Weekend America

Death on Fourth of July

If it happened today, there would be Web sites deconstructing it, secret groups formed, maybe even an Oliver Stone film: Several founding fathers of the United States died on the same day. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. James Monroe did the same day in 1831. Coincidence, suicide pact or did they will themselves to die on the most patriotic day of the year? Weekend America's Krissy Clark investigates.

America at War

Reflections on a Violent Art Project

Chicago Artist Wafaa Bilal spent 31 days last month locked in a room being shot at by strangers. The strangers were virtual, operating a paintball gun, and Bilal had no idea who they were or why they were shooting. He called his exhibit "Domestic Tension." Bilal is an Iraqi who fled Saddam's regime in 1991. His father and younger brother were killed in the current Iraq war. We talked to him during his stay in the exhibit, and we catch up with him now that he's free. We ask Bilal what he's learned since being a marked target, and what life is like now.

Talent Quest Round 2

The pool has been narrowed down to 10 finalists in Public Radio Talent Quest's hunt for a new radio host. This week the final 10 completed their three challenges and now the public can listen and vote. Weekend America Host Bill Radke and Talent Quest judge Jake Shapiro listen to how the finalists did in their challenges, and talk about the hidden responsibilities of a radio show host.

Listener Letters

Each week Weekend America shares some of your thoughts about the show. This week we hear from listeners about segments that moved them to write to us.

Holiday Weekend Traveling Tips

This Fourth of July may be the busiest weekend to travel, and if you're stuck at the airport, you already know that. Weekend America Host Bill Radke gets tips from travel writer Harriet Baskas about airport preparation

The Sweat Behind the Fireworks

Let's face it: Weekend America's John Moe wishes he were setting off fireworks. Right now. No one with any authority would really let him do it, so he did the next best thing and hung out with fireworks show planners in Washington State.

Sacred Music from Duke Ellington

Pianist Dan Knight was trolling through some of Duke Ellington's old papers in the Smithsonian and found some music that very few people had ever heard. And it's sacred music. Knight will be performing the music this weekend in Minneapolis, Minn., and he gives Weekend America a preview.

Going from Iraq to Michigan

Two thousand Iraqi immigrants will be moving to Michigan soon, and no doubt, it will be a big change. Weekend America talks Belmin Pinjic, the director of refugee services for the Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, an organization that helps refugees settle into their new home. We'll also talk with Rafat Ita, an Iraqi that resettled in the United States in 1994 after the Persian Gulf War.

I was a Sicko

Sarah Gustavus was burned by $2500 in medical bills. It was about three years ago, and she actually had health insurance at the time. While working a second job to pay it off, Gustavus decided she didn't want insurance anymore. But now that she's become attached to her status as an uninsured rebel, people have been trying to convince her that she should have health insurance. And not for the reasons you'd think. She tells us her story.

Good News, Bad News, No News

Good News, Bad News, No News

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 Yale literature professor Amy Hungerford; essayist, journalist and actor David Rakoff; and New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan, author of "Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell: A Tale Of Our Times With (Hopefully) Some Hope For Us All."

The Holdays that History Forgot

The Fourth of July is about a major a holiday as it gets - the celebration of the founding of the U.S. republic. But there are plenty of minor-league holidays too. And in the history of our country there have been holidays so minor that you've never heard of them. Professor Ellen Litwicki of Fredonia State University in New York shares with us the history of some lesser-known holidays in America.

Philly versus Boston

It's a debate as old as our nation: Which city can lay the most claim to the Revolutionary War: Boston or Philadelphia? In the Boston corner, Weekend America's Sean Cole will lobby for his borough as the birthplace of the Revolution and home to its key players: Samuel and John Adams, Paul Revere and John Hancock. For Philadelphia, Hillary Frank holds up the Declaration of Independence, the first flag and the Liberty Bell, all products of her city. Frank and Cole duke it out in a radio smackdown spectacular.

The Lindy Hop Man

The Lindy Hop is a kind of swing dance where you throw your partner in the air and around your body. It's like a mix of a dance and workout. Ninety-three-year-old Frank Manning is the go-to guy for the Lindy Hop, and he shares his story with Weekend America.