Soundprint programming for 2008 Click here to remove program descriptions

May 2008

May 9

Leaving a Mark: The Story of An Auschwitz Survivor This documentary features the story of Eva Schloss whose life bore remarkable parallels to that of Anne Frank. Eva Schloss was also 15 years old when she and her family were transported to Auschwitz. Like Anne Frank she also lost beloved family members in the death camp. However, unlike Anne Frank, she lived to tell the tale. After their liberation, Eva’s mother married Otto Frank, Anne’s father. Eva’s story takes up where the Anne Frank diary left off. This program was produced by Dheera Sujan of Radio Netherlands and airs as part of the international documentary exchange series Crossing Boundaries. Silver Umbrella Losing, searching, not always wanting to find what we thought we were looking for. Hemingway's lost manuscripts, a father's lost childhood, lost talent, lost opportunities and a mysterious silver umbrella. Stories of loss and memory are played out on the European rail system and interwoven in this feature by Natalie Kestecher of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This program airs as part of the international documentary exchange series Crossing Boundaries.

May 2

Call me Nana It's a job they never expected. A club they never wanted to join. According to the Statistics Canada census released this week, there are more than 65,000 grandparents in Canada raising grandchildren on their own, without the parents present. They're called skipped generation families. And their number is growing by about a thousand every year. Most of the grandparents - more than two thirds - are actually grandmothers and step-grandmothers. Women who have turned their lives upside down to parent for a second time. They do it because their grandchildren are at risk - abandoned or neglected, and destined to become wards of the state. Theirs are stories of love and devotion. But also of real struggle - physical, emotional and financial. These grandmothers are the subject of Alisa Siegel's documentary this morning called Call Me Nana. Dear Birth Mother After waiting for Mr. Right (who has yet to arrive) – and after years of fertility treatments – Suzanne, a single woman in her forties, decided to adopt. She chose transracial adoption. We follow her through workshops designed to "teach white people to raise kids of color," baby-shopping trips with Mom at Target, a critical rendezvous with a young mother at a pancake house, and, finally, a magical night at a suburban restaurant chain. We followed Suzanne for several months as she waited to see if she would become a parent; she offered extraordinary access into her home, and really, into every aspect of her life.

