Category: DailyShorts

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NPR's Book of the Day - New books by Damon Young and Dennard Dayle take different routes to humor

Today on the show, two new books take different routes to humor. First, writer Damon Young is out with an anthology of comedic essays called That's How They Get You. Young says he reached out to people who represent the expansiveness of Black humor and gave them one directive: Be funny. In today's episode, Young talks with NPR's Juana Summers about his essay on his relationship with Invisalign. Then, Dennard Dayle's fixation with the Civil War was the impetus for his satirical novel How to Dodge a Cannonball. The book follows a teenage Union flag twirler as he switches sides, steals uniforms, and claims to be an octoroon. In today's episode, Dayle chats with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about taking a comedic approach to history.

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Bay Curious - The Legacy of Alameda’s Japanese-American Baseball Team

The island of Alameda has produced some great baseball players. Hall of Fame hitter Willie Stargell even has a street named after him! Some of those ballplayers were Japanese American. In the years between World War I and World War II, the Alameda Taiiku-Kai thrived with great players like Sai Tawata leading the team and the community. Bay Curious listener Sam Hopkins saw a plaque commemorating the team's home plate and wanted to learn more about the team's history.


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Special thanks to the Japanese American National Museum for use of the Topaz prison camp clip. That documentary was a gift of Dave Tatsuno, in Memory of Walter Honderich.

This story was reported by Brian Watt. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Gabriela Glueck and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Olivia Allen-Price, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan and everyone on Team KQED.

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Curious City - Chicago’s LGBTQ+ library is a space for people to ‘find themselves in the shelves’

Early LGBTQ+ history can be hard to find. Photos, letters, literature and other artifacts have been destroyed or hidden away, in acts of homophobia, out of a fear of repercussions, and even by witting and unwitting family members. “I think a lot of LGBTQ people, when they were passing away, their materials were being destroyed by family members that didn't understand them,” said Jen Dentel, the community outreach and strategic partnerships manager at Gerber/Hart, a large LGBTQ+ library and archive in Chicago. “And so having a space by us, for us, where we would collect and preserve the history became really important.” As we learned in our last episode, some queer women boldly operated sapphic establishments in Chicago during the 1920s and ‘30s. However, there was very little written about these places. Often, the only evidence of their existence came in the form of old newspaper articles reporting on the sudden closure of these businesses at the hands of Chicago police. In this episode, Dentel and Erin Bell, Gerber/Hart’s operations director, take us on a tour of this LGBTQ+ library and archive. They uncover archival treasures of the past, reveal unexpected moments in local gay history and explain the mission of the archive: to preserve queer history as a means of achieving justice and equality.
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Everything Everywhere Daily - The Republic of Ghana

Located in the heart of West Africa is the nation of Ghana.

Ghana is a medium-sized country in terms of both population and area, but for West Africa, it has multiple distinctions and firsts which set it apart from the rest of the region. 

Its course since independence has taken it down a path that in some ways has been very similar to other African countries, and in other ways very different. 

Learn more about Ghana and what makes it unique on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘The Pretender’ centers on a real peasant who learns he is heir to England’s throne

In 1483, a 10-year-old peasant named John Collan is visited by a stranger who shares a life-changing piece of information. John isn't the son of a farmer, but the Duke of Clarence – and it's time for him to reclaim his destiny as king of England. Jo Harkin's novel The Pretender expands on this footnote of history from the Tudor period. In today's episode, she joins NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on her approach to historical fiction, which includes filling in gaps left by patchy records from the 15th century.

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Everything Everywhere Daily - Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia

There are many lessons we are supposed to know in life:  pick up after yourself, never bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and most importantly, don’t invade Russia in the winter. 

Known as one of the greatest military disasters in history, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia is often cited as a key factor in the emperor's eventual defeat. 

Although the campaign actually started in June, the brutal impact of General Winter led to the devastation of the French army and ultimately contributed to the downfall of one of the greatest generals in history. 

Learn more about Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia and the devastation of the French Army on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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