Weekend America Voices
Desiree Cooper
Recent Stories
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Teen Researcher Targets PTSD Treatment
Ilana Rice is only 16, but she's already making a difference for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She's linking treatment of PTSD with the relationships veterans make with those who haven't seen the horrors of war, and how that dynamic might lead to better treatment.
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Looking for the Next Best Apple
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have been breeding apples for 100 years, and developed the Honeycrisp variety a little more than 30 years ago. The patent expires this fall -- so this weekend, breeders are busy cross-pollinating trees in search of the next Honeycrisp.
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Compelled to Help in China
Joy Portella, a Seattle native, works for Mercy Corps, an international aid organization. She's currently in China doing her part to help folks recover from Monday's devastating 7.9-magnitude quake, and talks to Desiree Cooper about what motivates her to keep working amid the death and chaos.
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What Makes a Great War Movie?
The second-annual GI Film Festival gets underway in Washington, D.C. this weekend. They're showing a mix of recent feature films, documentaries, even some classics. Larry Suid is a military historian, speaking on a panel today about the 100 greatest war movies. Desiree Cooper asks what makes a good war film.
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The Toughest Olympic Hurdle
In 1980, Renaldo Nehemiah was was, at that moment in time, the best hurdler in the world. Nobody was faster and nothing was going to stand in his way of winning a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles. Desiree Cooper spoke with Nehemiah about the one hurdle he couldn't get over -- President Carter's Olympic boycott.
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Santa Anita's Record Race Caller
Joe Hernandez holds a record that may never be broken -- 15,587 consecutive races called over 38 years at the famed Santa Anita Racetrack, a singular achievement by one of the few Mexican-Americans in a predominantly Anglo profession. A new book examines Hernandez' complex life, his success and the legacy he leaves behind.
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Dinner, and a Side of Poetry
In celebration of National Poetry Month this April, the folks at Alimentum, a literary magazine about food, published its second-annual menupoems broadside for some favorite restaurants in New York City -- care for a side of verse with dessert? How about a couplet as an appetizer?
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New Life for Hamtramck's Black Enclave
The small city of Hamtramck, right in the middle of Detroit, fought a court order to help rebuild an African-American enclave destroyed by neglect. Now that enclave has new life, thanks to 200 new homes. And for two sisters, it's a new beginning.
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Letters: James Brown the Hero, Marriage Tourism to Thailand
Listeners share memories from the moment the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s was assassinated, and sound off about last week's story of a man trying to find a wife in Thailand, and his son's trepidation about that quest.
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Letters: The Box Dad Left for Me
Last week, we brought a story about moving and what that means for the fate of our emotional baggage. Nicole Rabaud talks about the stacks of documents relating to her parent's divorce.
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A Wedding to One's Own
Host Desiree Cooper's daughter, Rae, is preparing for high school graduation, a major step towards becoming an independent woman. Cooper tries to convince Rae to "marry herself" -- a unique ceremony where a woman vows to love and cherish her own identity.
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King's Last March
Four decades after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, he remains one of the most vivid symbols of hope for racial unity in America. But that's not the way he was viewed the last year of his life -- Kate Ellis talks about her hour-long documentary of King's final days.