April 2008

April 25	The Soybean Wars Soybeans, rows and rows of soybeans all around. In western Paraguay the fields that were once thick rain forests are now soybean plantations. They stretch far into the distance swaying hypnotically back and forth in the wind. This ocean of soy, though, is dotted with small islands--houses, actually, that belong to the subsistence campensinos who once eked out a living farming an array of crops like sugar, cotton, wheat, and maize. But now there is only industrial harvested soy. And pesticides. Soybeans, of course, have a very good reputation in the West (think tofu and biofuels), but the reality is they have damaging repercussions in developing nations where environmental laws are lax and local populations are exploited by multinational corporations. Right now, this is happening in Paraguay, the world's fastest growing soybean producer. The Bourbons, the Wampum and Boodle Boys, and Stalin's Mortimer Snerd In 1948 the Democratic party faced extraordinary challenges: how to forge an alliance between Southern conservatives, Western progressives and big city labor; how to incorporate a civil rights plank; how to quell the rise of a third party. Truman, Dewey and Henry Wallace. It was a year of upsets. Producer Moira Rankin brings us the sense, and sounds, of that pivotol election year. And are there political and social lessons for this year's presidential contest to be learned from the election of '48.
April 18	Escape To New Zealand Warnings of global warming and climate instability are widespread in 2008. Issues relating to the human influences on the global climate and the imminent likelihood of rising sea levels, the death of ancient forests, droughts, widespread agricultural failure, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the West Antarctic have set many on a path to find ways to escape these changes. For some, the dire planetary predictions have influenced them to become active environmental refugees, seeking a home on some part of the planet where the global changes can, perhaps, be weathered. In Escape to New Zealand, Radio NZ's Halina Ogonowska-Coates talks to four environmental refugees about their experiences in dealing with the issues facing our plant. This program airs as part of the international documentary collaboration, Global Perspectives: Escape! April in Paris Ever since Ben Franklin fell in love with it and came home with tales of 'Gay Paree', Americans have held to golden images of the city: the capital of eating and drinking, of glamorous night life, of perfume. Even if we haven't been there we can see in our mind's eye the barges gliding along the Seine, the lovers kissing in the streets and on park benches; we can smell the exotic cooking, and over it all we can hear the wistful accordion music. But how much of all this is myth, how much reality? Producer Alice Furlaud explores the question, starting with the myth that Vernon Duke created in his nostalgic song, 'April in Paris'. Don't come in April, she advises, better wait 'til May.
April 11	Escape from Time "Lost Time is never found again." Benjamin Franklin wrote that, and producer Barbara Bogaev agrees. She tries daily to reconcile her time, "Barbara Time", with "Clock Time"; at the same time, she dreams of a life WITHOUT time. And really, who wouldn¹t like to escape the relentless march of time? In that spirit, we consider various routes people take to Escape From Time. A neuroscientist explains the ways in which the brain stretches time in periods of stress and peak performance; a civil war re-enactor immerses himself so convincingly in the past that he achieves the elusive high known as "period rush"; and then we visit the ten thousand year clock -- a project devoted to looking ten thousand years into the future in order to gain perspective on the present. Escape From Time was produced by Barbara Bogaev and Queena Kim. The show was mixed by Jared Weissbrot. “Yew Piney Mountain” was performed by Appalachian Fiddler Lars Prillaman. Special thanks to Wide Awake Films, Alexander Rose of the Long Now Foundation, and Taylor Dupree at 12k for permission to use the song Solang by Sogar, from their album Apikal Blend. This program was produced as part of the international documentary exchange collaboration, Global Perspectives: Escape! After the Shot On the night of April 14th 1865, in front of a thousand people at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Shouting ‘Sic semper tyrannis’ – ‘thus always to tyrants’, Booth believed that he was striking down a tyrant as surely as Brutus struck down Julius Caesar. Twelve days later Booth himself was shot dead in a barn in Virginia. From the moment Booth shot Lincoln, conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination have flourished – and 140 years later, for both historians and ordinary people, they are still very much alive. Some believe Booth was the ring leader of a small group; others are convinced he was simply a pawn in a grand conspiracy plot. While still others believe it wasn’t really Booth who died in that Virginia barn. Jean Snedegar tries to unravel the truth – and a myriad of legends - about the assassination of a great American president.
April 4	Knitting with Dog Hair An entertaining and informative look at knitting with dog hair, from its alleged origins in Catalonia to contemporary practice in Australia. This program will encourage listeners to look at their four legged friends in a new and creative light. Knitting with Dog Hair was produced by Natalie Kestecher of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and airs as part of our international exchange series, Crossing Boundaries. Revenge It seems we all love to hear revenge stories -- the petty ones and the grand -- even when they are painful or the recipient is blameless. And we seem to love to tell revenge stories about ourselves -- even stories that make us look childish or venal. Revenge visits the unspoken dark place where revenge impulses lie through the stories of people who have planned revenge and those who have carried it out.

