Roundup

LeVar Burton and the Power of 'Roots' [audio 7min]

Thirty years ago this week, ABC's mini-series Roots was broadcast. The finale was among the most-watched programs in TV history. Roots star LeVar Burton reflects on the impact of the series in a conversation with Rebecca Roberts.

Struggle for Saudi Arabia's Soul [audio 40min]

Journalist Ed Stourton travels to Saudi Arabia, where the first stirrings of democratic change have begun. He finds a deeply conservative country badly shaken by 9/11 and where the war in Iraq is sending would-be democrats scurrying for cover.

Story of Defection to N. Korea Debuts at Sundance [audio 11min]

In 1962, a U.S. soldier in South Korea defected to the communist North. Two filmmakers were allowed into North Korea and captured his story, which premiers Monday at the Sundance Film Festival. Guests: Nicholas Bonner, producer, Crossing the Line; and Daniel Gordon, director and producer, Crossing the Line.

Wu -- The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced, Murdered Her Way to the Top [audio 9min]

Regarded by some as the most evil woman in the history of China -- the Empress Wu lived in the 7th century, and has been accused of killing her mother, her own child, and countless rivals in her bid for power. Yet she set up orphanages, enhanced the position of women, and made it possible for lower classes to advance in Government -- so who is the real Wu, and what should we make of her today? Jonathan Clements, has written a biography of this remarkable woman -- he joins presenter Sheila McClen

Why Did African Slaves Adopt the Bible? [audio 9min]

When African slaves first arrived in America, they found hope in an unlikely place. Allen Dwight Callahan, author of The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible, talks about why slaves crossed the religious divide to find hope and inspiration in Christianity and the Bible. Webpage includes audio clip of Callahan reading from The Talking Book.

Discovering the Places We Once Called Home [audio 55min]

The Book Guys -- book appraiser Allan Stypeck and Washington DC radio host Mike Cuthbert -- interview Jack Larkin, historian at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, who discusses Where We Lived, photographs of historic American homes taken in the 1930s.

Archimedes -- The Greek Mathematician and His Eureka Moments [audio 45min]

Archimedes -- the Greek mathematician reputed to have shouted 'Eureka!' as he leapt from his bath, having discovered the principles of floating bodies. Whatever the truth of the myths surrounding the man, he was certainly one of the world's great mathematicians. The practical application of his work in pulleys and levers created formidable weapons such as catapults and ship tilting systems, allowing his home city in Sicily to defend itself against the Romans."Give me a place to stand and I will

America in the Middle East, 1776 to Today [video 57min]

Michael Oren examines the United States' involvement in the Middle East over the past 230 years. In Power, Faith, and Fantasy, the author argues that, since the 20th century, the U.S. has replaced Britain as the dominant"imperial" power in the area. Michael Oren is a Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Israel and a visiting professor at Harvard and Yale Universities. He is the author of Six Days of War.

Iron Curtain Goes Wild, 2nd of 3 [audio 30min]

Writer, historian and television presenter Neil Oliver walks the Iron Curtain from Trieste on the Adriatic to Lubeck on the Baltic. The minefields and barbed wire are being transformed into the world's longest nature reserve. Neil travels through the once divided city of Berlin on the way to Lubeck, where so many East Germans perished attempting the deceptively short swim from East to West.

Tracing African-American Genealogy: Why It Matters [audio 17min]

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chair of African and African-American Studies at Harvard, talks about helping Oprah Winfrey trace her genealogy in a recent PBS special and his upcoming book Finding Oprah's Roots: Finding Your Own.

Composition, Control of Rehnquist Court [audio 25min]

Legal correspondent for ABC News, Jan Crawford Greenberg, writes about the Rehnquist Court in her new book Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court. Webpage includes book excerpt.

Bill Kelso: Digging Up the Truth About Jamestown [audio 6min]

The Jamestown fort has been found. Four hundred years ago, 104 English settlers landed on the marshy shores of James Island in Virginia. Within 19 days, they'd erected a triangular fort -- part of the first permanent settlement in America. It was Spring 1607 when the English arrived. But five months later, more than half of the men were dead -- most from famine. And many historians assumed that the James River had long since washed away the original site of the timber fort. At least that's what

Spinning Around the Globe by Bicycle in 1884 [audio 4min]

Thomas Stevens was the first person to ride a bicycle around the world. He left San Francisco in 1884 on a high-wheeler. Upon his return in 1887, he wrote a book: Around the World on a Bicycle. Thomas Pauly of the University of Delaware wrote the introduction to a reissue of that book and speaks with Scott Simon about Stevens' adventure.

Computer Viruses Mark 20 Years of Havoc [audio 4min]

More than 20 years ago this week the first computer virus was found. Since then viruses and the people who write them have changed significantly. Nicholas Thompson, a senior editor at Wired magazine, talks with Scott Simon about the changes.

Naftali Explores 'Khrushchev's Cold War vs. Eisenhower, JFK [video 66min]

Timothy Naftali details the heated interactions between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy during the Cold War. In Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary, the second book he co-authored with Aleksandr Fursenko, the co-authors examine Khrushchev's foreign policy from 1956 to 1962. Naftali is an associate professor at the University of Virginia, where he directs the Presidential Recordings Program and Kremlin Decision-Making Proje

Robert Scott Letter Goes on Display [audio 6min @9:12]

Ninety-five years ago, Robert Scott completed one of the greatest feats of his time: he arrived, on foot, at the South Pole, hoping to raise the Union Jack, and claim a first for Britain. But once he reached the pole, Scott and his four companions found a small tent and a letter left by Roald Amundsen. The Norwegian explorer had beaten them by just a month. And so the already-exhausted party turned around and set off on the months-long return trek to their base on the Antarctic Peninsula. The jo

Napoleon's Cancer [audio 5min @10:21]

Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on Saint Helena almost 200 years ago. And ever since, there have been any number of theories regarding the cause of his death. The autopsy report at the time cited stomach cancer. But many have speculated that the former French emperor was actually murdered -- with arsenic poisoning having been suggested as the most likely cause. Now, a new investigation into Napoleon's death is challenging those conspiracy theories. Dr. Robert Genta is a professor of pathology a

'Houston' Was FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser [video 53min]

James Hornfischer chronicles the Pacific battle that destroyed the USS Houston during World War II in his book Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors. He explains that former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s favorite ship was sunk by the Japanese, and the surviving crew members became prisoners-of-war and were forced to work as slave laborers on the Burma-Thai Railway. James Hornfischer is a literary ag

Utah Time Capsule Opened, 50 Years Later [audio 4min]

The University of Utah opened a time capsule containing items from 1957 on Wednesday. The plan almost fell apart because no one could remember its exact location, but a sonar scan found the sealed copper box. Jenny Brundin reports from member station KUER in Salt Lake City.

Iron Curtain Goes Wild [audio 30min]

Writer, historian and television presenter Neil Oliver walks the Iron Curtain from Trieste on the Adriatic to Lubeck on the Baltic. The minefields and barbed wire are being transformed into the world's longest nature reserve, but Neil finds that the old tensions are still fresh in many minds.