Assessing Afghanistan
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August was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began, and the increased violence has prompted a strategy review by the top U.S. commander in the region. We check in with Washington Post editor, Rajiv Chandrasekaran from Kabul.
A Tour Down Crack Street
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Richie Farrell is riding high these days. The Hollywood movie, “The Fighter“, for which he wrote the screenplay, is wrapping up production. Not bad for a former heroin junkie. Richie Farrell takes us on a tour of his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, through the streets where he scored his daily fix, to the abandoned mill where he tried to kill himself with an overdose and to the detox center where he clean up his life. Ferrell is now an award winning journalist, a creative writing professor, and author of the new book “What’s Left of Us: A Memoir of Addiction.”
Churchill’s Bunker
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As Britain marks the 70th anniversary of its entry into World War Two this week, a new exhibition has opened beneath the streets of London. Visitors can visit the Cabinet War Rooms, the bunker Winston Churchill used to conduct business during the war. The BBC’s Martin Plaut goes underground for a look.
Race to the Top
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President Obama is offering states a slice of $4.3 billion dollars in federal stimulus funding for their education systems, but there are some catches. States that lift the cap on charter schools and pay teachers based on student test scores will have a better shot at the funding. That’s leading some states, like California, to scramble to change their laws to meet the criteria. Alyson Klein of Education Week is our guest.
‘Altar Of The Bottom Line’
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The title of this new CD reflects the contemporary workplace Tom Juravich found when he set out to document the lives of workers in America. Juravich is a professor of Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and the songs he wrote for the CD are based on interviews he did with workers in call centers, hospitals and factories. A companion book will be released this fall and Tom Jurvavich joins us to talk about the project.
Music from the show
- U2, “Running to Stand Still”
- The Wee Trio, “Flint”
- Art Blakey, “Free for All”
- Randy Newman, “1914″
- Jimi Hendrix, “Crosstown Traffic”
- Moby, “Inside”
- Sonny Rollins, “Get Happy”Tom Juravich, “Altar of the Bottom Line”
- Tom Juravich, “Factory of Broken Dreams”
- Tom Juravich, “Immigrants Like Me”
- Woddy Guthrie, “I Ain’t Got No Home”, performed by Tom Juravich
- Billy Bragg, “Power In a Union”, performed by Tom Juravich
- Tom Juravich, “Crossroad”
