Brave Painting

Friday, February 22 2008

Brave Painting

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Joan Snyder

Joan Snyder paints her way through pain and pleasure. Last year, her 40-year career as an abstract painter was recognized by the MacArthur Foundation with a $500,000 fellowship.

But Joan didn't always want to be a painter. She was studying social work at university when she enrolled in a painting class. Years later, Joan's powerful "stroke" paintings earned her major recognition.

Dick Gordon talks to Joan about why she passed up a career in social work to become a painter and how she turns scribbles on playbills into art.

• Explore Joan's paintings here and here
• See some of Joan's recent work here

Music heard in this story: Les nuits d'été, Op.7: II. Le spectre de la rose by Anne Sofie von Otter, Berliner Philharmoniker & James Levine for the album Berlioz: Les nuits d'éte & Mélodies; Opening by Philip Glass Ensemble for the album Glassworks - Expanded Edition; Mass in C Minor, "The Great," K. 427: XI. Et incarnatus est by Amor Artis Chorale, Ann Murray, Carole Bogard, English Chamber Orchestra, Michael Rippon & Richard Lewis for the album Mozart: Sacred Choral Masterpieces

IS ANYONE OUT THERE?

A satellite was shot out of space this week. Another less-noticed story was that our galaxy may in fact be home to other planets like Earth.

For Maggie Turnbull, the search for extra-terrestrial life is a personal mission, ever since she saw the movie "Contact" years ago. She talks to Dick about how scientists try to look for signs of life 'out there', and what drives her to do so.

Maggie Turnbull

She also gives Dick a sneak preview into NASA's plan of action should they ever discover extraterrestrial life.

Dr. Maggie Turnbull works at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

• Check out the Space Telescope Science Institute
• What's SETI?

Payday Lending

Monday, February 11 2008

Payday Lending

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Lisa Engelkins

Lawmakers in Virginia, Kentucky and Colorado are considering tightening up the way payday lending institutions conduct business. These short term loans are designed to help people make ends meet between paychecks, but the interest rates they carry can veer upwards to 400%. As a result, many people get sucked into a vortex of never-ending debt.

Lisa Engelkins found herself needing money all the time in 1998. She was a single mom making $7 an hour at one of her jobs, and it just wasn't enough. So she went to a payday lender and before she knew it, was trapped paying off the same loan for nearly 2 years. She eventually clawed her way out of debt and is now a credit and housing counselor in Winston-Salem, NC.

Alba Onofrio

Yet the issue may be more complex than some observers think. Alba Onofrio used to authorize the kinds of loans people like Lisa needed. While Alba didn't like the fact that such loans can overburden people, she makes the point to Dick Gordon that some people have no other option, and that imperfect help is arguably better than none at all.

• Find out if pay day lending is legal in your state

MISDIAGNOSED

Thursday, February 07 2008

MISDIAGNOSED

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Audrey Serrano

For 9 years Audrey Serrano thought she was HIV positive. Audrey took an anonymous HIV test at a clinic after her boyfriend reluctantly revealed he had HIV. Her test came back positive, and she underwent years of grueling medical treatments and lost custody of her daughter.

Eventually Audrey got herself retested and those results were negative. Last year, she sued her doctor and a jury awarded her $2.5 million in damages. Dick Gordon talks with Audrey about the mental and physical obstacles she confronted while trying to prove she didn't have HIV.

• Visit Audrey's organization, Families Against Abuse

Family Lies

Steve DeJoseph

Steve DeJoseph grew up listening to his Italian grandfather complaining about family back in the old country. His grandfather constantly said his Italian relatives were "no good" and that all they wanted was the money he sent them. Steve tried to convince his granddad to take a trip back home, but it never happened.

Finally Steve went himself to meet the "no good" people his grandfather had talked about. It was there that he had a revelation: his grandfather had been lying about his family all those years. Steve tells Dick that if his grandfather had admitted how wonderful his family actually was, he never could have handled the emotional cost of living so far away from them.

• Read Steve's story about his grandfather's lie

Fighting for Muhammad Ali

Wednesday, January 09 2008

Fighting for Muhammad Ali

(SECOND INTERVIEW)

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Rasheda Ali - Rasheda and her father >>

More than 4 million American suffer from Parkinson's disease. Among them is one of the greatest boxers of all time: Muhammad Ali.

Ali's second daughter, Rasheda Ali, was only 10 years old when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Over the years she researched the disease and struggled to explain to her own children why the hands of their "Poppy Ali" shook all the time. Rasheda has written a children's book about Parkinson's Disease called I'll Hold Your Hand So You Won't Fall.

Dick Gordon talks to Rasheda about how she's tried to help her dad cope with Parkinson's disease, and how she now has the one-on-one relationship with him that she has yearned for since she was a child.

• See art drawn by Muhammad Ali for his grandchildren
• Learn more about Rasheda Ali's children's book
• See more about research on Parkinson's disease
• View the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center website

Answering Dr. Kinsey

Friday, January 04 2008

Answering Dr. Kinsey

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Dr. Alice Ginott-Cohn

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first Kinsey Report on Human Sexual Behavior. The identity of many of the participants who divulged the details of their sex lives to Kinsey remains secret. However, one woman decided to shed her anonymity.

