NBN Book of the Day - Clint Smith, “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” (Little, Brown and Company, 2021)

How do we narrate history, both the troubling past and what we chose to remember? Clint Smith sets out to wrestle with this question and its relationship to enslavement in his first nonfiction book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (Little, Brown and Company, 2021). From Monticello plantation to Angola Prison to Galveston Island, Smith guides the reader on a journey as he visits domestic and abroad landmarks. In his exploration, he includes the reactions of the people he meets, like tourists, local public historians, and teachers, illuminating how these sites and all of us participate in remembering enslavement in contemporary America.

N'Kosi Oates is a Ph.D. candidate in Africana Studies at Brown University. Find him on Twitter at NKosiOates.

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NPR's Book of the Day - Celebrating NPR’s Petra Mayer with three literary things she loved

Our beloved friend and colleague Petra Mayer died suddenly a few weeks ago. This episode is for her. First, a conversation with NPR's Scott Simon and Sir Andrew Motion on The Folio Book of War Poetry, edited by Motion. Among her many nerdy interests, Petra was a self avowed "WWI poetry dork." The poetry is dark and moving, conveying universal feelings around loss. Then, a few quintessentially "Petra" pieces that capture her work and who she was. A conversation with romance author Beverly Jenkins and Petra talking about one of her favorite comfort reads, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

It Could Happen Here - Corporate Sabotage

Why do corporations destroy their own goods? Why do factories sit empty when people need their products? The answer is corporate sabotage.

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Consider This from NPR - George Clinton ‘Plays It Forward’: A Musical Gratitude Project

For Thanksgiving Day, we're sharing a segment from our special series Play It Forward, in which artists tell us about their own music and the musicians who inspire them.

In this episode, funk legend George Clinton speaks to Ari Shapiro about the longevity and enduring influence of his band, Parliament-Funkadelic, being a hype man for other musicians, and an artist he's grateful for: opera singer and funk keyboardist Constance Hauman.

On tomorrow's episode: Constance Hauman plays it forward.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

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Science In Action - Deliberately doomed dart

DART is a space mission designed to hit a distant asteroid and knock it slightly out of orbit. It’s a test mission, a pilot project for a way of potentially protecting the earth from a stray asteroid. We hear from mission coordinators Nancy Chabot and Andy Rivkin, both from the Applied Physics Labs, APL, of Johns Hopkins University.

A new kind of Covid-19 vaccine has successfully undergone preliminary tests. Tuebingen University’s Juliane Walz tells us about how it hopes to stimulate a longer lasting protective effect against the virus than current vaccines.

And Haley Randolph of Chicago University sheds light on how our ancient ancestors’ exposure to viruses influences our susceptibility today.

Historian Robert Schulmann gives us an insight into the significance of research notes by Albert Einstein and Michele Besso. Sold at auction in France the notes give an insight into the collaboration between the two scientists which led to much of what we now understand about the fundamentals of physics.

Image: NASA's DART Spacecraft Launches in World's First Planetary Defense Test Mission Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Julian Siddle

Focus on Africa - Gambia’s truth commission recommends prosecutions

Those who bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed during the presidency of Yahya Jammeh in The Gambia should be prosecuted, according to head of a commission that has been looking into the events that took place during his 22-year rule. Campaigns against gender-based violence have made some gains, but the pandemic has put progress at risk, says Zebib Kavuma, UN Women Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. Liberia singer Miatta Fahnbulleh on receiving a Life Time Achievement Award in recognition of her longevity in the music business.

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Listener Mail: The Knox Mine Disaster, Lucid Dreaming and a Mysterious Lab in Idaho

Anvil Alf relates his experience with lucid dreams. A caller asks for more information about the Knox Mine disaster. Skippy wants to know what exactly is going on over at the Idaho National Laboratory. All this and more in this week's listener mail.

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