March 2008

March 28	After Graduation: Meeting Special Needs Many learning disabled students are finding that they learn more readily with a variety of technology assistance and human support in their classrooms. But what happens once they leave school? Whether moving into the workforce, or on to higher education, most high school graduates discover they must adjust to new environments on their own and learn to advocate for themselves. Alyne Ellis takes a look at how some schools and universities are trying to ease the transition of learning disabled students to a life after graduation. This program is part of our ongoing series on education and technology and is funded in part by the United States Department of Education. Equity in Education Brown vs. the Board of Education was the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared the old "separate but equal" policies of many school boards unconstitutional. Producer Kathy Baron takes a look at how far school systems have come over the past 50+ years in assuring equality for all students and whether technology plays a role in giving these students access. The Brown case triggered numerous court mediated desegregation policies around the country. Some school systems are only now emerging from court orders. Are schools for minority students now equal to those of primarily white students? And many higher education systems are facing a grim reality. In California university systems are not able to admit everyone who is eligible and a large percentage of incoming freshman are enrolled in remedial classes. Another major court case found that K-12 students in the state were not getting equal access to education. What, in fact, does an equal education look like? This program is part of our ongoing series on education and technology and is funded in part by the United States Department of Education.
March 21	No Way Out According to official statistics, one woman a month is killed in the UK by her family in the name of honour, usually because she has rejected or tried to escape from a forced marriage, or has found a partner to love of her own choosing. But campaigners suspect that the figures are much higher, with women being driven to kill themselves out of desperation, or murders being disguised to look like suicide. Though honour killing is sometimes thought to be a Muslim problem, it occurs in many patriarchal communities around the world, including Hindu, Sikh and Christian too. Presenter Shazia Khan, talks to three women, one of them in hiding in fear of her life, about why they have become targets of such rage and threatened violence. And how the very people who they would have hoped would protect them have turned on them. For the women who have challenged their family’s expectations there is a life-long price to pay, they can never relax, ‘No Way Out’. This program airs as part of our international documentary exchange series, Global Perspectives: Escape! The Reason I'm Here Over a four year period from 1988 to 1992, a serial rapist terrorized Calgary, Alberta. He was known as the Hemlock rapist. On June 20th, 2005, the rapist pled guilty, almost 17 years after the first attack. It was on that day, too, that his four victims met and spoke with each other for the first time. In Canadian courts, the names of sexual assault victims are kept secret for two reasons: To encourage women to step forward freely, and to shield them from public scrutiny and judgment. But in the Hemlock case, two women insisted that the publication ban on their names be lifted. In so doing, they join a mere handful of victims of sexual assault who have chosen to go public with their stories. The two other victims chose to maintain the ban. One is too traumatized to speak at all. Producer Jane Farrow of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation presents a story about three women, raped by the same man. Three women who made very different decisions - privately and publicly - about how to deal with the attack on their bodies and their lives. This program airs as part of our special international collaboration, Global Perspectives: The World of Crime.
March 14	The Grass is Greener Ghana is an African country that is comparatively stable politically and economically, and yet large numbers of the population want to escape overseas to where they think ‘The Grass is Greener’. Ghanaians come back from working overseas and build grand houses and flaunt their wealth with new cars and the latest mobile phones, which makes the poor Ghanaians at home long to get a slice of a better paid job than they can hope for at home. Presenter Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, of Joy FM radio station in Accra, has had his own taste of study and menial work in the UK, and is now content to be back in Ghana. But he meets young people who are still desperate to travel outside the country. This program airs as part of the special international collaboration, Global Perspectives:Escape. Loida and Johanna go to Flin Flon Welcome to the small mining town of Flin Flon in Manitoba, Canada, founded in 1915 and swept by a wave of immigration a decade later with the arrival of the Canadian railway and miners from around the world. Eighty-five years later, the mine is mechanized. Wal-Mart has come to town. The wave of immigrants has been replaced by the arrival of the occasional foreigner. Now Flin Flon's immigrants are people the town desperately needs: doctors from South Africa, an accountant from Pakistan. This is the story of Loida and Johanna, two young Filipino nurses who come to Flin Flon. This program was produced by Karin Wells of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and airs as part of our special international collaboration, Global Perspectives: Looking for Home.
March 7	The Convict Streak Bernie Matthews was a ‘serial escapee’ - the thought of incarceration too much to bear. Yet every time he escaped (6 in all), his sentence (for armed robbery) was extended, and the punishment made more severe. Until he escaped through the pen. Bernie likens himself to the convict George Howe – one of the thousands of criminals transported to New South Wales between 1819 and 1848. ‘Happy George’, with no formal eduction became the first editor of The Sydney Gazette. But these two men are the exceptions of their times. The life of a convict in early C19 Australia was gruelling and desperate, as it is for those incarcerated today. Punishment for Escaping included solitary confinement and being sent to the harshest of prison environments –Van Diemen’s land then and the Super max prisons now. Yet some still managed to get away… The Convict Streak was produced by Roz Bluett of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as part of the 2008 international documentary collaboration, Global Perspectives: Escape! Across The Water: Journey to Robben Island South African President Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in prison on Robben Island. Now the prison is closed and the island has become a museum, a fast growing tourist attraction in the new South Africa. Former political prisoners work alongside their former jailers as the new keepers of the island's history. It is perhaps one of the most tangible symbols of South Africa's miraculous transformation from apartheid to a multi-party democracy. But what about the personal transformations of those who continue to work on the island? Hear from some of the former prison wardens who continue to live and work there.

