• News/Talk
  • Music
  • Entertainment

Hour 1

  • Dan Ariely

    The Real Recession

    If you didn't get the news this week, we're officially in a recession. Yes, we dropped the R-word. But does it actually mean something different now that we know the recession is real? To help process what all this means we spoke with Dan Ariely. He's a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University and a regular Marketplace commentator.

  • Music Bridge:
    Modern By Nature's Reward
    Artist: Jonas Reinhardt
    CD: Jonas Reinhardt (Kranky)
  • America's Infrastructure

    America's Infrastructure: Urban Drains

    Drain in Columbia, Missouri

    This week in Missouri, a constitutional amendment goes into effect to help cities access more money for drainage projects. In an effort to get to the bottom of what the amendment aimed to do, reporter Adam Allington did a little urban spelunking into the miles of storm water drains running underneath the city of Columbia, Mo. He met up with a guide to help him find his way.

  • Music Bridge:
    Shoulder To Hand
    Artist: Helios
    CD: Caesura (Type)
  • Inside Blackness

    Inside Blackness: Two Coopers, Two Continents

    Helene Cooper

    Helene Cooper, author of "The House at Sugar Beach," was raised in Liberia and is now the diplomatic correspondent to The New York Times. As part of our series Inside Blackness, she sat down with Weekend America's Desiree Cooper to discuss the psychological difference between being raised as a black person in Africa versus the United States.

  • Music Bridge:
    Heimat
    Artist: Hauschka
    CD: Ferndof (Fat Cat)
  • Letters

    Letters: Survivors of Suicide, Axl Rose, and a Post-Election Mixtape

    Surivors of Suicide: Doug Merrill

    Quite a few listeners have had strong emotional reactions, both happy and sad, to certain parts of the show recently. In fact, there may have been some crying and laughing. We hear your responses to our segments on survivors of suicide, Axl Rose's editor and our post-election mixtape.

  • Music Bridge:
    Muesli
    Artist: Minotaur Shock
    CD: Maritime (4ad)
  • Change of Seasons

    Change of Seasons: Poetry and Curling

    A curling stone on the ice

    Is there a chill in the air yet, in your neck of the woods? Our nose hairs haven't frozen yet, but we're sure that treat is just around the corner. Which can only mean one thing: winter! You still have a couple weeks until the official beginning (December 21st, to be exact) but here's a little primer for the season.

  • Music Bridge:
    Walkill Creek Survival
    Artist: Laddio Bolocko
    CD: The Life & Times Of Laddio Bolock (No Quarter)
  • Music Bridge:
    Fem (Etude No.8)
    Artist: The Bad Plus
    CD: For All I Care (Do The Math)
  • Muslim Cowboy

    Kareem Salama as a kid

    When he was growing up in northeast Oklahoma, Kareem Salama knew that he wanted to be a cowboy. Now he's an aspiring country music star. He's also a practicing Muslim. He sees no contradictions in that, saying his upbringing in Oklahoma made it all possible. Reporter Kyle Gassiott brings us his story.

Hour 2

  • A Disputed "Lizard People" Ballot

    Voter Intent

    For most of the country, the 2008 election is over. But not in Minnesota. After nearly three million votes were cast in Minnesota's US Senate race, incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman leads his Democratic challenger Al Franken by only 215 votes. The state has finished hand counting all the ballots, but there's still no winner.

  • Your Take on the New American Car

    What will revive the American car?

    The CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and GM are driving back to Detroit this weekend after asking Congress a second time for billions of dollars to avoid bankruptcy. We still don't know if Congress will say yes. In the meantime, you sent us your best ideas about how to make American cars inspiring and awesome again. Here are some of our favorites.

  • Music Bridge:
    The Day the Pirate Retired
    Artist: Che
    CD: Sound of Liberation (Man's Ruin)
  • Good News, Bad News, No News

    Obama's Team of Rivals, Getting Paid for Good Grades, and Bratz

    President-elect Barack Obama

    Our panel of non-experts weigh in on this week's news events in a parlor game to gauge what kind of week America had. Joining us on this week's panel are: author and New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee; television host Sofia Dickens; and Luke Burbank, who hosts the radio show "Too Beautiful To Live" in Seattle.

  • Music Bridge:
    More More Bigger Better Faster With Cheese
    Artist: Gutbucket
    CD: A Modest Proposal (Cuneiform)
  • Poetry Radio Project

    Reflecting on Mumbai

    Reflecting on Mumbai

    London had the 7/7 bombings. Madrid had the 3/11 train bombings. America had September 11th. And while India has suffered bombings before, last week's terrorist attacks were something else altogether. Brooklyn-based Indian-American poet Vijay Seshadri lived through 9/11, and this weekend, he talks about what the events in Mumbai mean for him and the poem that helps him get as close as he can to understanding it all.

  • Music Bridge:
    Thelema
    Artist: Jozef Van Wissem
    CD: A Priori (Phantom Sound & Vision)
  • The Story of Stuff

    Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff

    Annie Leonard spent a decade researching where all our "stuff" comes from: consumer goods, electronics, cars, food. She figured out how it was made, who bought it, and where it all ended up. Then she made a 20 minute video, "The Story of Stuff." As it turns out, everything comes from somewhere. You buy it, you use it, you throw it away. But the story of stuff has a plot line that might hold the world in the balance.

  • Good King Who?

    Good King Wenceslas

    Every holiday season, the malls are filled with piped in Christmas carols. Most have something to do with Jesus or Santa. All except one, that is: "Good King Wenceslas." You remember him, right? He looked out on the Feast of Stephen, as the snow lay roundabout, deep and crisp and even? It's a catchy tune, and easy to sing but why in the world did it catch on as a Christmas carol?

  • Music Bridge:
    Good King Wenceslas
    Artist: Crash Test Dummies
    CD: Jingle All the Way (Hunter)
  • Blip Festival

    Nullsleep at Blip Festival 2007

    This weekend in New York City, artists will be playing video game consoles for eager crowds. Blip Festival 2008 is underway. Audiences are attending chip-music concerts. Chip-music artists modify old Gameboys and old video game consoles and recast them as musical instruments. We spoke with three artists who are trying to push the limitation of those old game systems.

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From the January 31 broadcast

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