Weekend America

Charting the Future of the Episcopal Church

This week the Episcopal Church rejected a call from the World Wide Anglican Communion to establish a second leadership group to monitor the U.S. church activities. Weekend America Host Bill Radke talks faith and with New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein.

Rebuilding New Orleans, One Shotgun At a Time

The housing crisis in New Orleans is nowhere near over. Rent and real estate costs have gone through the roof, and thousands of people continue to live in FEMA trailers or bunk with friends and family. Many dream of getting a fixed-up shotgun house—that long, narrow row of rooms with a front stoop and French doors that's iconic New Orleans. One group of architects and students is re-imagining the shotgun as a contemporary, efficient, and affordable housing solution. But as independent producer Eve Troeh reports, their designs aren't what you expect.

How to Date at Taylor University (Hint: Don't Dance)

Even for a Christian College, Indiana's Taylor University has a lot of rules. Of course, drinking, drugs, and firearms are off limits, but so is smoking, foul language, premarital sex, and dancing. There are set hours on the weekend when students can visit peers of the opposite sex in their rooms. When they do, they must keep the lights on and the door open. But there's still a time for wooing. It's called Pick-a-Dates and Weekend America's Hillary Frank followed sophomore Mike Crilly and freshman Elaine Gray on their pick-a-date to a hockey game in Fort Wayne.

Krappy Kameras Take Good Pictures

Most photographers are obsessed with their gear, but Martin Gee has a special thing for crappy cameras. You know the plastic kind like the Holga or Diana. This weekend, one of his photographs is in a New York City exhibit, the Krappy Kamera Show, devoted to the art of making pictures with not-so-fancy equipment. Weekend America Host Bill Radke takes a walk around Los Angeles with Gee and his camera to see what they find.

Please Don't Touch the Art

In Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park this weekend, folks are trying to figure out the right way to interact with outdoor art. The pieces can get rained on, birds can do their business on them, and we don't want to know what the squirrels are up to. But no matter what, humans can't touch. Weekend America's John Moe talks to artist and art critic, Gary Faigin, Paul Klein, the operations coordinator at the park, and Emma, a 5-year-old girl, about appreciating art.

What's on the Other Dark Side of the Moon?

This weekend is the anniversary of the seminal Pink Floyd album, "Dark Side of the Moon," released March 24, 1973. We're not going to track down the members of Pink Floyd though. Instead, we found out that they weren't the first people to come up with that album title. Another British band, Medicine Head, released an album called "Dark Side of the Moon" a year before Pink Floyd. We tracked down Medicine Head's front man, John Fiddler, to ask him about the other dark side of the moon.

America at War

From the Theater of War to the Theater of Plays

Can you picture Brad Pitt going off to fight in Iraq? It might not have been so strange 50 years ago. Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and James Doohan all fought for the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Nowadays we don't come across too many people who've spent time acting as well as serving in the military. But VetStage, a new theater company in Los Angeles, is trying to change that. "Weekend America's" Krissy Clark spent time with the group while they rehearsed for their first performance, "The Wolf."

What's Behind the Foreclosure Statistics

Seventy-five-year-old Lawrence Wiggins Sr. is fighting to keep his house. He's one of many "risky" debtors that were able to take out loans from sub-prime lenders in the real estate boom of the last decade. He now finds himself owing more on his Cleveland house than the house is actually worth. Independent Producer Mhari Saito spent the week with Wiggins and his family while they tried to keep him from losing his house to foreclosure.

Good News, Bad News, No News

Our panel of non-experts reviews the week's events in our weekly parlor game. This week we have three writers weighing in: Sherman Alexie, Dana Gould, and Nancy French.

Listening to the Soundtrack of Your Weekend

We've been asking you what music you hear during your weekend. We want to know about the song you listen to and what it means to you. Stephan Frazier, a courier in Boston, Mass., wrote in about Jack Johnson's track, "Better Together."

Small Town Secret

What if you're a married man, who knows he's really a woman and you're not in a big city. Not Chicago, not Miami, or even Tulsa. Smaller than any town you've probably visited: Bettles, Alaska, a place where manliness is next to godliness? From Anchorage, independent producer Annie Feidt has the story of one person who found out the answer to that question.

The Basketball Farm

If you're watching the NCAA basketball tournament, you might see some graduates of Oak Hill Academy. Oak Hill is a Baptist-affiliated boarding school in Mouth of Wilson, Va., that just happens to have what many consider the nation's best prep basketball program. About 20 Oak Hill graduates have gone on to play for the NBA, including current standouts Jerry Stackhouse and Carmello Anthony. Independent Producer Jesse Dukes got the lowdown on what makes the school such a b-ball standout. He spoke to the school president, basketball coach and several students.

Get on the Orphan Train

Between 1854 and 1929, children were put on trains and sent west to be adopted. Some kids were new immigrants, some had parents that died on them unexpectedly, and all hoped for a better future. It's where the phrase "up for adoption" comes from. But not everyone found happiness out west. Guest Host Alex Cohen tells visited a play about this forgotten part of history called "Orphan Train." She speaks with the director, Rob Peluso, and cast members in St. Paul, Minn.