Monday, December 08 2008 - Forgiving Child Soldiers

Forgiving Child Soldiers

Monday, December 08 2008 - Forgiving child soldiers

Janet Sumo

Rebel leaders in eastern Congo are adding thousands of new fighters to their ranks. Many of them are children, taken forcibly from their families and trained to kill.

Janet Sumo spent a lot of time with child soldiers when she was younger, and she's been angry ever since. As a young teenager in Liberia's first civil war, she became so disillusioned from adults, she began spending her time with child soldiers. She saw them commit unspeakable acts of brutality.

It was only recently, after reading the memoir of a former child soldier, that Janet was able to forgive. Janet says her stories are horrifying to tell and to remember. As she tells Dick Gordon, she hopes to one day heal herself, by becoming a doctor.

• Learn more about the memoir, "A Long Way Gone"

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Wednesday, December 10 2008 - LESSONS FROM A DROPOUT

Lessons From a Dropout

Wednesday, December 10 2008 - LESSONS FROM A DROPOUT

Gerrin Hayes Craig Zeno

Among many other concerns in a faltering economy is the dropout rate - in some U.S. cities, as many as half of entering freshmen fail to graduate. Policy makers say that means we'll have fewer educated minds to grapple with economic problems, and an increased burden for social services.

Twenty-year-old Gerrin Hayes just dropped out of high school. He says growing up in a crack house made it impossible to focus on studying. But Gerrin still has hope. He has a mentor, Craig Zeno, who once was a dropout himself, and he makes a strong case for the value of school.

Gerrin tells Dick Gordon why it's still important to him to earn a high school diploma. And Craig talks about how working with tough cases like Gerrin's motivates him to keep doing this work.

• Learn about the dropout assistance program where Craig works

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Wednesday, December 17 2008 - Helping Coach

Wednesday, December 17 2008 - Helping Coach

Craig Dudnick and Coach more photos >>

When Craig Dudnick first met Mrs. Viola Hillsman, he was just 19. He was a student at Northwestern University - she was the 76-year-old cook in his fraternity house. The two became close friends, and Craig came to depend on Mrs. Hillsman's advice. In fact, he and the other frat boys had nicknamed her "Coach."

A few years after he graduated, Craig found himself back in Chicago, needing a place to stay. He moved into Coach's basement and soon realized she needed his help. Her husband died, and eventually she developed dementia. Craig ended up caring for Coach for 20 years.

He talks with Dick Gordon about what he learned from Coach, and how their close friendship changed his life.

• Learn more about Craig's film, "Evanston's Living History"
  

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Thursday, December 18 2008 - TV Shopping

Thursday, December 18 2008 - TV Shopping

Meg Favreau

We are headed into one of the diciest holiday shopping seasons in recent memory. Will consumers open their wallets or not?

Meg Favreau knows what makes people buy. Meg worked for a television shopping channel. She talks with Dick about how she got sucked into the vortex of TV commercialism and why she didn't stop customers who were bitten by the bargain bug.

• Read Meg's blog, "I hear you like stories"
• Read Meg's essay, "Tales of a Home Shopping Employee"
  

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Friday, December 26 2008 - Permanent House Swap

Friday, December 26 2008 - Permanent House Swap

Sherry Crosslin and Jerry Stussman

With the dramatic rise in foreclosures, some people have gotten creative with how they buy and sell their homes. Sherry Crosslin and Jerry Stussman took a novel route: They swapped houses.

Sherry's property was nestled along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. She tried to sell her house the traditional way but got no responses. So she went online with the idea of trading homes. A week later, Jerry got in touch with her and they made a deal.

Dick Gordon talks to both Sherry and Jerry about their house swap - and how they figured out they could trust one another.

• See Sherry's Hampton, VA, house
• See Jerry's Thousand Oaks, CA, home
• Read more about house swapping at GoSwap and DomuSwap

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Tuesday, December 30 2008 - Coming to America

Tuesday, December 30 2008 - Coming to America

Mawi Asgedom immigrated to the United States from Sudan after living in a refugee camp for four years. He says before coming to the States, his family lived in a small hut made of straw and mud, surrounded by thousands of other refugees. Although those years in the camp were difficult, his father always found a way to make people laugh. As the family adjusted to life in the American suburb they moved to, however, Mawi says he eventually watched his father's resiliency fade into the background.

Mawi tells Dick Gordon about the funny and embarrassing moments of the family's immigration, and how his view of his father changed.

• Learn more about Mawi
• Hear Mawi's poem "I wish I knew my father"
• Learn more about Mawi's mental karate program

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Wednesday, December 31 2008 - Aging WITH HIV

Wednesday, December 31 2008 - Aging WITH HIV

Dennis Golay and Larry Gibson - larger >>

Drugs that combat HIV have prolonged millions of lives. But for some older people, these drugs are also making them age faster.