Dr. Alice Ginott-Cohn was interviewed by Dr. Kinsey when she was 19 years old. He was seeking female volunteers in her psychology class at Indiana University. Alice says she found Kinsey very attractive and comforting, so she volunteered to be interviewed. Dick Gordon talks to Alice about the famous study and how participating in it has influenced her own life and work.

• Visit the Kinsey Institute web page
• See the "What Sexual Scientists Know ..." brochures
• Learn more about Alice's book
• See Alice in 1944
  

Aging in Prison

Thursday, January 03 2008

AGING IN PRISON

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McCain Correctional Hospital

Over the past 10 years, the number of inmates across the US who are over 50 years of age has skyrocketed. In North Carolina, where our radio program is produced, the number of elderly inmates has tripled to nearly 3,500. This accounts for nearly 10 percent of all prisoners.

Aging prisoners are an added cost for the system. As prisoners age, they get sicker. Many prisons now have a dual role - prison and nursing homes or hospital ward.

Dick Gordon traveled to McCain Correctional Hospital in Raeford, NC, to speak with several of the aging inmates.

The four men he interviewed have a variety of ideas about what should happen to them in "the system" as they age.

• Read about the men profiled in the story
• Find out more about the McCain Correctional Hospital website

Courage on the Court

Friday, September 07 2007

Courage on the Court

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Dejon Bivens

This weekend, tennis fans around the world will watch the finals of the U.S. Open.

Among them will be Dejon Bivens, a tennis player and freshman at North Carolina State University. Dejon fell in love with tennis in high school, earned the No.1 ranking for an 18- year-old in North Carolina, and steadily moved up the list of Top 100 Junior National players in the country.

Dejon talks to Dick Gordon about how he has overcome a difficult family life - and how he persevered to win the N.C. Junior Davis Cup with an injured hamstring.

Dejon on the court - larger >>

Dejon's foster mom, Deborah Foster-Smith also joins Dick to talk about how Dejon's smile persuaded her to let him move in, and what she has done to help him along the way.

• Learn about Dejon's tennis program
  
• Check out Dejon's tennis stats
  

Trauma Team

Monday, August 13 2007- Trauma Team

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Scott Charles

Philadelphia currently has the highest homicide rate of any large city in the U.S. But violent crime is on the rise in cities across America. Crime tends to spike in the summer, particularly hot summers like this one.

Scott Charles is the Trauma Outreach Coordinator at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. When patients arrive at the hospital with gunshot wounds, Scott goes to their bedsides after surgery to talk to them about changing their lives.

Dr. Amy Goldberg

His work is part of a program he created with trauma surgeon Amy Goldberg called "Cradle to Grave." As part of the program, they walk at-risk youth through the real-life trauma that happened to a North Philadelphia teenager who was shot multiple times.

Scott and Amy talk with guest host Aaron Henkin about the young people they meet in the E.R. and what they are doing to keep more young people from ending up there.

Chinika Perez - See her before and after the shooting >>

Aaron also talks with Chinika Perez, a 27-year-old mother of two who survived being shot last summer.

• Read about the Cradle to Grave program
  
• See an interactive map of violence in Philly

After the Offense

Tuesday, July 24 2007

After the Offense

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Nationwide, laws have been passed to locate registered sex offenders and push them out of neighborhoods - after all, who would want to live near someone who has committed these kinds of crimes?

But Tom Coles, who lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, has invited sex offenders into his own home. Unlike many, Tom believes in the possibility of redemption. Guest host Scott Jagow talks with Tom about how he got into his work helping to rehabilitate sex offenders, and what he has gained from it.

One of Tom's residents is Khris Page. Khris served 10 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct with children. He talks to Scott about how this living arrangement, combined with the rehabilitative programs he's in, help ensure that he will never offend again.

• Get tips on prevention
• Learn about your state's laws
• Find out if there are offenders near you
  

SHOOTING HISTORY

Tuesday, May 15 2007

SHOOTING HISTORY

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Sonia Katchian

Photographer Sonia Katchian has great skill - and astounding luck. Among other memorable images, on this day in 1972 she was the only professional photographer to capture the assassination attempt on then-Presidential candidate George Wallace.

Sonia's professional luck continued: a chance meeting with Muhammad Ali landed her ringside at two famed boxing matches - "The Rumble in the Jungle" and "The Thrilla in Manila."

Muhammad Ali, photo: Sonia Katchian

Sonia went on the photograph Muhammad Ali for 14 years.

Today on the program, Sonia Katchian shares the stories behind her most memorable images.

• See a picture of Sonia at work in 1975
• See Sonia's folio featuring Muhammad Ali
• Check out Sonia's pictures of George Wallace

Music heard in this story:
In Zaire by Johnny Wakelin for the album Right Before My Eyes
Rumble in the Jungle by Max Roach for the album M'Boom