Documentary Special

04/24/2014 - Affirmative action, when used as a factor in college admissions, is meant to foster diversity and provide equal opportunities in education for under represented minorities. But is it achieving its stated goals and helping the population it was created to support? Its critics point to students struggling to keep up in schools mismatched to their abilities and to the fact that the policy can be manipulated to benefit affluent and middle class students who already possess many educational advantages. Is it time to overhaul or abolish affirmative action?  

04/17/2014 -No matter what you believe about climate change, we can all agree that extreme weather events -- tornadoes, hurri canes, fires, droughts -- are occurring more frequently. These massive natural disasters upset lives and devastate property.  The costs of clean-up and reconstruction are enormous. 

04/10/2014 - There are questions we would answer, if only we were asked.  How did we grow up?  What do we remember about home?  What about our family?

celebrate the first decade of StoryCorps, with a special retrospective hosted by NPR’s Scott Simon and StoryCorps founder Dave Isay.

http://storycorps.org/

04/10/2014 - The best of short form public radio

03/27/2014 - "Does the president have the constitutional power to target and kill U.S. citizens abroad?"  With the drone strike on accused terrorist and New Mexico-born Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, President Obama has tested the limits of the executive branch's powers.  Does the president have constitutional authority under the due process clause to kill U.S.

03/20/2014 - A Seasonal Special - An assuring hour of music and information about the promising resurgence of spring, including rare facts about the featured music and the reasons for springtime warming and rain.

http://www.prx.org/pieces/45202-notes-on-spring-a-seasonal-music-special

03/06/2014 - Votes For Women was the slogan on the banners that many American Suffragists wore in their 72-year struggle to get the vote.  Although American men had been voting since the 1700's, it wasn't until 1920 that American women were allowed to vote for President.  Award winning Producer Sandra Sleight-Brennan's documentary uses song, interviews, re-creations of events, and comments from historians to bring this dramatic history to life.

02/27/2014 - Hosted by Charles Dutton, this one-hour special examines the relevance and meaning of civil rights in the 21st century and the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the efforts of women, other people of color, and the LGBT community to expand our traditional definitions of equality. Like “Moments of the Movement” it features first-person narratives culled from hundreds of hours of never-before-broadcast video and audio footage to provide a rich, detailed history of the nation during an important and tumultuous period.

2/20/2014 - During a month selected to celebrate “history,” we certainly are treated to a lot of the same familiar stories: the battles won for Civil Rights, the glory of Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, the hardships endured by slaves. And as important as those narratives are for us to collectively remember, many others get lost in trumpeting the same heroic tales. In this hour, State of the Re:Union zeroes in some of those alternate narratives, ones edited out of the mainstream imagining of Black History, deconstructing the popular perception of certain celebrated moments.

2/13/2014 - The History Guys explore three centuries of pre-marital intimacy.  Did economic considerations used to play a greater role in coupling? In what ways have dating practices challenged class and racial boundaries?  Has the idea of "romance" itself morphed over time?  Considering the stereotypes about Puritan New England, you might be surprised to learn that sweethearts in the 18th century were no only allowed to sleep together before marriage - they were encouraged!  The catch?