Larry Gibson and Dennis Golay are in their 60s. They've been together for 27 years, and both have felt the side effects from their medications. Dennis lost his teeth, had a heart attack and developed a humped back. Larry's skull protruded outwards and he's undergone numerous facial injections. Despite their wavering health, Larry and Dennis have outlived 60 of their closest friends.

They talk with Dick Gordon about how they maintain their optimism - and how a pact they made two decades ago keeps them moving forward.

• Read Dennis and Larry's article "With HIV, growing older faster"
• Learn more about the Desert AIDS Project

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Thursday, January 01 2009 - Hail Mary Football

(DOUBLE FEATURE)
Thursday, January 01 2009 - Hail Mary Football

Don Stancavish and John Fenimore

Playing in a New Year's Day bowl game is the pinnacle of success for college football players. Don Stancavish never played college football, but he vividly remembers the catch of his life as a high school wide receiver. He caught the game-winning touchdown pass against his school's arch rival with just seconds on the clock.

Twenty-four years later, the same ball he caught showed up in a package on his front porch. Don talks to Dick Gordon about what it felt like to have a piece of his youth handed back to him.

Don's former coach, John Fenimore, also joins in the conversation. He talks about highlights from the game and why he returned the football.

• Check out Don's book, The Pass
• See a photo of the football

AFRICAN JAZZ

Somi - larger>>

Since she was a child, Somi has used music to explore her identity as a Rwandese-Ugandan who grew up in the United States. Somi identifies deeply with her cultural roots, especially the idea she was taught while very young: that everyone has a song worth hearing. Somi specializes in jazz music. Her latest album is Somi: Red Soil in my Eyes. Dick talks to Somi about how her intercontinental family helps inspire her music.

• Hear more of Somi's music
• Read Somi's blog
• See one of her music videos

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Friday, January 16 2009 - Beyond Civil Rights

Friday, January 16 2009 - Beyond Civil Rights

Gloria Richardson, credit Joe Fitzgerald. Below, facing National Guard troops larger>>

One woman named on the program of the 1963 March on Washington never got to speak.

Gloria Richardson was a well-known confrontational activist from Cambridge, Md. She successfully fought there for equal economic and social rights for all African-Americans citizens. But when she stood at the podium at the march, she says the microphone was taken away: she was seen as too radical.

• See some of Gloria's photographs
  
• Learn more about Gloria's upcoming biography "The Struggle is Eternal"
• Hear a 1964 interview with Gloria Richardson

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Monday, January 19 2009 - Dedicated to the Proposition: One Woman Sings

(DOUBLE FEATURE)
Monday, January 19 2009 - Dedicated to the Proposition: One Woman Sings

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon >>More

Today we continue our series of stories that explores what the inauguration of Barack Obama tomorrow means for those who actively fought for civil rights.

Yesterday, Barack Obama spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and recalled the words Martin Luther King spoke at the March on Washington. Bernice Johnson-Reagon performed at the 1963 March on Washington with the Freedom Singers. The day before the march, they finished a gig in California and took a red-eye flight to D.C. Bernice says although she was not nervous, she was overwhelmed by the large number of people who decided to come to one place and take a massive stance against racism.

One Story from the Crowd

Donna Perkins-Potts

Yesterday at the inauguration festivities, actor Samuel L. Jackson talked about the March on Washington. He said that the power of the march came from the fact that so many ordinary people attended it. Donna Perkins-Potts was one of those ordinary Americans. She was only 17 years old in 1963. After hearing Dr. King's speech, Donna returned to her semi-segregated college motivated to create change.

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Tuesday, January 20 2009 by - A Summer with the King Family

Tuesday, January 20 2009 by - A Summer with the King Family

Gurdon Brewster - photo: Jeffrey Foote

Gurden Brewster spent time with the family of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was a young man. In the summer of 1961 when he was a seminary student, Gurdon volunteered to work at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He stayed with Dr. King's father, Daddy King.

As a white northerner in the South, Gurdon struggled with two kinds of discrimination that summer - from both African-American parishioners and his fellow white clergymen. He talks with Dick Gordon about his many close conversations with Daddy King over the breakfast table - and what it's like to watch today's inauguration having been through the civil rights movement.

• See a photo gallery of Gurdon's time with Daddy King
• Learn about the music played during Gurdon's interview
• Learn about Gurdon's book, No Turning Back: My Summer with Daddy King

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Thursday, January 22 2009 -A View From Inside

(SECOND INTERVIEW)
Thursday, January 22 2009 -A View From Inside

Earl Echard

Earl Echard also remembers segregation. He grew up having to sit on hard, straight chairs in the back of the doctor's office as a kid - only white people could sit in the waiting room. Earl grew up to become a physician assistant, and has chosen to spend his career working in low income housing areas and prisons. As he tells Dick, Earl is less optimistic that having an African American president will improve life for the many young African Americans born to disadvantage.

