Roundup

Arthurian poem is among best of medieval English literature [audio 1st 12min]

Award-winning journalist Andrew Marr starts the week by discussing 18th-century Londoners' sense of London itself with poet Simon Armitage. It's Christmas at Camelot and a giant green knight on a green horse canters into the hall and challenges any knight to strike him with an enormous axe, on condition that he is allowed to return the blow the following year. Sir Gawain accepts the challenge. What follows is an adventure story and morality tale, steeped in magic and mystery. Sir Gawain and t

Georgia wipes little towns off the map [audio 3min]

If you like the tiny town of Hopeulikit, Ga., you'll have a hard time finding it on a map. The state of Georgia has taken Hopeulikit, along with hundreds of other little communities, off its official maps. Debbie Elliot finds out more from Georgia historian Smith Banks.

Daniel Schorr had brush with Russian drugging [audio 3min]

Senior news analyst Daniel Schorr recalls reporting from the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and being slipped a 'mickey' by the Russians.

Christianities of early Christians unlike any Christianity today [audio 53min]

Shortly after World War II, peasants digging in the Egyptian desert found a sealed jar filled with pages of ancient manuscript -- the Nag Hammadi library, or Gnostic Gospels. Their contents would change the history of one of the world's most established religions -- and challenge believers around the world to rethink some of the most basic tenets of their faith. In this hour of"To the Best of Our Knowledge," a look at the controversial Gnostic Gospels and the story of a buried Christianity. SEGM

Soviet émigré artists often returned to USSR [audio 30min]

Martin Sixsmith presents a series examining the relationship between artists and the authorities in Soviet Russia. Millions fled Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution, including many artists, such as the poet Marina Tsvetaeva, composers Stravinsky and Prokofiev and the celebrated writer Maxim Gorky. However, each in turn was tempted to return. Contributors include Sviatoslav Prokofiev, Stephen Walsh, Gerard McBurney, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Elaine Feinstein.

Iran Holocaust conference to include Palestinian speaking up for Jews [audio 11min @0:20]

Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly questioned whether the Nazis really killed 6 million Jews during World War II. And next week, Iran's leader will host an international conference in Tehran, to investigate whether the Holocaust really happened. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, German officials and Jewish groups have condemned the conference as another deliberately provocative outbreak of Holocaust denial. But the Iranians may get more than they bargained for from one delegate

Photographer captures 'dark side' of Ellis Island [audio 13min]

Sometimes, a journey of five years begins with a single hour. At least, that's what happened to Stephen Wilkes. One assignment -- to photograph the side of Ellis Island that no one sees -- turned into an obsession, and now a book. Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom documents the weather-beaten remnants of the immigration hub's abandoned hospital buildings, where people who steamed past the Statue of Liberty on crowded ships were sometimes held back if they had an infectious disease or obviou

Newsreel cameramen filmed history [audio 60min]

Twenty-five years ago, film-maker John Edwards interviewed 50 of the surviving cameramen who had worked for the cinema newsreel companies in America and Europe. His recordings were lost and recovered only recently. The story of the newsreel, from the Lindbergh take-off to the Apollo splash-downs, can now be told in the voices of the men who filmed history.

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Robert Satloff tracks Holocaust's 'lost stories' [audio 8min]

Middle East historian Robert Satloff has written Among the Righteous, subtitled Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands. He documents many instances of Arabs protecting Jews in North Africa from the Holocaust -- a history he hopes will help today's Arabs and Jews come together. But many contemporary Arab families are not comfortable with the notion that their relatives helped Jews. Satloff, executive director of the Washington Insitute for Near East Policy, tel

Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Cold War [audio 5min]

Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.N. ambassador during the Reagan administration, was a strong supporter of forceful dealings with the Soviet Union -- a stance that went a bit beyond the traditional role of the diplomat. In the wake of Kirkpatrick's death, Thomas Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, looks back at her impact.

Earl Warren made the nation American know today [audio 32min]

Journalist Jim Newton's new book, Justice For All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made, looks at the life of the Supreme Court Justice who presided over such landmark decisions as Brown v. Board of Education. Newton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, sharing in the awards given to the Los Angeles Times for coverage of the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and the 1994 earthquake.

Military wives kept love alive in World War II [audio 8min]

On the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, we take a glimpse into the romantic lives of the Greatest Generation. Jane Leder's new book Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex and World War II tells the story of the"wandering wives" -- women who traveled from town to town to stay near their military husbands before they shipped out. Report by Karen Grigsby Bates. Webpage includes book excerpt.

Leakey fossils enlisted in evolution-creation battle [audio 7min @14:35]

The battle between creationists and evolutionists is taking a novel twist in Kenya. Powerful evangelical groups are pushing the country's national museum to move its world-famous collection of hominid fossils from its marquee position in the front of the museum to an out-of-the-way back room that people aren't ever likely to visit. The fossils show the evolution of humans' early ancestors and include the Turkana Boy, the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus. Turkana Boy was di

Israeli textbooks must map Palestinian 'Green Line' [audio 4min @7:45]

Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir has ordered that maps in new school textbooks are to include the "Green Line" border between Israel and the West Bank. The so-called Green Line is the border that existed between Israel and the West Bank, prior to the 1967 Six Day War. Today, it represents the border of what the Palestinian Arabs claim as their future state. The decision to depict the Green Line in school books has earned the education minister vigorous criticism from right-wing op

Harmonica's history tells story of global commerce [audio 4min]

For those with a love of the harmonica, now is your chance to learn more about its history. The German Harmonica Museum is on tour right now in the United States. But to learn more about the instrument, reporter Ethan Lindsey went straight to the source: the small town of Trossingen, Germany, where the harmonica was invented.

Ritual artifacts 75,000 years old found in Kalahari [audio 8min @9:45]

Seventy-thousand years ago, our human ancestors were most concerned with survival. It wasn't easy to find food, dodge predators and keep warm. So archaeologists didn't believe that humans had the time or inclination millennia ago to hold anything like an organized "ritual". But now an archaeological team has uncovered some artifacts in the Kalahari Desert that may change the way we think about those early humans, and their propensity for rituals. Dr. Sheila Coulson led the team. She's

Freed from New York mud, 'Intrepid' moves anew [audio 2min]

In New York City, the historic aircraft carrier Intrepid was towed down the Hudson River after being moored for a quarter-century at a Manhattan pier. The trip was supposed to take place last month, but the ship got stuck in the mud a few feet from shore. Veterans who had once served on the Intrepid reported for duty before sun-up. The Intrepid was scheduled to be towed to a shipyard in New Jersey for a face-lift, but it only made it a few feet before its giant propellers dr

Religious texts and the swearing-in tradition [audio 4min]

Keith Ellison of Minnesota became the first Muslim elected to Congress, last month, and he plans to use the Quran instead of the Bible when he's sworn in. Some are outraged about straying from the tradition of using the Bible to swear in government officials. But that tradition isn't as solid as some might think. Report by Luke Burbank.

Dick Clark's rock'n'roll memorabilia up for auction [audio 2min]

Would you like Bruce Springsteen's guitar? How about John Lennon's Nehru suit? They belong to Dick Clark, who hosted the TV show American Bandstand for three decades. Once called America's oldest teenager, Clark is now 77 and recently suffered a stroke. His immense collection of rock'n'roll memorabilia is up for auction Tuesday and Wednesday in New York City. The collection includes Bob Dylan's harmonica, Elton John's shoes, Paul McCartney's guitar, Bo Didley's handmade guitar, and a whit