Showing results by narrator "Barbara Bogaev" in All Categories

In an age of high-tech, highly specialized medicine, the ancient healing arts of curanderismo are an attractive alternative. When they are ill, Mexican-Americans in the southwestern states often prefer to visit the curandero — the traditional healer — who uses herbs, scents, and rituals to treat the ills of their body, mind and spirit. Producer Maria Martin visits healers in the border town of El Porvenir, Mexico and in Buena Vista, New Mexico.

"Truth is a pathless land" said the Indian spiritual leader and iconoclast J. Krishnamurti. He taught pacifism and harmony; he sought freedom through a transformation of the human psyche. People flocked to follow him as he moved across continents and through much of the twentieth century, spreading his word. He never wanted to be called a guru and yet his followers (who included Hollywood film stars) insisted on it.

How can a 20-year-old man who is blind, autistic and still believes in Santa Claus play the most sophisticated improvisational jazz piano? How can a child who appears withdrawn and mentally disabled gaze at a building for only a minute then draw an exact reproduction on paper? Producer Stephen Smith explores the mysterious powers of savants — people with profound mental disabilities who develop an island of genius in music, mathematics or art.

The Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, is a common virus that touches billions of human beings in one way or another — from a tiny wart on the hand to invasive cancer. HPV can be found worldwide, yet most people who are infected never show any symptoms. The virus can "hide" for years from a person's immune system, with no apparent ill effects, and then awaken and trigger deadly disease.

Brown vs. the Board of Education was the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared the old "separate but equal" policies of many school boards unconstitutional. The Brown case triggered numerous court mediated desegregation policies around the country, all designed to get equal education to all students. Producer Kathy Baron looks at school districts in California, fifty years after the Brown decision. What, in fact, does an equal education look like?

In 1990, Smith County, Kansas, where Lebanon is located, was a thriving region. By the late 1990s the population had dwindled to 4,500, having suffered a drop of 150% in 100 years. If this trend continued, Smith County and Lebanon would essentially disappear. When Jim Rightner and his wife, Christine, came to town, they planned to retire there, ready for small town life. During his first day in town, Jim decided to change things. Before long it became a perfect model of small town America.

After waiting for Mr. Right (who has yet to arrive) - and after years of fertility treatments - Suzanne, a single woman in her forties, decided to adopt. She chose transracial adoption. Follow Suzanne through workshops designed to "teach white people how to raise kids of color," baby-shopping trips with Mom at Target, a critical rendezvous with a young mother at a pancake house, and, finally, a magical night at a suburban restaurant chain.

Step back in time to the eve of the American Revolution, following a woman whose job it is to play an 18th slave character in Colonial Williamsburg; a woman who must learn, in modern day, to interpret and recreate 1770 slave culture for a tourist audience. The story is told through this character's own narration and reflection, her interaction with other historical characters and with the tourist public in Williamsburg, and through documentation of her daily tasks.

At the turn of this century some 5,000 refugee children arrived in the U.S. every year, penniless and alone, seeking asylum and freedom. A third were locked up - some alongside violent offenders. Until recently, many were deported back to traumatic home situations. The U.S. government does not provide them with lawyers, yet whether they can stay legally is decided in court. Reporter Gillian Karp follows two of these children, Juan Pablo from Honduras and Jimmy from Punjab, India. Why did they leave?

Gamma rays are the most intense form of radiation. As the Cold War focused on the spread of nuclear war, a U.S. spy satellite searching for clandestine nuclear weapons tests detected frequent, but brief, bursts of powerful gamma-rays, a possible signal of a hydrogen bomb explosion. Interviewing some of the original researchers of this phenomenon, Producer David Barrett Wilson takes us from that starting point through the beginning of scientific research into these bizarre surges of energy.

In the weeks and months leading from the 9-11 attack, what was life like around the perimeter of Ground Zero? A snapshot of history, 24 Hours on the Edge of Ground Zero explores the landscape that is disaster area, tourist attraction and shrine.

In 1932, in the depths of the Depression, thousands of hungry and disgruntled veterans of WW I marched on Washington, D.C. demanding that Congress pay them the bonus for their military service that had been promised years before. Banding together, unemployed Oregon cannery workers marched with Pennsylvania coal miners and Alabama cotton pickers, as more than 20 thousand "bonus marchers" participated in the biggest rally to date in the nation's capital.

In conversations about the use of technology in schools, what you'll often hear is: Once we have a cadre of young teachers and administrators who've grown up with technology, computer use in schools will take off. This program examines that premise by following a young teacher, Brian Mason (7th grade American History) as he begins his second year in the classroom.

Key West has become a mecca for characters and eccentrics. Its colorful nature draws newcomers, but their attempts at gentrification are rapidly causing the island to lose its color. We talk to writers who make their homes there, fishermen, historians, and natives about what Key West is and what it should become.

Long cherished as a vital American folk art, quilting is fast becoming a contemporary form of documentation. For instance, "The Names Project," the mile-long quilt designed to memorialize victims of AIDS, often includes bits of photographs, handwriting, personal mementos and even artifacts like hair and teeth. Quilts were also used to send messages on the Underground Railroad. We look at the tapestry of quilting stories as we make a patchwork of audio stories celebrating the joys and history of quilts.

Important clues to the origins of the solar system come from asteroids, comets and meteors, believed to be remnants from the early solar system. Until the early 1990s, the only information obtained on these bodies was through Earth-based observations, either by observing them in orbit or by examining the remnants that reach us here on Earth. Producer Dan Grossman investigates the history of our understanding of comets.

Long before Santa, Bing Crosby and the Mattel Toy Company stole the occasion, even before Christianity itself kidnapped it, the Winter Solstice was celebrated with seasonal ritual. One ancient solstice custom is mummering. Still practiced annually in parts of England and Ireland, this great-grand-daddy of Halloween masquerade died out in much of Canada and the United States centuries ago. In North America today, it is a popular part of Christmas now only in Newfoundland and Pennsylvania.

Many learning disabled students are finding that they learn more readily with a variety of technology assistance and human support in their classrooms. But what happens once they leave school? Whether moving into the workforce, or on to higher education, most high school graduates discover they must adjust to new environments on their own and learn to advocate for themselves.

Join us as we spend an afternoon in a barbershop in Washington DC run by black Muslims. The conversation runs from issues of religion and family, to school, sports and the political system, all set against the buzz of the hairclippers and the busy neighborhood ambience of this informal gathering place.

Talk about taxis as a guilty pleasure! Producer Judith Kampfner gives us a metropolitan comparison: whether it's riding in style on the streets of New York (avoiding the hustle, bustle, and pain of the subway), or zipping across London's spiraling maze of cross-streets (never doubting your intrepid guide's sense of direction). Join us for a tour of taxi drivers -- the rough-edged New York City cabbies, and the traditional, vintage hacks of London. It’s never predictable – who might be the next stranger to inhabit your space?