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Friday, January 23 2009 -Building a Promise

Friday, January 23 2009 -Building a Promise

Milton Ochieng

Milton Ochieng grew up in a rural part of Kenya. Even as a youngster, he was aware that people in his community frequently died of preventable diseases. Milton’s father planned to lessen those odds by opening a local health clinic. But before they could lay the first brick his father died unexpectedly.

Milton talks to Dick Gordon about the rocky road to fulfilling his father’s dream. Milton has finished medical school in the U.S., and he has moved back to Kenya to open a medical clinic there.

• Check out the Ochieng's Clinic
  
• Learn more about the “Sons of Lwala” documentary

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Wednesday, February 04 2009- Your Story- A HORSE IN THE PROJECTS

(SECOND INTERVIEW)

Wednesday, February 04 2009- Your Story- A HORSE IN THE PROJECTS

Aretha Crout

Aretha Crout was only 14 years old when she saved enough money to buy a horse. The catch was that she didn’t have her parents' permission and she lived in the Northern Long Beach projects. Aretha tells Dick Gordon how she used a tense moment with her new pet to help other children from the projects change their behavior.

• See a photo of Aretha riding her first horse, Naya
• Read about her organization, Pawsabilities

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Monday, February 23, 2009- Saving Each Other

Monday, February 23 2009 - Saving Each Other

Patricia and Pat Harris

Researchers are just beginning to understand how active duty combat affects women and men differently. One thing they have learned is that female soldiers are more likely to experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Pat Harris served in the first Gulf War and came home with classic signs of PTSD. She would crack the windows to find enemies and shop online to avoid the supermarket meat aisle. But while Pat was gone, her then 9-year-old daughter Patricia was going through trauma as well - in her case, at the hands of an abusive caregiver. The two women talk with Dick Gordon about how they helped one another reintegrate to normal life.

• Learn more about the organization Pat Harris founded to help women veterans
• Music in this story: My Girl by Laurence Juber for the album Pop Goes Guitar
  

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Friday, March 06 2009 - To Save a Horse

To Save a Horse - Friday, March 06 2009

Claire Pass (above) Diane Branton and Quervo (below) <

The poor economy is forcing thousands of horse owners to give up their companions and, in some cases, euthanize them. When Diane Branton’s work hours were cut and gas prices rose, she could no longer afford to feed her horses. After 25 years of caring for Poncho and Quervo, Diane had to make a painful call. She asked a horse rescue center to take both horses and euthanize them at a free clinic.

Claire Pass of the Norcal Equine Rescue also joins the conversation. Claire says that although Poncho was euthanized because of poor health, financial help arrived in the nick of time for Quervo and he was reunited with Diane. Dick Gordon talks with Claire, Diane and Cheryl Austin, the woman who volunteered to financially support Quervo for the rest of his life.

• Learn more about the Norcal Equine Rescue
  
• Explore Claire’s Organization Save the Critters

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Hail Mary Football & African Jazz

Thursday, January 01 2009

(DOUBLE FEATURE!!)

Hail Mary Football

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Don Stancavish and John Fenimore

Playing in a New Year's Day bowl game is the pinnacle of success for college football players. Don Stancavish never played college football, but he vividly remembers the catch of his life as a high school wide receiver. He caught the game-winning touchdown pass against his school's arch rival with just seconds on the clock.

Twenty-four years later, the same ball he caught showed up in a package on his front porch. Don talks to Dick Gordon about what it felt like to have a piece of his youth handed back to him.

Don's former coach, John Fenimore, also joins in the conversation. He talks about highlights from the game and why he returned the football.

• Check out Don's book, The Pass
• See a photo of the football

AFRICAN JAZZ

Somi - larger>>

Since she was a child, Somi has used music to explore her identity as a Rwandese-Ugandan who grew up in the United States. Somi identifies deeply with her cultural roots, especially the idea she was taught while very young: that everyone has a song worth hearing. Somi specializes in jazz music. Her latest album is Somi: Red Soil in my Eyes. Dick talks to Somi about how her intercontinental family helps inspire her music.

• Hear more of Somi's music
• Read Somi's blog
• See one of her music videos

TV Shopping

Thursday, December 18 2008

TV Shopping

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(SECOND INTERVIEW)

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Meg Favreau

We are headed into one of the diciest holiday shopping seasons in recent memory. Will consumers open their wallets or not?

Meg Favreau knows what makes people buy. Meg worked for a television shopping channel. She talks with Dick about how she got sucked into the vortex of TV commercialism and why she didn't stop customers who were bitten by the bargain bug.

• Read Meg's blog, "I hear you like stories"

Joblessness

Wednesday, September 17 2008
Joblessness

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William D. Lewis

Wall Street firms are in a freefall, and unemployment rates have now jumped to a five-year high.

