People & Life
People & Life on Weekend America
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Kids and Stress
Children who spent their early years in orphanages offer researchers a unique opportunity to see how chronic adversity primes the brain's stress response system. New research comparing adoptees to children raised in biological families, or those adopted early from foster care, gives some surprising results.
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What, Me Worry?
It's the second weekend after the election, and we're guessing a lot of you are still feeling pretty darn good. Sure there's the economy, the war, global warming - but those are all the problems of the last presidency, right? Now there's a new president, and everything's going to get whipped into shape. Well, before you start believing that every little thing's gonna be all right, remember that every silver lining has at least one dark cloud.
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First Weekend Home: After the Coma
Traumatic brain injury - or an injury caused by a severe blow to the head - is the leading cause of death and disability for children and young adults. One of the most common causes of those injuries is car accidents. That's how high school student Justin Logan wound up in the hospital a few months ago. Reporter Tori Marlan followed Justin out of rehab and through his first weekend home in his mother's care.
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"Friday On My Mind"
We've been asking listeners about the songs that bridge the gap from Friday to Monday. Our latest story comes from Jim Leftwich of Skokie, Ill. His soundtrack is "Friday on My Mind" by Richard Thompson.
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Post-Election Mix Tape
The polls closed and a new president was elected. At the precise instant when your candidate won or lost, what was going through your head? Emotions ran high from every side of the political spectrum, and sometimes those emotions are best expressed through song. We reached out to some friends of the show to find out what songs best describe their post-election mood. We put them together for a post-election mixtape.
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Legions Versus Ultras
This weekend at the Home Depot Center near Los Angeles, there will be some very passionate soccer fans on hand to watch team Chivas USA take on Real Salt Lake in the Major League Soccer playoffs. Most Chivas fans are Mexican-American, but the team has struggled to find its identity in the United States. It even has two rival fan clubs. Weekend America's Charlie Schroeder explains.
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Letters: Loser Candy, Religious Guilt and Scary Movies
We open the Weekend America mailbag and hear your responses to recent stories, including a defense of "loser" Halloween treats and questions about religious guilt and P-O-R-N. Finally, we speak with Dr. Joanne Cantor, a former professor of Communication Arts, about the neurological reasons why scary movie memories stay with us forever.
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What Your Mailman Knows About You
For most people, checking the mailbox is an anonymous interaction. But your postage worker might actually feel quite connected to you. Because although you may have no idea what he or she looks like, they've probably got a picture of you in their head based on what's going in your mailbox. And as Kate Hinds found out in conversation with her mailman, the picture might be surprisingly accurate.
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Obama's Win, Palin's Blunders, and a New Chief of Staff
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: Nancy French, author of "A Red State of Mind"; comedian Dana Gould; and John Ridley, editor in chief of www.ThatMinorityThing.com.
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This Election Year
To have closely followed the 2008 campaign that culminated in the election of Barack Obama is to have read a million articles. But now that it's the weekend, let's look at the proceedings from a bird's eye view: How did we get here and what does it mean? To help answer those very daunting questions, host John Moe is joined by author David Rakoff. We also check in with Claire Petersky, a former college classmate of Obama's at Occidental College.
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Bride of Scaring the Kids
Last week's story about scary childhood movie memories brought an unprecedented flood of response to our website. Apparently, Weekend America listeners have a lot of unresolved issues from their youths. You told us how you were still traumatized by "E.T.," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Pinocchio," "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and even "9 to 5." John Moe called up a few listeners to provide a sort of group therapy session of the airwaves.
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Memories of the Great Depression
This week marked the anniversary of the great stock market crash, Oct. 29, 1929. It got a little more attention than usual in light of our current economic crisis. The $700 billion bailout was designed to avert another "Great Depression." We were curious to hear from people who lived through the Depression--how they pulled through such a time. Here's what we heard back.
