Supreme Court Discrimination Ruling
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In their most watched decision of the day, the Supreme Court sides with white firefighters seeking promotion in New Haven, Connecticut; they had sued the city charging reverse-discrimination. The ruling reverses one from Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. We speak with Lyle Denniston of Scotusblog.com.
Are Iraq’s Cities Ready for an American Pullout?

A U.S. Army soldier greets an Iraqi child during routine patrol in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday. (AP)
As American forces begin to pull out of Iraq’s cities, what does this mean for the war strategy and are Iraqis ready to fill the void? Our guests are Tom Peter, who is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor in Iraq. We also hear from Kalev Sepp, defense analyst at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Advice for the Prison Bound CEO
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Are you a CEO or Captain of Finance about to enter prison, like Bernie Madoff? Our guest, comedian Andy Borowitz, points out that there’s an up side — for one thing, you have a greater than even chance of meeting a business school classmate. And there’s no pesky SEC to pry into your business. Andy Borowitz writes the Borowitz Report, and his new book is “Who Moved My Soap? The CEO’s Guide To Surviving In Prison.”
Can You Teach Satisfaction?
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Daniel Barbezat, who is an economics professor at Amherst College, is trying to raise awareness about how spending and saving affects our well-being. He just finished his first year teaching a new class called “Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness,” and joins us to tell us how it went.
The Low Anthem
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This Providence-based trio is getting rave reviews for its second record. It’s called “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin,” and it features Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowski and Jocie Adams coaxing mostly hushed and elegaic sounds from more than two dozen instruments. Here and Now’s Alex Ashlock spoke to the band before a recent show in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Music from the show
- Air, “Mike Mills”
- Freddie Hubbard, “Little Sunflower”
- The Ventures, “Green Onions”
- Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place”
- The Low Anthem, “Ticket Taker”
- The Low Anthem, “The Horizon is a Beltway”
- The Low Anthem, “Home I’ll Never Be”
- The Low Anthem, “To Ohio”
- The Low Anthem, “Charlie Darwin”
- The Low Anthem, “Champion Angel”













My new favorite band!
Wow, these folks sound like long lost friends (or, perhaps, the kids of long lost friends) from back in the day when funky, fecund Providence was my stomping ground of choice.
I hear fragments of the Band, of Wilco’s work with Billy Bragg on the “Mermaid Avenue” recordings, and, mostly, I hear and feel the gritty, acoustic, folk blues I used to play with my late ex-husband, Maynard Silva, when we were twenty-somethings scraping by on art and love in the city of Hope.
I will catch The Low Anthem at a live gig. That’s a promise. Thanks, Robin!
Posted by Mari McAvenia, on June 29th, 2009 at 11:59 am