When William D. Lewis lost his job, his life went spiraling out of control. He was fired from his position as a pharmaceutical representative, lost his personal car wash business, then watched his investments dry up. His wife left with the kids and his house went into foreclosure.

William talks with Dick Gordon about the day he was found sleeping in his storage unit and why he enrolled in college to pull himself out of homelessness.

• Learn more about William's life and work

Thursday, September 11 2008 - Flying with Bullets

Thursday, September 11 2008 - Flying with Bullets

Pastor Phillip Miles

In the 7 years since 9/11, much has changed in the United States and abroad - especially when it comes to air travel. Virtually all passengers know what it's like now to take off their shoes, get rid of their bottled water, and wade through long checkpoint lines.

Pastor Phillip Miles has gone to the Russian city of Perm off and on for the past 10 years. At the last minute before his most recent rip, Pastor Miles packed a box of bullets in his luggage as a gift. He got permission to fly with the bullets by airport security in South Carolina, but authorities in Moscow arrested him and charged him with smuggling. Pastor Miles was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison.

He talks to Dick Gordon about what life is like inside a Russian prison and how it felt to win his release.

• Learn more about Pastor Miles's return to the US

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Thursday, September 04 2008 - Bedside Comfort

Thursday, September 04 2008 - Bedside Comfort

Sandra Clarke, Del Townley, and Jim Clark

Every day, patients die alone in hospitals without family or medical staff to comfort them. Nurse Sandra Clarke decided to do something about this. She once had a dying patient who asked her to stay with him but she couldn't. When she returned to the room, he was dead.

Sandra talks to Dick Gordon about how she turned her guilt into a hospital vigil program - and how she convinced her co-workers to volunteer between shifts so patients wouldn't die alone.

Del Townley and Jim Clark also join the conversation. They are hospital maintenance workers who will sit at the bedsides of dying patients. They tell Dick why they joined the program and what keeps them volunteering.

• Learn more about Sandra's vigil program, No One Dies Alone

• Start a No One Dies Alone program
  

• See photos of Sandra and her volunteers

Music in this story: "Bedside of a Neighbor," Dixie Hummingbirds, The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds

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Jabari: Life on the Outside

Wednesday, July 16 2008

Jabari: Life on the Outside

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Jabari Aali Shaw - larger >>

When Jabari Aali Shaw first talked to Dick Gordon, he'd been out of prison for seven months. While there, he had an epiphany: he was his own worst problem.

Now that he's been out of prison for two years, life is better but not always easy. He tells Dick about his stand-up comedy routine, what it was like to lose his job, and how he tries, and sometimes stumbles, to set an example for his sons.

• Click here to hear the show when Jabari first talked to Dick Gordon
• Hear Jabari's poem "My Life" (click to download audio)
• See photos that Jabari has taken of his life and family
  

Breaking the Code of Silence & Follow-up: New Life in a Foreclosed Home

Wednesday, June 04 2008

(DOUBLE FEATURE)

Breaking the Code of Silence

&

Follow-up: New Life in a Foreclosed Home

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Reports of sexual assault in the Army have increased since anonymous reporting was implemented. According to the Department of Defense, 21% of women soldiers say they have been sexually assaulted.

Army Specialist Kymberlea L. Durant says that statistic is too low. She was sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier during the Gulf War and told by her lieutenant that reporting the crime would make America look bad. So she kept quiet.

Kymberlea talks to Dick Gordon about why she's speaking out now after 18 years of silence.

• Learn how to report sexual assault in the military
• Thanks to Yanick Rice Lamb and Kendra Lee of Heart & Soul magazine for connecting us with Kymberlea.
  

Follow-up: New Life in a Foreclosed Home

Rmega Tafari - larger >>

We received dozens of emails about Dick's conversation with Rmega Tafari, a woman squatting in an abandoned foreclosed home with her family. When Dick last spoke to Rmega, the bank that owned the home had asked her to leave.

Dick checks in with Rmega to find out what's happened since: she and her family have moved to Tallahassee where life is much better. Dua, Rmega's 4-year-old son, also shares his thoughts on the home they're renting and their new garden.

Pushing Drugs

Wednesday, March 12 2008

Pushing Drugs

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Shahram Ahari

Shahram Ahari goes before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging today to say that the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and doctors compromises the health of patients.

Shahram knows what he's talking about: he was a drug rep with Eli Lilly, where he learned how to entice doctors with gifts, slanted statistics, and psychological profiles.

Shahram tells Dick Gordon how the techniques he honed actually worked. He even earned the nickname "safe cracker" for getting into the offices of doctors who avoided pharmaceutical reps. He also recounts the crisis of conscience that led to his quitting the industry.

• Learn more about how pharmaceutical companies influence prescribing
• Watch Shahram describe how he sold the drugs

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