Weekend America

The Economy Across America

As you may know by now, the president has signed the bailout bill Congress sent him Friday. It'll be weeks, months, and maybe years before we fully understand what's gone on in this credit crisis and its implications. Marketplace's New York Bureau Chief Amy Scott left her perch over the center of the financial universe this week to hit the road and ask people across the country what's going on for them in the middle of this mess.

Weekend Court

Main Street and Wall Street are probably the two most cliched street names in the news right now when it comes to talking about the economy. But what about Madison Avenue? Not the one in New York City, the one in Detroit. It's the location of the city's 36th District Court. We sent Desiree Cooper there to talk with court personnel about crime. But when she got there, she found that folks in weekend court have a different priority: The economy.

10-4, Good Buddy

On 10-4, we take a look at the all but forgotten home of the phrase "10-4": The CB radio. Before the internet, cell phones, texting and IM, it was a way to chat with strangers and strange truckers, to invent new names, to use coded slang, to do all the things we do on computers today. Weekend America host John Moe remembers the CB boom of the 1970s and wonders why we're so hooked on blathering to strangers.

Open Letters to Entities Unlikely to Respond

Open Letter to a Thief

Just two months ago, someone broke into Weekend America producer Angela Kim's apartment while she was away. Everything was taken, including her computer and two backup hard drives. Along with many possessions, six years of digital memories are suddenly gone. Angela wonders how she can regain what was lost.

Conversations with America

Conversations with America: Dr. Hugh Hill

Here at Weekend America we've asked writers and thinkers what they believe should be on voters' minds as they cast their ballots this election year. Our essay today comes from emergency room physician Hugh Hill. Dr. Hill has worked in emergency rooms for 28 years, dealing with the insured and uninsured alike. The patients he sees on a daily basis have shaped his view of the politics of health care in the United States.

Poetry Radio Project

Everyday Sidewalk Poetry

A street party is getting underway here in St. Paul to celebrate a collection of poems by local residents that's been published on paper - and in cement. For the last few months the city has been implanting poems penned by St. Paulites in freshly poured sidewalks all over town. The public art project is designed to engage residents' artistic impulses and bring more poetry into everyday life. Chris Roberts of Minnesota Public Radio has the story.

Naming the Dead

From the sidewalks of St. Paul to the cobblestones of Philadelphia, Pa. Girard Avenue crosses the entire city east to west. And often it's a dividing line: Gentrifying Center City neighborhoods stop at Girard. Reporter Jonathan Menjivar was at 28th Street and Girard recently, where he found the sidewalk impossible to ignore.

The Diplomat of Dobro

Around Nashville and pretty much everywhere else, Jerry Douglas's name is synonymous with the Dobro. It's an instrument with a distinctive look: An acoustic guitar with a shiny metal plate on the front, played face-up in your lap with a metal slide, like a steel guitar. Douglas took up the instrument in the early 1970s. He's to the Dobro what Hendrix was to the electric guitar and Tiger is to the seven-iron.

This Weekend in 1968: Night of the Living Dead

In movie theaters across the country 40 years ago, terror took a new form: The flesh-eating zombie. "Night of the Living Dead" unearthed an army of ghouls to scare children and adults off their seats. The filmmakers who created the film say the tumultuous events of 1968 have made people read much more into "Night of the Living Dead" than the horror they wanted to create.

Good News, Bad News, No News

VP Fight, Bailout Rescue, American Lit

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: Sarah Haskins from Current TV's "Infomania"; John Ridley, editor-in-chief of "that minority thing.com"; and Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor at The New Yorker.

Letters

Letters: Black Hebrews and Google Bets

It's time to open the Weekend America mailbag and hear your responses to recent shows. This week we hear listener reactions to a difficult childhood as a Black Hebrew in Israel; how we settled bets in the days before Google; and we wonder why nobody admits that listening to the radio is part of weekend fun.

Army Ultimate Fighting

The Army says mixed martial arts fighting - a mix of boxing, judo, karate and wrestling - is tailor-made for combat. But mixed martial arts fighting is not just a training strategy. Since the sport is also wildly popular among 18- to 25-year-old guys, it's a useful tool for the Army to attract new recruits. This weekend, the Army's best fighters will compete for the title of All Army Combatives Champion.

John Henry vs. Book Shovel

Every once in a while a piece of technology changes an industry completely. Imagine what it would have been like to be a scribe when the printing press came out in 1439. Well, booksellers have gone through a similar experience recently. They've spent their whole lives gathering arcane information about the books they sell - and now an invention has come along and made all that studying completely unnecessary.

Economic Meltdown Music

Television news networks have figured out exactly what sort of musical arrangements work for a war on terror. But what about an economic meltdown? We talk to Peter Fish, a composer who is scoring our country's financial collapse. Fish has been crafting TV news themes for over two decades.