Ongoing Coverage:
Radio Friends
12:00 am
Fri February 24, 2012

Chuck Everitt & CEC

Today's guests are:

Chuck Everitt, who shares a recent personal story in which his dog saved his life.

Also, Leslie Stock is with CEC. She talks about their latest production, "Spitfire Grill".

 

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Planet Money
11:01 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

A Revival In American Manufacturing, Led By Brooklyn Foodies

Originally published on Tue May 22, 2012 9:56 am

One day Chris Woehrle decided to finally leave his corporate job and pursue his dream: to become an artisanal food craftsman. And so, every day at home, he'd basically pickle stuff.

"I had a refrigerator full of plastic food buckets that were full of pickles and kimchee and sauerkraut and harissa and salsa and ketchup and mustard and, you know, any kind of craft food you could make," Woehrle says.

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Hollywood Jobs
11:01 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

The Extraordinary, Ordinary Life Of Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne watches a movie every day — or tries to, anyway. Lately, the writer and director of The Descendants has been busy going to nomination and awards dinners, in advance of Sunday's Oscar night — when the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay prizes could be his.

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Television
11:01 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

For Asians And Latinos, Stereotypes Persist In Sitcoms

Credit Cliff Lipson / CBS
Han Lee (Matthew Moy), owner of the Brooklyn diner where Max (Kat Dennings, left) and Caroline (Beth Behrs, right) work, joins the two women as they count their earnings on 2 Broke Girls.

I was flipping around TV channels one evening, and I noticed something amazing. There was a glorious absence of black actors playing maids, sassy, streetwise pimps or bug-eyed buffoons.

And then I saw Han Lee.

On CBS' hit comedy 2 Broke Girls, he owns the diner in Brooklyn where the show's sassy heroines just happen to work. He's a walking bundle of stereotypes: Broken English. Socially awkward. Mostly asexual. His heavy accent is always good for a laugh or two.

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Middle East
11:01 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

With President Leaving, Yemen Steps Into A New Era

Yemen has become the latest Arab country to depose its dictator.

On Monday, the country's longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is set to hand power to his vice president, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, as part of an agreement reached late last year. The agreement was backed by the U.S., Europe and Yemen's powerful Gulf Arab neighbors. It was ratified by more than 60 percent of Yemen's voters earlier this week.

Now, the real work begins.

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Media
11:01 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

With Sale, Phila. Reporters Fear Loss Of Integrity

Credit Joseph Kaczmarek / AP
The publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News has been accused of interfering with coverage of the newspapers' pending sale.

Philadelphia's financially troubled newspapers — the jointly owned Inquirer and Daily News — may be sold for the fourth time in six years. Circulation and advertising are down. A new set of layoffs has been announced, and the papers' newsrooms are about to be combined with the news site Philly.com.

But reporters and editors there are outraged by something else: the actions of their own publisher to influence their coverage of the company's sale.

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Europe
11:01 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

Portuguese Seeking Opportunities In Former Colonies

Portugal is burdened with such big debts that some are calling it "the next Greece." Unemployment is soaring, and the debt continues to rise, despite draconian austerity measures.

But Portugal has something Greece doesn't have: former colonies, rich in natural resources and in need of labor, both skilled and unskilled. And in a type of role reversal, some Portuguese are now traveling to those places in hopes of improving their lives.

Antonio Valerio, who is studying pharmaceutical science at a university, is among those who see no future in Portugal.

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Religion
9:41 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

How To Properly Dispose Of Sacred Texts

Credit Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images
On Feb. 21 outside Bagram Airfield, Afghan demonstrators show copies of Qurans allegedly set on fire by U.S. soldiers at a NATO airbase outside Kabul.

The Quran is considered to be the speech of God to humankind — word for word — explains Imam Johari Abdul-Malik.

"The traditional way of disposing of used or damaged copies of the text of the Quran is by burning it," he says.

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StoryCorps
9:00 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

Man Gives U.S. Vets Two Things: Haircuts, And Hope

Originally published on Thu February 23, 2012 11:01 pm

To help U.S. troops ease back into civilian life, veteran Anthony Bravo Esparza offers them a haircut, and a safe and friendly place to hang out. Esparza — known to his friends as "Dreamer" — sees it as a way to help former soldiers find their way.

Dreamer's barbershop is easy to find; it's set up inside a trailer in the parking lot of the West Los Angeles Medical Center campus of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

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The Two-Way
5:41 pm
Thu February 23, 2012

Baseball's Reigning MVP Wins Appeal On Positive Drug Test

Credit Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images
Ryan Braun #8 of the Milwaukee Brewers reacts after hitting a double in Game Five of the National League Division Series, last year in Milwaukee.

Last year's National League MVP has just won an appeal on a positive drug test, which means he will not be suspended for the first 50 games of the 2012 season.

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