recess appointment party" for John Bolton last summer, Howard Zinn explains that American Exceptionalism is a Myth, Dennis Madalone sings an exceptional new American Anthem, and host Benjamen Walker checks out the right wing blogosphere and comes up EMPTY.

Global Warming! Temperatures in Alaska have risen three-to-four times faster than the rest of the globe over the last 50 years. The people of Shishmaref have been called the first American refugees from global warming. Chronic erosion and flooding driven by climate change is making this remote Alaska village uninhabitable. In Moving the Village , the Inupiaq Eskimo community of Shishmaref wants to pick up their village, and put it down somewhere safe. This piece has amazing natural sound and does a great job of examining all of the issues involved in moving Shishmaref.