• News/Talk
  • Music
  • Entertainment

Hour 1

  • Homecoming

    Coming Back, Fitting In

    Unlike the Civil War veteran, who had to trudge across muddy fields and back roads for weeks or even months before getting home, today's soldiers are put on a jet in Baghdad one day and are back home at Wal-Mart the next. Some military experts say the transition from combat to civilian life is too fast. And veterans say when they do get back they're strangers in their own country.

  • Music Bridge:
    Soul Pusha
    Artist: Sun
    CD: I'll Be The Same (Staubgold)
  • Crazy for Christmas Lights

    The Light Man

    Inside Dominic Luberto's Boston home, the sound of Christmas is the steady hum of burning electricity emanating from circuit breakers in the basement. Luberto may have the most heavily decorated home in the U.S. And his neighbors aren't smiling.

  • Music Bridge:
    Rendezvous In Okonkuluku
    Artist: Waitiki
    CD: Waitiki (Waitiki)
  • Weekend Soundtrack

    Cleaning to an "Icy Blue Heart"

    Kayak Practice

    Roxanne Cronin listens to "Icy Blue Heart" by John Hiatt while she cleans. And mends a broken heart.

  • Music Bridge:
    Sebastian
    Artist: Michaela Melian
    CD: Los Angeles (Monika)
  • Lutefisk, and Other Childhood Traumas

    Mmmm! Lutefisk!

    Weekend America's John Moe is from a Norwegian family, and Christmas is a time of gastronomical revulsion. His family's Christmas dinner table has included lutefisk, pickled herring, mackerel in tomato sauce, and something called blood pudding, which is exactly what it sounds like. Finally, decades after childhood, John grabbed a fork, with his tape recorder rolling, dove in.

  • A Sweet Potato Tradition

    A Family Share

    First there's apple pie. Pecan has a respectable following, as does strawberry rhubarb. Even key lime is kind of popular. But there is a real divide between pumpkin pie lovers, and the devotees of the sweet potato.

  • Music Bridge:
    It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
    Artist: Brian Wilson
    CD: What I really Want for Christmas (Arista Records)
  • The Virtual Suck Tour

    Arlington Sign

    Back in 2001, a couple of teenagers in Arlington, Mass., were so sick of where they lived that they launched a Web site called "The Virtual Suck Tour of Arlington," a 25-page travelogue of their town's worst places. This was around the time that Weekend America's Sean Cole moved there.

Hour 2

  • Joe and Angela

    At Home in the Parking Lot

    For close to a hundred people in Kirkland, Wash., home is a church parking lot. They're part of a tent city there--one of several that have been roaming the Seattle area for a few years now. They're now part of the area's shelter system.

  • Music Bridge:
    Khali
    Artist: Alejandro Franov
    CD: Khali (Staubgold)
  • Stories about Coming Home

    Mother and Son

    Whether home is the place you grew up in or where you live today, anything can happen when families and friends gather. We talk with listeners about some of their surprising, funny and sad holiday homecomings.

  • Music Bridge:
    Milda Doden Hamtar Oss Alla Till Slut
    Artist: Eric Malmburg
    CD: Verklighet and Beat (Hapna)
  • Good News, Bad News, No News

    Fertility and Horse Death

    Our panel of non-experts review the week's events in a parlor game to gauge what kind of week America had. This week, we have National Book Award Winner Sherman Alexie; columnist Dan Savage; and author and commentator Linda Chavez.

  • Music Bridge:
    Transatlantic
    Artist: Pharoah Overlord
    CD: #1 (No Quarter)
  • America at War

    Cole's Guitar, by Brian Turner

    Brian Turner

    On December 3, 2003, Brian Turner crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq. He was an infantry team leader with the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division. Turner is a poet, and he shares his thoughts of home on his final night in Iraq.

  • Music Bridge:
    88
    Artist: Tijuana Mon Amor Broadcasting Inc
    CD: Cold Jubilee (Buro)
  • Coming Home to a Smell

    The Feedlot Up Close

    In California, I-5 connects Los Angeles with San Francisco. The trip takes about six hours, and it can be monotonous. But almost exactly halfway between the two towns, there is a stop that distinguishes itself. By smell.

  • Music Bridge:
    Rings
    Artist: Tom Verlaine
    CD: Around (Thrill Jockey)
  • The More (Holidays), the Merrier

    Grandma Celebrates

    Michael Idov's family celebrates just about every holiday imaginable from the beginning of December through the end of January. He describes the never-ending party.

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From the January 31 broadcast

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