NPR's Book of the Day - Alex Haley nearly lost it all writing ‘Roots’

To recognize Black History Month, Book of the Day is digging into the archives to bring you some important interviews. In 1977, author Alex Haley told NPR he didn't want to put the main character of Roots, Kunta Kinte, on a slave ship. To prepare for writing that portion of the novel, Haley flew to Africa and caught a voyage home on a cargo ship — sneaking down into the hold after dinner. In the mornings, he would write notes about what he thought Kunta's experience would have been like. He told NPR's Marty Griffen that the experience weighed him down so much it nearly cost him his life.

60 Songs That Explain the '90s - “Would?“—Alice in Chains

Rob closes out the first set songs with a heartfelt appraisal of Layne Staley via an exploration of the Seattle band’s tribute to vocalist Andrew Wood.

This episode was originally produced as a Music and Talk show available exclusively on Spotify. Find the full song on Spotify or wherever you get your music.

Host: Rob Harvilla

Guest: Chuck Klosterman

Producer: Justin Sayles 

Associate Producer: Devon Renaldo

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Everything Everywhere Daily - A Brief History of New York City

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New York City has been called the city that never sleeps. It is the world center for finance, the location of the United Nations, and a center for fashion and entertainment. 


But why did this city become so important, and why did such an important city get founded where it is? Was it chance, was it history, or was it geography? 


Learn more about New York City, as much as is possible on a daily podcast, on this Episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


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Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen

 

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The City - Introducing Accused Season 4: The Impending Execution of Elwood Jones

When Rhoda Nathan's lifeless body was discovered in her hotel room, it was assumed she'd had a heart attack. The autopsy proved otherwise: Nathan, 67, had been viciously beaten to death, punched so hard by her assailant that two of her teeth had been knocked out. Days later, a hotel employee went to the hospital to be treated for an infection in his hand, which was teeming with a bacteria most often found in human mouths. That, plus a pendant an officer said was discovered in the trunk of his car, sealed the fate of Elwood Jones, who awaits execution on Ohio's death row. For nearly 30 years, Jones has maintained his innocence -- and accused police of straight-up framing him. The journalists of Accused are reexamining the case to learn if Jones truly belongs on death row, or if a botched investigation let someone else get away with murder.

Listen to the rest of this episode at wondery.fm/AccusedS4_TheCity.


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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘The Color Purple’ is about the bonding of women

As part of Black History Month, we are running interviews from our archives. The Color Purple is about the survival of Black women in a male-dominated world. Author Alice Walker said that she just wrote what happens in the real world. At its core, this is a story of women loving and helping other women. Walker told NPR's Faith Fancher that "one of the reasons I wanted to have strong, beautiful, wonderful women loving each other is because I think that people can deal with that. [...] I think that the people who are uptight and bigoted and afraid in their own lives will have difficulty."

Read Me a Poem - “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott

Amanda Holmes reads Derek Walcott’s poem “Love After Love.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.



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Everything Everywhere Daily - Why Do Scandals End In “-gate”?

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I’m sure all of you are familiar with Watergate. You also might be familiar with Gamergate, Contragate, Pizzagate, Partygate, Chinagate, Deflategate, Sandpapergate, Winegate, and Chinagate. 


There are dozens and dozens more of these scandals which have all been named with the suffix -gate


But why do scandals get affixed with -gate in the English language, and where did the word originally come from?


Learn more about scandals ending in -gate, and why this suffix came to denote a scandal, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


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Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen

 

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NPR's Book of the Day - Book banning is seen in historical context in ‘Burn This Book’

For the first full week of Black History Month, we dove into our archives to bring you some older interviews by Black authors. The first is an interview from 2009 with writer Toni Morrison about a collection she edited from authors facing censorship called Burn This Book. This conversation is especially relevant today with many important books under scrutiny – and being pulled from library shelves and school curriculums. Morrison, whose books have also been banned in some places as recently as this year, told NPR's Liane Hansen that in some countries censorship can be far more serious.