An Iranian man holds a poster of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran (AP)
The Ayatollah Speaks
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In his first public address since the disputed presidential election, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out election fraud and warned Iranians that he would crackdown on any future protests. We speak with Marie Colvin, who is reporting from Tehran for the Times of London.
Stay at Home Dads
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With the number of stay at home dads in this country skyrocketing, scientists have started researching the role of dads. They found that becoming a full-time parent changes a man’s body and brain in many of the same ways it does for women. Our guest is former stay-at-home-dad Jeremy Adam Smith, whose new book is called “The Daddy Shift.”
Kentucky Budget Woes
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Kentucky is one of the many states facing budget shortfalls in the current recession. The Bluegrass state is $1 billion dollars in debt, despite raising taxes on cigarettes and its world famous bourbon earlier this year. We talk with Stephenie Steitzer of the Louisville Courier-Journal about how Kentucky is coping.
Reporter’s Notebook from Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai arrives in London today as part of his tour to solicit financial aid for his country, which has been devastated by AIDS and chronic poverty. He is sharing power with his rival, the country’s long-time president, Robert Mugabe, after last year’s violent elections. BBC Correspondent Mike Thomson is back from an undercover reporting trip to Zimbabwe and tells us what he saw.
Tiempo Libre
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We revisit a conversation we had with Jorge Gomez, the Cuban-born musical director of Tiempo Libre. His Miami-based band has been nominated for two Grammy awards and they just released new CD “Bach in Havana” which puts their own spin on works by the classical composer.
Music from the show
- Boards of Canada, “Happy Cycling”
- Freddie Hubbard, “Gibraltar”
- Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place”
- Ahmad Jamal, “Patterns”
- Tiempo Libre, “Tu Conga Bach,”
- Tiempo Libre,”Lo Que Esperabas”
- Tiempo Libre,”Arroz Con Mango”
- Tiempo Libre,”Manos Pa’rriba”
- Tiempo Libre,”Rumba Sinfonica”
- Tiempo Libre,”Tengo Que Olvidarte”
- Tiempo Libre,”Olas de Yemaya”
- Earth, Wind & Fire, “Let’s Groove”
Hi Robin,
Like your show. Catch it from time to time. Regarding your story airing today, “Stay at Home Dads,” with Jeremy Adams Smith and his new book. How novel: dad’s matter? And, they are pre-disposed to being good parents? Perhaps they actually do and are, at least until divorce. But, assuming dads are intrinsically parents in itself is quite a leap when looking at what often actually happens in the U.S.
Robin, you pegged it by putting that mom challenge out there: “Wait a minute, this is my turf!” Light-hearted sounding, but much, much deeper as I’m sure you know; it’s not just the challenge of some mothers, it’s courts too.
I wouldn’t wish it on him, but I wonder what Mr. Smith’s book would be like if he had been through the divorce Family Court system where the goal, at best — direct or indirect — of many mom’s and certainly most judges, is to ensure a father’s role is severely circumscribed if it’s not already narrow enough to suit “community standards.” Of course — as we know and choose ignore — very often loving, non-abusive fathers are magically re-branded as a variant on male-animal quasi-criminals. Or, legally stuffed into a cookie-cutter relationship with the children if they’re lucky.
Ah, the adversarial process: “Wait a minute, this is my turf.”
A tiring and really pointless paradigm with which to engage, to be sure. Perhaps Mr. Smith is taking the right tack working from the outside in, and will enlighten us in the future. But, I hope not for his and his son’s sake.
Mr. Smith is a statistical outlier as your anecdotes and his made clear. In terms of your coverage, how about first things first? Is no one doing the book tour on the societal devaluation of dads? Has it always got to be a book tour to hit your show? Forgive me if I’ve missed my requested piece of the puzzle in your work; if I haven’t missed it, best of luck getting it done.
Thanks for your efforts.
Regards, ~R
Posted by Rob in Philly, on June 19th, 2009 at 12:00 pm[...] [...]
Posted by The Daddy Shift in the news | The Greater Good Blog, on June 25th, 2009 at 2:41 pm