February 2008

February 29	Yellow and Black Talk about taxis as a guilty pleasure! Whether it's riding in style on the streets of New York (avoiding the hustle, bustle, and pain of the Subway), or zipping across London's spiraling maze of cross-streets (never doubting your intrepid guide's sense of direction), producer Judith Kampfner takes us on a tour of Taxi drivers -- the rough-edged New York City cabbies, and the traditional, vintage hacks of London. Songs of the Automobile Songs of the Automobile explores U.S. culture through the national love affair with the car. Travel from coast to coast to visit hot-rodder enthusiasts, auto show junkies, and everyone else in between on this musical journey of unfolding car tales and anecdotes. From stories of that first purchase, to dating in the backseat, to the beloved car full of nostalgia rusting in the driveway, BBC producers Judith Kampfner and Roger Fenby take you on this lyrical cross-country radio road trip. This program is part of our international documentary exchange series, Crossing Boundaries.
February 22	Survivor In 1942 a US Navy destroyer was shipwrecked off Newfoundland. Of the few who survived, one man, Lanier Phillips, was black. The rescuers, never having seen a black man before, tried to scrub his skin clean and white. This is a story about growing up with fear in segregated Georgia, enlisting in a segregated navy, facing death in the icy North Atlantic, and a rescue which galvanized a man to fight racial discrimination. A True Brother A cautionary note to homophobes everywhere: Whoever you hate will end up in your family. This according to comedian Chris Rock, who points to real life for the evidence. Take Paul Burke. He's an Evangelical pastor with the Cornerstone Urban Church, in downtown Toronto. Paul Burke was fourteen when he learned that his older brother Timothy was a homosexual. Shocked and disgusted, Paul barely spoke to Timothy for fifteen years. And though he felt called by his faith to work with the poor, the outcasts, the marginalized in society, Paul felt only shame at having a gay brother. Then something shifted. Paul decided to call his brother, and ask for his forgiveness. Since that day, Paul and Timothy Burke have tried hard to build a relationship. In this documentary from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Paul and Timothy tell their story - from childhood in a religious white family in Jamaica, to the painful falling out and the struggle for reconciliation. This program was produced by Frank Faulk, and airs as part of our international documentary exchange series Crossing Boundaries.
February 15	The Spoken Word Join us on a journey through the rich tradition of performance poetry, set in Washington DC's famous and eclectic U Street corridor. Our program takes you from memories of the live poetry clubs that emerged there in the 1960's, through the D.C. riots that saw venues closing down and artists scattering to the West Coast, to the modern day renaissance of the spoken word tradition. Our story is narrated by performance poets M'wili Yaw Askari, Toni Ashanti Lightfoot and Matthew Payne. Going Home to the Blues People say going down south is like going home. Take a trip to the Mississippi Delta to find the true meaning of the Blues. Everyone has hard times throughout their lives, but does that classify as the Blues? Producers Askia Muhammed and Debra Morris search for an answer while going home.
February 8	Burning Embers In these days of big sticks, harsh words and war-talk, who couldn't use a little romance, a little love. Isn't that, as the song goes, what the world needs now. Well, in that spirit, we bring you the story of Sherman Hickey and Marie O'Toole. Theirs is a tale of innocence and desire that began almost seventy years ago. It's also a tale of unrequited passion and enduring devotion that only recently found its happy ending. This program comes to us from Bob Carty of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and airs as part of our special international collaboration, Global Perspectives: Romance Series. The Sobbing Celebrant Australian Broadcasting Corporation producer Natalie Kestecher thought it might be useful to have a few options up her sleeve if she ever decides to stop making radio documentary features. So she decided to become a Marriage Celebrant. Natalie enrolled in the first ever training course which, under new Australian legislation, all intending Celebrants must complete in order to be accredited. Being a Celebrant is not just about saying the necessary words (which must always include 'I do') and ensuring the right forms are correctly filled in; it's also about devising meaningful ceremonies for a secular society. Theme weddings, butterfly releases, and quotes from 'The Prophet' are all popular. So what happens if you don't do themes, you hate 'The Prophet' and you think butterfly releases are yucky? Natalie spent a week coming to terms with the modern wedding. It turned out to be a week of introspection. 'The Sobbing Celebrant' offers an entertaining insight into the process that confers upon regular (or not so regular) citizens the right to officiate at the most significant moments in our lives. This program airs as part of our special international collaboration, Global Perspectives: Romance Series.
February 1	Body Bazaar A few months ago, police in New York City announced that they had shut down a ring of body snatchers. The police alleged that criminals had been secretly using corpses bound for the cemetery or cremation, and removing bones, skin, tendons and veins for sale in a booming business of body parts. Many of the body parts were aged and riddled with disease. Possibly tainted tissues were implanted in people with dental problems, back pain, and burns. As many as ten thousand North Americans, maybe more, could be affected. How could this happen in a sector of the medical industry that we assume to be tightly regulated? We asked Bob Carty to find out. He found an industry that for many years, has been in fact lightly regulated. And he found the stories of two women - a daughter of one of the defiled corpses, and a Canadian recipient of such body parts - who have found themselves strangely connected in a macabre nightmare. Beyond the Mirror A recent decision in the UK allowed the world’s first full facial transplants. The BBC's Kati Whitaker talks to three people about the impact of severe facial disfigurement and discovers what beliefs have helped them through their despair. The face is our first point of contact with the world. But what happens if you lose your face to injury or disease? Simon Weston suffered from burns in the Falklands war; Michele Simms had her face destroyed by a firework, and Diana Whybrew had half her face removed with a malignant tumor. Their belief in themselves has been challenged to its limits – down to a sense of who they are. This program was produced by the BBC World Service as part of our special Global Perspective series on belief.

