Roundup

Vermont Store Revives Beloved Products of Yore [2min]

Vermont Country Store employees spend their days reading customer requests for vintage board game, perfumes and other homey items that have long since disappeared from other stores. They get permission to re-create the items as they were and bring them back for another generation of customers. Vermont Public Radio's Lynne McCrea reports.

Intelligent Design Has a Place in the Classroom [3min]

Commentator Joe Loconte says that Thursday's judicial ruling against the teaching of intelligent design is wrong. He says posing the question of a "supreme intelligence" should not be ruled out of bounds.

Scopes Trial and Intelligent Design Court Decision [11min]

After Tuesday's decision on intelligent design in Pennsylvania, author Edward Larson revisits the Scopes monkey trial. Guest: Edward Larson, author of Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion (won Pulitzer Prize in history in 1988); professor of history and law at the University of Georgia.

Science and Anti-Science [51min]

A judge in Pennsylvania ruled intelligent design could not be taught in high school biology classes. We'll talk about the case and the claims of some that there is a growing anti-science bias in the U.S. Guests: David Guston, associate director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes and professor, Political Science, Arizona State University; Robert Hazen, staff scientist, Carnegie Institution, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University, and author of Genesis: The Sc

'New World' Offers New Take on Pocahontas [7min]

In the film The New World, writer-director Terrence Malick deals with the meeting of John Smith and Pocahontas. Though historians dismiss the idea that the two were romantically linked, the new film, like others before it, sticks with that version of the story.

A Family Take in 'Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King' [7min]

England's Restoration did more than simply restore a king to his throne. The return of Charles II in 1660 upended the cramped, rigidly controlled world of Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans. Theaters -- long closed -- reopened. Bright colors replaced sober black. Licentiousness triumphed over repression, and freethinking and cynicism over faith. Charles Beauclerk is a direct descendent of Charles II –- and one of history's most famous mistresses, Nell Gwyn. Beauclerk has written the story of their

Dover Evolution [8min @13:12]

Chalk another one up for Darwin. Today in Pennsylvania, a judge ruled there is no place for "intelligent design" in the classroom. Last October, the Dover Area School Board adopted a policy that required students to hear a statement about the theory of intelligent design before their ninth-grade biology lesson on evolution. When parents objected, the case landed in court. Now, a district court judge said reading that statement would be unconstitutional. Greg Randall Lee teaches constit

How 'Dover' May Affect U.S. Schools [4min]

University of Texas law professor Douglas Laycock discusses the outcome of the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, in which the judge ruled against the proponents of intelligent design. He explains why it would be difficult for the defendants to appeal and what effect it may have for the rest of the country.

In Favor of Barring Intelligent Design from the Classroom [3min]

Among the scientists applauding Tuesday's decision against intelligent design is commentator Lawrence Krauss. He's director of Case Western Reserve University's Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics. In his opinion, this new ruling is the best possible outcome in this case.

Remembering the Inventor of Light Beer [5min]

World-renowned brew master Josseph Owades died last week. He was 86. The biochemist is most famous -- and infamous -- for inventing light beer in the 1970s. He was also was a pioneer and a guru in the microbrwery business. Guest: Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at The Brooklyn Brewery and author of The Brewmaster's Table.

Roman Census -- AD Zero [5min @ 16:10]

Was there a census at the time of the birth of Christ and, if so, where are the records? It seems that the story of the census merges two key events: the death of King Herod in 4 BC and a census ordered by Caesar Augustus in AD 6. Herod was a trusted friend of Rome, but after his death the situation changed and the Romans eventually took over the administration of Judea in AD 6. The census held in this year was part of the change of administration. Census activity or 'registrations' are quite co

Biff! Zap! Pow! [60min]

Alice Cooper tells the incredible true story of the timeless, indestructible caped crusaders, born in the early years of the twentieth century and now at the peak of their powers.

Break on Through -- The Story of The Doors [60min]

This documentary, presented by BBC Radio 2 DJ Mark Radcliffe, highlights the importance and influence of one of the most enduring bands of the late 1960's.

The Tunnellers of the First World War [30min]

Aubrey Manning travels to Northern France where he goes deep underground beneath the battlefields of World War I to uncover the legacy of an underground war fought over 90 years ago. Aubrey meets members of the Durand group, a team of volunteer archaeologists, munitions experts, historians and both retired and serving soldiers. They're investigating a vast network of hundreds of miles of tunnels which criss-cross beneath France and Belgium. These tunnels were dug by skilled miners and used to su

From Henry VIII's Break with Rome to Cromwell's Commonwealth [15min]

The churchwardens' accounts of Prescot in Lancashire, with their detailed costs of continually putting up and taking down the altar, reflect the turbulent changes from Henry VIII's break with Rome to Cromwell's Commonwealth. Richard Foster with stories which stem from that basic piece of a historians research -- a bill.

Book Explores History of the Mormon Church [36min]

Friday marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. Richard Bushman, author of the new book, Joseph Smith, discusses the religious environment during Smith's lifetime. Guests: Richard Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling; and Mario Depillis, professor emeritus of American Social and Religious History at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

The Winter Solstice at Newgrange [30min]

The winter solstice celebration at Newgrange monument, Ireland, is an awe-inspiring event that has taken place annually for more than 5000 years. As the sun's rays clear the horizon on the shortest day of the year, they illuminate, in perfect alignment, a 19-metre passage and chamber which contains the remains of our long dead ancestors. The chamber is older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids and Trevor Barnes has gained rare access to the event to experience it for himself -- joining the handful o

Stormont-Gate: Senior Sinn Féin Member Was British Spy [15min]

Will the disclosure that a British spy was at the heart of the Sinn Féin Party have a destabilising effect on the peace process? The panel: Willie O'Dea, TD, Minister of Defence; Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin; Finian McGrath, TD, Independent; Professor Brigid Laffan, Principal, UCD College of Human Sciences; Jim O'Callaghan, Barrister.

2006 a 'Crunch Year' for Pres. Bush [7min]

A discussion on a crunch year ahead for George Bush with John Mickelthwait, United States editor, The Economist."2006 has to be a crunch year for George Bush, because 2005 was so bad. The crunch year has come earlier than anyone envisaged back in November 2004. The critical issues in the year ahead are Iraq, Iraq, Iraq and Iraq."

Paul Wolfowitz on Priorities for World Development [10min]

A discussion on priorities for world development with Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank. "It's striking to me how many Africans have spoken out quite forcefully about the need to stop viewing them as hopeless and basket-cases and start recognising that there are real opportunities there. It's a can-do attitude, as we would say in American slang, and we need to help them do it."