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Thursday      
April 23, 2009
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GM Factory Shutdowns

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News is trickling out that General Motors could shut down some factories for up to nine weeks. What will this mean for the company, its workers, suppliers and dealers? We speak to Micheline Maynard of the New York Times.

Slavery By Another Name

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We re-broadcast our conversation with Douglas Blackmon — his book, “Slavery By Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans From The Civil War to World War Two,” won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction this week.

A Taliban militant holds his weapon inside the mosque where tribal elders and the Taliban met in Daggar, Pakistan, Thursday, April 23, 2009. The meeting ended without any indication that the Taliban would withdraw. (AP)

A Taliban militant holds his weapon inside the mosque where tribal elders and the Taliban met in Daggar, Pakistan, Thursday, April 23, 2009. The meeting ended without any indication that the Taliban would withdraw. (AP)

The Taliban in Pakistan

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Pakistan sent paramilitary troops to a strategically important district that was overrun by the Taliban this week. The Obama White House warns that the insurgency now poses an “existential threat,” to Pakistan. The BBC’s Jill McGivering assesses the impact of the insurgency and found a growing threat of civil war.

Familicides

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We look at the deeply troubling and rare phenomenon of family murder suicides. According to the nonprofit gun-control advocacy group, the Violence Policy Center, there are two or three familicides in a given six month period. But there has been a recent uptick. Dr. Richard Gelles, author of many books on family violence and Dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, comments.

Letters

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We hear from listeners about recent stories on breastfeeding, Christian seders, and more.

Sports

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Only A Game host Bill Littlefield joins us to talk playoffs.

Music from the show

  • Radiohead, “In Limbo”
  • Ashley MacIsaac, “Sleepy Maggie”
  • Freddie Hubbard, “Little Sunflower”
  • The Lickets, “Honey to Ashes”
  • Steve Earle, “Transcendental Blues”
  • Prelude from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite Number One in G Major, Performed by Yo-Yo Ma.
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Welcome to our newest listeners in Orlando, FL, Chicago, IL, Morris, IL and Chesterton, IN! In the past few months we’ve been joined by new stations in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

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