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Showing posts from February, 2012

Hog Butchers for the World - Airs Feb 29th

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Hog Butchers for the World from Long Haul Productions   We'll close out Black History Month with this documentary about the long, storied history African-Americans in Chicago's meatpacking industry and the formation of the Packinghouse Workers Union. It's an engaging and sound-rich account containing many interviews with former workers -- including Addie Wyatt . Addie started working as a meat packer in 1941. It was during this time that she became increasingly involved with the United Packinghouse and Food and Alliance Workers Union. In 1953 Wyatt was elected vice president of her branch, Local 56, and became the first black woman to hold senior office in an American labor union.  Bonus!!! Studs Terkel reading excerpts from Upton Sinclair's " The Jungle ."
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Indonesian Pirate + Disillusioned Mormon = Feb. 29 show Tonight we meet Agus Laodi and Whitney Jones. Laodi is an pirate who lives in Indonesia. He sneaks up on ships, holds a knife to the captain's throat and demands money. Sometimes he's successful, sometimes he isn't. Jones, meanwhile, is an American radio producer who recently produced a story about his loss of faith with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Both stories were recently featured on How Sound  podcasts, a production of radio producer Rob Rosenthal and PRX . The story on Agus Laodi was created by NPR reporter Kelly McEvers in 2008. In this episode of the How Sound podcast, McEvers tells Rosenthal how she's addicted to reporting in dangerous places, usually in the Middle East. The story about Whitney Jones leaving the Mormon church appears in the most recent episode of the How Sound podcast. For those unfamiliar with the excellent How Sound podcast, it's a show dedicated to the
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Yesterday's Revolution: Minneapolis 78 RPM Record Scene - Airs Feb. 15  Lots of folks are into vinyl these days. Some people are even making mix tapes again. But if you really want to embrace obscure, seemingly dead media, there's no better way to do it than to buy 78 rpm records. This documentary takes listeners inside the rarefied world of 78 record enthusiasts, including Greg Carr, former KFAI "Dig Out the Roots" DJ, and Scott Holthus, owner of Vintage Music Company in Minneapolis. Holthus owns hundreds of thousands of 78 records and he refurbishes the machines that plays them.
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From Brooklyn to Banja Luka - Airs Feb. 8 Jonathan is a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn. He has a typically New York loudness, and he's flamboyant, musical and pretty good with languages. Dragana is a nice Serbian girl from Bosnia. She is prone to the occasional Slavic melancholy, but is also generally loud, musical, and pretty good with languages. They live in Holland, a small and sober country that, at first glance doesn?t seem suited to either temperament. Their improbable love story in features in From Brooklyn to Banja Luka. The programme won a Prix Europa in 2005 and a Gold Medal at the New York International Radio Festival.

Listen, Whitey! - Airs Feb 1st

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Listen, Whitey! by American Documentary Films Friday, April 5th, 1968. It is just hours after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From the riots in Washington D.C. to the marches in New York City, Listen, Whitey! chronicles the reaction of the African-American community immediately following the assassination of Dr. King. Unrehearsed, the people’s voices you'll be hearing offer an unblemished glimpse at a tremendously difficult and painful moment in African American history.