January 2008

January 25	Who needs libraries? As more and more information is available on-line, as Amazon rolls out new software that allows anyone to find any passage in any book, an important question becomes: Who needs libraries anymore? Why does anyone need four walls filled with paper between covers? Surprisingly, they still do and in this program Producer Richard Paul explores why; looking at how university libraries, school libraries and public libraries have adapted to the new information world. This program airs as part of our ongoing series on education and technology, and is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education. Snacktime, Naptime, Computer Time Computers in classrooms are a given in elementary schools across the nation. Now new technology initiatives are bringing computers into preschools, driven by the assumption that if children don't begin early, they fall behind. But is this really true? And are computers essential learning tools for very young minds? How do very young children learn, how do their brains develop, and does pointing, clicking and hyperlinking affect their neurological and social development? Early childhood education specialists weigh in on a government funded statewide program that aims to make toddlers computer literate. This program is part of our ongoing series on education and technology and is funded in part by the United States Department of Education.
January 18	Everest and Beyond A tribute to the extraordinary life and achievements of Sir Edmund Hillary. After his memorable conquest of Everest in 1953, this tall, craggy, modest man, added to his worldwide fame with expeditions to remote corners of the world and his activities serving the Sherpa people of Nepal. This New Zealand legend of the 20th century has lived life to the full – surviving personal tragedy as well as achieving historic triumphs and displaying tireless philanthropy. Produced by Jack Perkins of Radio New Zealand, ‘Everest And Beyond’ draws on the recollections of family, friends and colleagues of Sir Edmund Hillary and also uses audio from films shot in Nepal and India by documentary film maker Michael Dillon. Throne of St.James In a Washington, D.C. garage, James Hampton, a non- descript janitor by trade, started work on the Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly. Built entirely out of discarded objects, this 180 piece sculpture was discovered after James' death in 1964. Considered by some to be one of the finest examples of American visionary religious art, the Throne resides at the Smithsonian. This is the story of The Throne of St. James. This program comes to us from Radio New Zealand and airs as part of the international documentary exchange series, Crossing Boundaries.
January 11	Deaf and Proud This story focuses on people who choose to live inside the very powerful deaf culture and have no desire to be "fixed" so that they can be more like hearing people. It's a world most hearing people are unlikely to ever reach without the bridge of sign language. It might come as a surprise to learn that deaf parents don't grieve, but rather celebrate the birth of a deaf child. (And that one of the most important lessons they must teach them is that passing wind in public makes noise!) The World at Your Fingertips Helen Keller said that blindness separates a person from objects, and deafness separates that person from people. Without support, encouragement and education, the world of a deaf-blind person can be an isolated one of darkness and silence. In the documentary "The World at Your Fingertips" produced by Anna Yeadell of Radio Netherlands, we visit India where more than half a million people are deaf-blind. But with the help of Sense International and the Helen Keller Institute in Mumbai, many deaf-blind children and young adults are reaching out to the world around them, widening their horizons, and fulfilling their potential. This program airs as part of the international documentary exchange series, Crossing Boundaries.
January 4	Learning to Live: James' Story "Learning to Live: James' Story" documents the journey of James Robinson, a 38 year old ex-offender, as he makes the transition from repeated prison sentences to life in the free world. After a 7-year prison term, James arrives at St. Leonard's halfway house for ex-offenders in Chicago. He tells the staff that he needs to "learn to live," knowing full well how hard it is to transition back to society on his own. "James' Story" chronicles James' hard work over the course of ensuing three months; job training, drug counseling and 12-step support meetings. During his stay at the halfway house, James also finds his "dream" job and reconnects with family members, including an eighteen-year-old son he hadn't seen since the child was four. Out of their hands Twenty five years ago, four stunned mothers who'd lost their children, one an adult, one a teenager, the others younger, were introduced at a Toronto hospital by a chaplain. They found they could talk to each other with more ease than to other people. Their friendship grew to an organization, Bereaved Parents of Ontario, that now has hundreds of members. Producer Teresa Goff of the CBC brings us their stories and what the organization has done for them. This program is part of our international documentary exchange series, Crossing Boundaries.