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Culture

Wednesday

Author Interviews

'Life In Year One': The World As Jesus Found It

How much do we really know about the day-to-day in Jesus' time? What people ate, how they flirted, how they stayed clean? Scott Korb takes on that question in Life In Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine a historical travelogue that manages to reference Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain and H1N1, all while recreating the time and place of Jesus.

'Life In Year One': The World As Jesus Found It

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Author Interviews

Judith Shulevitz, Making Room For The Sabbath

Fresh Air

Writer Judith Shulevitz started observing Shabbat because of her own ambivalence about the traditional weekly day of rest. Her own experiences with the ritual — as well as its larger historical context — are examined in her new book, The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time.

Judith Shulevitz, Making Room For The Sabbath

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FDR Vs. The Court: An Epic Power Struggle Relived

Roosavelt clashed with members of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes (centre, front row), over his New Deal policies. Liberals and conservatives joined in opposition. Getty Images hide caption

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Review

Book Reviews

FDR Vs. The Court: An Epic Power Struggle Relived

Jeff Shesol's Supreme Power is the story of President Franklin Roosevelt, his struggle to institute the New Deal, and the Supreme Court's subsequent backlash. Critic Michael Schaub says the book breathes new life into a historic conflict.

Tuesday

Opinion

I Pledge Allegiance To Linguistic Obfuscation

Fresh Air

Linguist Geoff Nunberg says what makes the pledge important isn't the meaning of the words — it's the way we've managed to keep the words from meaning much of anything at all.

I Pledge Allegiance To Linguistic Obfuscation

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Author Interviews

Roxana Saberi: Caught 'Between Two Worlds'

Fresh Air

The Iranian-American journalist was imprisoned in Iran, interrogated, tried and eventually released. But the controversy continues. Saberi says she confessed to her crimes in order to get out of jail but asserts that she did nothing wrong. Her new book Between Two Worlds is an account of her time in captivity.

Roxana Saberi: Caught 'Between Two Worlds'

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Photographer Captures Stark Portraits Of Hunger

"How do you explain to a 2-year-old or 4-year-old there's nothing to eat?" asks Kathy, a homeless mother. Michael Nye hide caption

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Michael Nye

Photography

Photographer Captures Stark Portraits Of Hunger

In a new exhibit, Michael Nye reveals black-and-white portraits of people who have suffered from hunger. He spent days with each subject — including a homeless mother of two — and distilled their stories into a single image and a five-minute sound clip.

Photographer Captures Stark Portraits Of Hunger

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Monday

Single Mother Flocks To Silent Retreat For Peace, Clarity

Felita Boldin — a single mom with a high pressure job and all the demands of a modern life — wanted to catch a break. But instead of heading to the closest beach, she sough solace at a Catholic Abbey in Virginia. There, she found something many people spend their entire lives searching for: SILENCE. Host Michel Martin talks to Boldin about what she learned about herself and God while at the retreat; and Rachel Manteuffel, who wrote about Boldin's quest and the Holy Cross Abbey in this week's Washington Post Magazine.

Single Mother Flocks To Silent Retreat For Peace, Clarity

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Movies

Pre-MTV: 'Big Band, Jazz And Swing' Music Videos

Fresh Air

In addition to newsreels, cartoons and coming attractions, movie studios used to show musical shorts before feature films. Warner Brothers has just released a six-DVD set of these shorts called Big Bands, Jazz and Swing. Classical musical critic Lloyd Schwartz says the new set is worth checking out.

Pre-MTV: 'Big Band, Jazz And Swing' Music Videos

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Author Interviews

A Historian's Long View On Living With Lou Gehrig's

Fresh Air

In 2008, historian Tony Judt was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive motor-neuron disease. For the past several months, Judt has been writing a series of essays for The New York Review of Books, charting life in what he calls a "progressive imprisonment without parole."

A Historian's Long View On Living With Lou Gehrig's

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Pritzker Prize Goes To Japan's SANAA Duo
Courtesy of SANAA

Architecture

Pritzker Prize Goes To Japan's SANAA Duo

The Pritzker Architecture Prize usually goes to one architect. This year — for only the second time — the prize has gone to two: Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, of the firm SANAA. They're known for buildings that try to break down barriers between outside and inside — and between people.

Pritzker Prize Goes To Japan's SANAA Duo

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Sunday

Getting Creative With A Passover Staple: Gefilte Fish

Even if you don't have access to fresh pike and whitefish, you don't necessarily have to turn to gefilte fish in a jar. Portland chef Jenn Louis makes hers with salmon and halibut. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images hide caption

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William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

Food

Getting Creative With A Passover Staple: Gefilte Fish

The poached fish patties have been called the national dish of the Ashkenazi, the Jews of Eastern Europe. But as tastes change and Jews travel far from Europe — to places like the West Coast of the United States — they have found new ways to keep the tradition alive.

Getting Creative With A Passover Staple: Gefilte Fish

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The Tea Thieves: How A Drink Shaped An Empire
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Author Interviews

The Tea Thieves: How A Drink Shaped An Empire

Sarah Rose's For All the Tea in China tells the story of how Britain hijacked control of the 19th century tea trade by transplanting production of the popular drink to India.

The Tea Thieves: How A Drink Shaped An Empire

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Saturday

In Oregon, A Theater Thrives Despite The Downturn
T. Charles Erickson

Theater

In Oregon, A Theater Thrives Despite The Downturn

One of the largest regional theaters in the country is located in the small college town of Ashland, Ore.-- and at a time when many nonprofit theaters are struggling, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival finished last season in the black. Dmae Roberts explains.

In Oregon, A Theater Thrives Despite The Downturn

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