The Story

This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the 1988 Iran Massacre, when thousands of dissidents and activists were imprisoned and executed by the theocratic state. Iranian activist Shahla Talebi survived the massacre. Also in this episode, Nancy Poole started working in a piano shop mostly to keep herself afloat during a rough time. Then she fell in love with a piano - a rosewood grand concert piano she nicknamed "Big Red."

When the Army raised the age limit for enlistment from 35 to 42, single working mom Kristi Jo Newland leaped at the chance to get her nursing education paid for. Kristi, her husband, and their children join Dick to talk about sacrifice and success, and the challenges of facing all of it at this time in their lives. Kristi turns 42 in October. Also on the show: a social worker who helps parents maintain a healthy post-divorce relationship.

Leili Pritschet's family descends from Iranian royalty. As a young girl, Leili learned to dance. Her training took her abroad, but she returned home to teach classical Iranian dance to the children of foreigners, principally Americans, living in the country. Then came the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Also in this episode, a grandmother tests her granddaughter's lunch box for lead, and listener Linda Powell. 

When the U.S. closed embassies throughout the Middle East in response to an intercepted "message" about a planned attack, we wondered: What kind of message? How was it intercepted? And what’s "chatter?"