The Affair(s)

Friday, November 20 2009 | Send to a friend

The Affair(s)

A new study is out saying young married people are much more likely to have affairs than they were 15 years ago. Today Dick Gordon talks with a woman named Angela, who says she's had several affairs. She's developed her own set of rules for successfully carrying off infidelity. And though she's thought it all through in therapy, Angie says she doesn't feel guilty. She says the experience taught her a lot about herself, and it has actually made her a better wife. But that doesn't mean she's proud of what she's done.

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A LOSING SEASON

Jack Ridl

Buzz Ridl was the coach of his time. He took little Westminster College in Pennsylvania to the national title 50 years ago this year. In fact, there is an event this weekend at Westminster, where many of the players are gathering to remember Coach Buzz Ridl.

The coach’s son, Jack, is now a poet. He remembers that national championship, and he remembers the agony of sitting behind the bench, watching his dad try to win. Jack has recently published an entire book of poems that were inspired by his memories of basketball, his father, and the fans. It's called Losing Season.

• Hear Jack read the poem My Brother A Star
• Watch a clip of the 1960 championship game, courtesy of the NAIA
  

A New Research Question

Thursday, November 19 2009 | Send to a friend

a new research question

Dr. Carolyn Sartor

There is a new study out this week that is causing waves in medical circles. A federal task force is raising new questions about the need for breast cancer screening, particularly mammograms for younger women. That is a big shift in the national conversation about breast cancer.

Carolyn Sartor is well versed in the detection and treatment of breast cancer. She is the former head of the department of radiation oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She's the one who used to give the news to patients. Then she got breast cancer herself. Three times. Suddenly she was both doctor and patient, dealing with the very disease that is her specialty. Carolyn joins Dick Gordon to talk about how her perspective as a patient has begun to change her research questions.

• Find out more about Carolyn's work
  

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CIVILIZATION

Ahmed Fadaam

Elon University is a small school in the town of Burlington, North Carolina. It is home to the Pericles Scholars program, where students are encouraged to learn more about the rest of the world. This time last year, our Baghdad reporter Ahmed Fadaam was working with those scholars, giving them his first hand accounts of life in Iraq. Later today, Elon will unveil a statue that Ahmed created there. Ahmed calls the piece Civilization. It's a notable piece because Ahmed had been a sculptor and art teacher before the war, but for five years Ahmed had given up making art. 

• See photos of Ahmed's statue "Civilization" at Elon University
• See videos of when "Civilization" was vandalized and rebuilt
• See photos of Ahmed at work

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Midnight Teacher

Wednesday, November 18 2009 | Send to a friend

Midnight teacher

Wick Sloane (top), Tremare James

Community colleges are experiencing record enrollments in the recession. Some have responded by adding classes at all hours of the day. Wick Sloane teaches English at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston - at midnight.

As he tells Dick Gordon, Wick thinks students in community college are among the most energized and inspiring he's ever met. He pointed us to Tremare James, a 19-year-old woman who has made back into the classroom despite debilitating sexual assaults. Wick and Tremare talk with Dick about the 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. class, and what they're liking about the experience.

• Keep up with Wick's essays about higher education
  

An attachment to Ethiopia

Eric Gottesman

Eric Gottesman had a summer internship with the Supreme Court when he found out he'd won a fellowship to spend a year in Ethiopia. The experience set his life on a whole new course, one he's still trying to make sense of. For one thing, Eric gave up his plans to become a lawyer and instead became a professional photographer. But he was never comfortable with simply being a journalist or a documentarian. He wanted his subjects to intimately participate in the process of making portraits. Eric talks with Dick about the young woman he's worked with most closely, Salam, and how that and other relationships keep him tied to Ethiopia.

• See some of Eric's photographs
• Learn more about Eric
  
• Music heard in this story: Antchi Hoye, by Gigi
  

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Off The Streets

Tuesday, November 17 2009 | Send to a friend

OFF THE STREETS

Experts estimate that 300,000 children and teens are lured into prostitution each year.

At 15 years old, Delencia began working as a prostitute in Texas. She says over the past three years it was her only opportunity to earn the money she wanted for clothes, hair and nail treatments. Last month, after a brush with law enforcement, Delencia decided to quit selling her body. She talks with Dick Gordon about how she's adjusting to life off the streets and the challenges she faces ahead.

• Learn about resources for child victims of prostitution
  

Discovering Leslie Cheung

Marie Jost

A couple of years ago, Marie Jost rented the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Chinese cinema was new to her, and Marie was floored by what she saw. She started checking out other Chinese films. It was while watching Farewell My Concubine, an Academy Award nominee in 1993 for best foreign film, that Marie really got hooked on Leslie Cheung, the lead actor. Marie's fanaticism about Leslie, who killed himself in 2003, has led her to explore Chinese art, culture and language. She says it's also renewed her own creativity, even inspiring her to plan a trip to Hong Kong next spring.

Growing the Medicine

Monday, November 16 2009 | Send to a friend

Growing the Medicine

Len Goodman

New Mexico is one of 14 states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana. And New Mexico is taking it one step further than the rest - the state is licensing providers to grow and distribute marijuana to patients.

One of the first to be awarded the new license is Len Goodman, a Santa Fe businessman. His newly-minted non-profit is called New MexiCann Natural Medicine. Len was a beatnik and a hippie who went to New Mexico over 40 years ago to join a commune near Taos. He's smoked plenty of pot over the years, but now he's figuring out how to grow, and sell it legally to patients around the state. Len talks to Dick Gordon about his unusual business plan, and how he was converted to the cause of medical marijuana by the patients he's met along the way.

• Visit the New MexiCann Web site 

Lessons from the tech bubble

Josh Fruhlinger   

Josh Fruhlinger worked for a technology startup during the tech bubble of the late-90s and early part of this decade. Back then, he says getting laid off was actually a relief to some workers. As he tells Dick, Josh is sensing similar feelings during today's recession. At least you know your fate, compared to the uncertainty of staying at a company you know is going under.

• Check out Josh's blog
  

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Beijing Blues

Friday, November 13 2009 | Send to a friend

Beijing Blues 

Alan Paul              see larger>>

Lots of people these days are trying to make East-West partnerships. Alan Paul found himself an unlikely ambassador for American Blues, in China. His band there, Woodie Alan, became so successful they were named the Beijing Band of the Year. Rock star in China is a role Alan never imagined he'd play in life.

Alan was obsessed with The Allman Brothers as a kid. He learned to play the guitar and made a living as a music writer. But he'd never performed much himself. Then he moved to China, met a Chinese Blues musician, and started a band. Alan talks with Dick Gordon about gaining the confidence to get up on stage, and how he developed a new connection with American roots music - and with his pride in being an American - while playing the blues in China.

• Check out the band
• Learn more about Alan
• See photos of Alan with the band

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YOUR STORY - CHILDHOOD DREAM REALIZED

Mary Immel and her late husband

During the Great Depression, Mary Immel lived in a small desert town in northern Arizona. In the center of her town was a railroad station with a restaurant called La Posada. With a penny in hand, five-year-old Mary would walk over to the station on a hot summer afternoon, towards the gumball machine, but get lost in the cool beauty of the building’s hacienda and its magnificent green gardens. She returned, years later, to see what had become of the secret garden of her childhood. This story originally aired on February 11, 2009.