KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

Anouk is a young Dutch girl who lives with her boyfriend Said. He’s Dutch too, but from a fairly traditional Moroccan Berber family. Both of them are Dutch and Muslim. They have what should be a perfectly ordinary relationship, but in these times its anything but ordinary. Holland is a country famed for its culture of tolerance. However in recent years, two prominent Dutch men have been gunned down for their publicly expressed opinions. The murders of politician Pim Fortuin and film maker Theo van Gogh have changed Dutch society and the question on every Dutch person’s lips is: “are we still a tolerant nation?” Anouk and Said are on the frontline of a battle about loyalty and identity that is currently raging in The Netherlands. Related websites and news stories: Radio Netherlands Wikipedia: Islam in the Netherlands (see footnotes 12 and 14, links to EU and Open Society Institute reports on the subject) New York Times: A Dutch Antognist of Islam Waits for His Premeire

Tibet is back in the news. Activists are pressuring the Chinese government to give Tibet independence again or at least regional autonomy. Mass protests in recent weeks have killed many people, though no one knows the exact number due to lack of a free press. In this edition of the Listening Lounge (airing at 7 p.m. on March 24), we learn more about Tibet. In Honk for Tibet (by Todd Melby), we hear from pro-Tibetan protesters in Minneapolis. There, we meet Teinzin Dadon, an 18-year-old high school student. Dadon's father escaped from Tibet three decades ago. After arriving in India, he made his way to the United States. Today, Dadon shouts from a bridge in Minneapolis, asking drivers to support her father and all Tibetans. Also on the program, Tibetan Uprising: The Meaning of March 10 and Willing for Trouble: Profile of Tibetan Poet & Freedom Fighter Tenzin Tsundue . This story was produced by The Tibetan Connection, a one-hour radio program that airs on KPFK in Los Angeles. L

There are lots of ways to explore a city. Some people do it on foot, others on bike, still others drive and stop, drive and stop. At Chicago Public Radio , they've encouraged listeners to submit "soundmarks" to their website, which they later put on the radio. These audio postcards are designed to give other listeners an aural snapshot of a place. Check out soundmarks of people playing badminton, Tibetan Singing Bowls, Union Station and other places.

This is the debut episode of Blue Highways, a new national 'road trip magazine' that looks for people, places and stories that make connections across the class, racial, geographical, urban/rural and countless other 'divides.' This first installment looks at stories from the 'Forgotten Home Front' of the 'War on Terror.' Producer Todd Melby takes to the road to visit a small North Dakota town struggling with a doctor shortage that's being exacerbated by the ongoing deployment of Guard and Reserve troops, many of whom work in health care back at home. We also hear about a program to address the doctor shortage, and then we listen in on the audio diaries of one National Guardsman in Iraq and his family back at home in upstate New York. We follow Chaplain Major Eric Olsen on his trip home from Iraq for a few weeks with his family - time that inevitably goes by much too fast. Finally, our last segment tries to answer the question - Where have all the art

What do you do when a friend's husband is murdered? Girl Detectives is a poignant and personal piece about the struggles of three women to cope with that loss in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Frustrated and unsatisfied with the findings of the police, they try to do some investigating of their own. Listen to producer Susan Mell's deeply personal piece about love, loss and the attempt to make it right.