Boston Calling

Boston Calling

By BBC World Service
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Boston Calling episodes

  • The Case of the Stolen Fortune Cookie Fortunes

    "Some men dream of fortunes. Others dream of cookies." This is a real fortune cookie fortune. It would be a prescient fortune for Yongsik Lee. He invented the fully automatic fortune cookie machine in the early 1980s and built a business on his invention. The Korean immigrant sold fortune cookie machines and fortunes to companies all over the US. It was a good business until one day, one of his employees stole his fortunes and his customers. We get to the bottom of a theft that forever changed Yongsik Lee's life.

    (Image: Fortune cookies on display at The Ritz Carlton in Miami Beach, Florida. Credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

    28 min
  • The Ripple Effect

    Edmaris Carazo, a blogger in San Juan, adjusts to life in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

    Also: the destruction in Puerto Rico has a ripple effect on hospitals on the US mainland; reporter Jason Margolis investigates where trickle-down tax policies have been tried and worked outside of America; Jamaica tries to get in on the marijuana market but some farmers worry about being left behind; a conversation with Rainer Weiss, the Nobel Laureate, who detected ripples in the fabric of space and time.

    (Image: Hospitals in the US mainland are facing shortages of IV fluids and medicine because of Hurricane Maria's damage to Puerto Rico. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

    27 min
  • Dance Lessons

    It’s the beat that drives the bugaloo and mambo. Ayana Contreras travels to Cuba to understand the clave.

    Plus, we go beneath a motorway flyover in Rio de Janeiro, where US hip-hop from the 1990s gets re-imagined every Saturday night; we meet a 9-year-old boy who is preserving his family’s Cambodian history through dance; South African superstar Johnny Clegg tells us how he helped form an interracial dance troupe during apartheid; and we remember Johnny Hallyday, “the French Elvis Presley”.

    (Image: Dancers at the weekly Saturday night charme dance in Madureira, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro's North Zone. Credit: Catherine Osborn)

    28 min
  • The Second Amendment

    "Every time you hear a piano note, that's another mass shooting." A new way to hear the stark numbers on gun violence.

    Also: Adam Lankford, a criminology professor, turns to data to explain why the US has more mass shootings than any other country; Susan Cruz, a Salvadoran-American, remembers holding a gun at the age of six; two sisters with different opinions on guns go to a shooting range; we learn about the origins of the Second Amendment; plus we hear from faith leaders all over the US.

    (Image: Visitors view gun displays at a National Rifle Association outdoor sports trade show on February 10, 2017 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Credit: Dominick Reuter/Getty Images)

    28 min
  • At the Movies

    Hollywood has been criticised for its practice of whitewashing. Now, the voice acting world faces questions.

    Also: Kelvin Han Yee, a Chinese-American actor, broke his parents' heart and wonders if it was worth it; a birdwatcher begs Hollywood to get its bird sounds right; Disney/Pixar’s “Coco,” which was a hit in Mexico, comes to the US; Laela French, a Star Wars buff, explains the origins of Darth Vader’s costume; and in the documentary “Dreamland” the Wabanaki people take back their narrative.

    (Image: For years, G.K. Bowes was the official voice of Barbie. Credit: Courtesy of G.K. Bowes)

    26 min
  • The Taste of Victory

    Wilmot Collins came to Helena as a refugee. Now he’s been elected as the city’s mayor.

    Also: Abdi Nor Iftin tells us what it feels like to win the green card lottery; we find out what award-winning olive oil tastes like (it’s kind of peppery); the Boston Red Sox get their first Latino manager; beauty contestants in Peru stage a protest against gender-based violence that goes viral; and a blind man, hoping to kayak across the Bosphorus Strait, turns to mythology for inspiration.

    (Image: For Maddie, left, and Wilmot Collins, coming to the US wasn't easy. In their first few months in Montana, their home was graffitied with "Go back to Africa" and "KKK." But they stayed. Credit: Courtesy of Wilmot Collins)

    27 min
  • The Future is Now

    Selina Wang, a tech reporter for Bloomberg News, says that Twitter could still do more to stop Russian and Ukrainian spam accounts from spreading misinformation on the platform.

    Also: people on social media keep blaming “Sam Hyde’’ for mass shootings, even though he's innocent, and we finally find out why; Facebook saves a dying mill town in the Pacific Northwest; Uber meets its match in Lebanon; a robot becomes a Saudi citizen; and a couple of amateur astro-explorers plan a trip to Mars.

    Image: Colin Stretch, general counsel at Facebook, Sean Edgett, acting general counsel at Twitter, and Richard Salgado, director of law enforcement and information security at Google, testify before Congress on October 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

    27 min
  • The Scientific Edition

    Victoria Barrett, a college student in Wisconsin, aged 18, is suing the Trump administration over climate change.

    Plus: we meet one of the first meteorologists to talk about climate change on TV in the US; we learn the history of the design of nuclear fallout shelter signs made during the Cold War; we visit the laboratory of a “wood detective” in Germany; we hear the “voice" of an iceberg and it’s pretty eerie; and we dance to some “ye-ye” music sung by a NASA scientist in California.

    (Image: Victoria Barrett is a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Credit: Courtesy of Victoria Barrett)

    27 min
  • Speak Out

    Thousands of French women post the name of their sexual harasser on Twitter, using the hashtag, "Squeal on Your Pig".

    Plus: we meet a woman helping undocumented immigrants in the US experiencing sexual harassment; we find out why the reaction to the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Russia is the opposite of the reaction in America; we learn about a burgeoning feminist movement in China; we hear about efforts to combat sexual harassment at work in Nigeria; and we close with the song "Come with Me" by Nneka.

    (Image: Attorney Gloria Allred (L) and her client Heather Kerr speak during a press conference regarding the sexual assault allegations that have been brought against Harvey Weinstein on October 20, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

    27 min
  • At Your Civil Service

    Dave Rank, a high ranking diplomat, resigned over Trump’s climate change policy.

    Also: a former sheriff worries that new legislation in California to protect unauthorised immigrants will make it harder for police officers to do their jobs; a member of India’s lowest caste moves to New York and becomes a train conductor; a journalist travels around the world to see how people pay taxes; Harry Truman’s grandson impersonates him in a play; plus we meet some four legged civil servants: bomb sniffing dogs.

    (Image: Dave Rank is the former head of the US embassy in Beijing. Credit: Ashley Ahearn/Terrestrial. http://kuow.org/programs/terrestrial )

    27 min

About Boston Calling

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How the world looks through American eyes, and the myriad and unexpected ways that the world influences the United States.

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