Roundup

Tinker, Tailor, Composer, Spy [audio 30min]

Kenneth Shenton presents the remarkable story of how composer Elizabeth Poston led a secret life, sending coded musical messages into occupied Europe during the Second World War -- under the cover of a staff job in the World Service. Known for her much loved carol "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" and other popular works, Elizabeth took her secret to the grave, never divulging her wartime exploits.

9 May -- On This Day [video multiple]

Video and audio from the BBC news archive, WWII and 1950-2004, include 1956: Mystery of missing frogman deepens; 1972: Israeli commandos storm hijacked jet; 1979: El Salvador cathedral bloodbath; 1988: Syria threatens force in Beirut; 1999: Chinese anger at embassy bombing; 1955: West Germany accepted into Nato.

If Genocide Doesn't Spark a 'Just War,' What Does? [3min]

The crisis in Darfur points to the need for a new way to prevent genocide and other human-rights abuses says commentator Joe Loconte. Two years ago, the United Nations reported on the reign of terror in Darfur, but it's taken until now for peace accords to be signed. Loconte says that a new policy, based on the Christian "just war" tradition, should be developed to use force to prevent genocide.

Remembering the Early Days of 'Gay Cancer' [4min]

Commentator Joe Wright spent more than 10 years doing AIDS community work in San Francisco. He says that back in 1981 and '82, before AIDS was called AIDS, it was called "gay cancer." At the time, cancer was the most dreaded disease in the United States. But for some of the men who had the mysterious new illness, calling it "cancer" was a form of hope. Joe Wright is a student at Harvard Medical School.

'War of Nerves': A History of Chemical Weapons [36min]

The U.S. military searched without success for chemical weapons in Iraq. But author Jonathan Tucker says chemical warfare is still a serious threat. Guest: Jonathan Tucker, author of War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda; senior fellow at Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

After Welfare [52min]

In August 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a landmark law that fulfilled his promise to "end welfare as we know it." The law killed the 60-year-old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Instead, Congress gave the states money to run their own programs and required them to move many welfare recipients into the workforce. Supporters declared it a new day, the beginning of self-sufficiency for poor families. Others warned the action would push women and children into

Trading in Tulips [29min]

Trading in Tulips has been a Dutch mainstay since the 1500s, when the first tulip bulb arrived from Turkey. Since then the Dutch have created a multi-billion dollar industry. Now, scarcity of land, new pesticide regulations and vastly improved air transportation are pushing the Dutch to grow their bulbs elsewhere, including Turkey and China. Producer Michelle Ernsting of Radio Netherlands brings you the story of one family, who has almost completely moved their operations overseas. This will be

Empire (61st of 90) -- The Empire in the 1860s [15min]

By the start of the 1860s, the empire was quite different from what it had been at the start of the previous decade. The 1852 Sand River Convention for the moment strengthened British authority in southern Africa. By the 1860s with the discovery of diamond and more gold in Dutch held Africa, Britain was heading for inevitable conflict in that continent. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of Indi

8 May -- On This Day [multiple clips]

Video and audio from the BBC news archive, WWII and 1950-2004, include 1945: Rejoicing at end of war in Europe; 1984: Moscow pulls out of US Olympics.

Celebrating the History of Appalachia [7min]

The birthplace of entertainers (Lucille Ball), musicians (Patsy Cline), authors (Cormac McCarthy) and scholars (Henry Louis Gates Jr.), Appalachia offers a rich slice of American history. But it is often steeped in mythic lore and stereotyped as backward, uncultured and poor. Two new books seek to change these perceptions. The United States of Appalachia, by Jeff Biggers, and The Encyclopedia of Appalachia, co-edited by Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell, both try to get past the negat

'Irish News' Publishes Confidential British Papers [7min]

Steven McCaffrey, News Editor of Northern Ireland's Irish News, discusses the importance of the papers, which he says confirm the long-denied collusion between the British authorities and loyalist paramilitaries.

Europe Rises Again [60min]

What's the biggest threat to American supremacy? Islamic fundamentalism? China? How about Europe? Today Europe has more people, more trade, and more wealth than the U.S. And the European welfare state offers a potent alternative to American capitalism -- and what government's supposed to do. In this hour of "To the Best of Our Knowledge," how Europe has emerged as the great counterweight to American power. Also, Europe's own struggle with radical Muslims.SEGMENT 1:

The Search for Sepharad, 2nd of 4 -- Exodus [45min]

Broadcaster and film-maker Dennis Marks travels across the Mediterranean in the footsteps of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. The journey takes Dennis, via Portugal and Italy, to the creation of a refuge under the protection of the former Ottoman Empire, where today Sephardic communities still cling tenaciously to their roots.

Paul Cezanne & Mont Sainte Victoire [30min]

Some of Cezanne's most famous paintings are those of Mont Sainte Victoire, which he painted time and again throughout his life. Geologist Iain Stewart and leading author Michele Roberts walk in the footsteps of Cezanne. They scale the ancient rocky layers of the mountain, visible in Cezanne's paintings, and track the life he led in the small town of Aix. We talk to students avidly painting in the landscape, visit Cezanne's studio where a class of children are painting apples, and ask artists and

7 May -- On This Day [multiple clips]

Video and audio from the BBC news archive, WWII and 1950-2004 include 1945: Germany signs unconditional surrender; 1965: Huge Rhodesia election win for Smith; 2001: Thousands greet Pope in Syrian visit.

Stasi Officers Deny Allegations at Former Prison [4min]

Derek Scally of the Irish Times reports on an encounter at the former Stasi HQ in East Berlin.

What a Difference 10,000 Years Makes [5min]

The pyramids have been around for about 5,000 years and are still full of mysteries. Imagine what people 10,000 years from now will be thinking when they stumble across still radioactive nuclear waste, buried deep below the earth? How do we communicate with the people of the future that it's something they need to avoid? Independent Producer Eric Mack explores the challenge. ...Visit website for photo gallery and link to in-depth Los Angeles Times article.

Projecting Freud [4min]

Sigmund Freud was born 150 years ago this weekend. He’s certainly pop culture’s most-cited psychoanalyst, but his influence on media doesn’t end there -- Freud’s ideas are cinema staples: flashbacks, projection, not to mention the sexual stuff. Brooke Gladstone speaks with Andrea Sabbadini, a psychoanalyst and chairman of the European Psychoanalytical Film Festival.

Happy Birthday, Sigmund Freud [2min]

Where would we be without Sigmund Freud? On the 150th anniversary of the great man's birth, we play a song recorded in 1960 by Harry Belafonte and the Chad Mitchell Trio.

Freud's Drawings, from Brain to Mind [30min]

Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, started his career as a scientist, studying basic brain biology. Saturday is the 150th anniversary of Freud's birth. In honor of the occasion, the New York Academy of Medicine opens a new exhibit of Freud's scientific drawings. Guests: 1) Lynn Gamwell, curator of From Neurology to Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud's Drawings and Diagrams of the Mind, New York Academy of Medicine; director, Art Museum at the State University of New York at Binghamton. 2