Radio Times

Guests: Jace Clayton

JACE CLAYTON aka DJ /rupture defies categorization.  Not only is he an experimental DJ, he is a minimalist composer, ethnomusicologist, and a writer.  His new book is called Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture.  It’s part memoir, part travelogue, and part music criticism.  His writing on music has also appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post and The Fader.  His composition Room 21 will be performed at the Barnes Foundation Friday night. The piece uses the record collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes and involves musicians from all over the world.  This hour, producer Jon Ehrens talks with Clayton about the how he got started making music, what it means to be a DJ, and the music of the 21st century.

Guests:  Mark Thompson, Phil Klay, Kristen Rouse

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump participated in NBC’s live “commander-in-chief forum” last night.  The candidates appeared separately and answered questions on national security issues and military affairs from an audience of veterans and active service members.  Each of the presidential hopefuls tried to convince the audience that they should lead the nation’s armed forces.  This hour, we get reactions and analysis from three guests well-versed in military issues:  PHIL KLAY, Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War and the author of the book Redeployment; KRISTEN ROUSE, a Captain in the Army National Guard, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and the founding director of the NYC Veterans Alliance; and MARK THOMPSON, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who covers national security and the military for Time magazine.

Guests: Stew, Heidi Rodewald

Marty is joined this hour by musicians STEW and HEIDI RODEWALD.  Their new rock-theater production Notes of a Native Song, which draws on the work of writer James Baldwin, begins its four-day run Thursday night at the Wilma Theater as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Stew formed the band The Negro Problem in the 1990s, eventually releasing music as a solo performer. He then went on to compose music and lyrics for rock-theater productions.  At this time, he began collaborating with songwriter Heidi Rodewald. Their first collaboration Passing Strange went on to win a Tony Award. We’ll hear about Stew and Heidi’s twenty years of collaboration, their creative process, and their newest piece.

Guests: Ellen Saracini, Chris Brennan, Stephen Brock

With the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack approaching, host Mary Cummings-Jordan talks with two local residents with personal experiences related to the collapse of the World Trade Centers. She’ll be joined in studio by Bucks County resident ELLEN SARACINI, whose husband Victor was the captain of the one of the hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center’s South Tower, and by The Philadelphia Inquirer’s CHRIS BRENNAN, who covered the events of September 11th, 2001 for The Philadelphia Daily News. And Mary will be joined by STEPHEN BROCK, a Professor and the School Psychology Program Coordinator at California State University, to discuss how schools are helping children deal with grief and tragedy, and what it’s like for children to grow-up in a post-9/11 era.

Marty talks about why Americans’ faith in religious institutions is declining and about a new survey about the biggest barriers to attending church and other religious services. We’ll be joined by EMMA GREEN, a senior associate editor at ​The Atlantic, where she covers politics, policy, and religion, and by JONATHAN MARTIN, National political correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for CNN. And we’ll talk about Trump’s outreach to evangelicals, and the Clinton-Kaine ticket’s appeal to Catholic voters, with DAVID GIBSON, National Reporter for the Religion News Service.

Guests: Carol Anne Donohoe, Lee Gerlent

Twenty-two asylum-seeking mothers at the Berks County Residential Center are on a hunger strike.  They are protesting the long lengths of their detention at the Pennsylvania facility, which houses migrant mothers and their children as they await deportation or asylum.  This hour, Mary talks about the Berks center, the families being held there, and a recent court decision that ruled against the women’s right to asylum.  Her guests are immigration attorney CAROL ANNE DONOHOE, who represents a number of families at held at the center, and LEE GELERNT, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s National Immigrant’s Rights Project. Then, we turn to the issue of unaccompanied child migrants.  In 2014, we saw heart-wrenching images of the some of the 54,000 children who made the difficult journey from Central American to the United States.  Many are still trying to come here.  JENNIFER PODKUL, Director of Policy at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), explains why they are still coming and what happens to them along the way and after they arrive.

Guests: Tayyib Smith, Siddiq Moore, Tiffany Spraggins Payne

These days you don’t have to go to business school to become an entrepreneur. Many people are able to turn a great idea into a functioning business thanks to online courses, crowdfunding websites and the low cost of goods. In this hour, Marty will be joined in-studio by a trio of guests to talk about the joys of starting a business from scratch and the unexpected hiccups that can occur along the way. We’ll get behind the scenes stories from Philadelphia entrepreneurs TAYYIB SMITH, the founder of Little Giant Creative who’s starting the Institute of Hip Hop Entrepreneurship, and from Siddiq's Real Fruit Water Ice owner SIDDIQ MOORE. We’ll also learn about the financial and logistical challenges facing new businesses from TIFFANY SPRAGGINS PAYNE, the Director of Programs at The Enterprise Center in Philadelphia.

Guests: Michelle Dorrance, Billie Jean King, Mike Birbiglia

Coming up on this week’s edition of Radio Times in Review; we’ll hear Marty’s interview with tap dancer and choreographer MICHELLE DORRANCE.  She joined us in the studio last year after receiving a MacArthur Genius award. Then, because it’s US Open time, we’ll listen back to Marty’s conversation with tennis legend BILLIE JEAN KING. Lastly, we’ll hear from comedian MIKE BIRBIGLIA.  He joined us back in 2008 on his “Sleepwalk with Me” comedy tour.  The material from this one-man show later became the basis of his first movie of the same name. He has a new movie called Don’t Think Twice which examines the drama of being a comic performer.

Guests: Carol Rosenberg, Hina Shamsi, Bruce Schneier

This hour we examine three national security stories. First, we look at the recent transfer of 15 detainees from the Guantanamo detention facility to the United Arab Emirates, which leaves just 61 prisoners remaining.  We’ll talk to CAROL ROSENBERG, a Miami Herald reporter, about what this release means for the future of the Guantanamo prison.  Then, we discuss the U.S. government watch lists and their exponential growth in recent years. But how people get placed on them remains unclear. Civil liberties advocates find that worrisome as HINA SHAMSI, director of the ACLU National Security Project, explains. And we end the hour looking at the recent hacks and cyber leaks in voter registration systems, the NSA and the Democratic National Committee.  Many experts say they all appear to have Russian ties.  Cyber security expert BRUCE SCHNEIER weighs in on the attacks and the future of cyber warfare.

Guests: James McBride

[From the Radio Times archive] Today on Radio Times, Marty is joined by writer and musician JAMES McBRIDE to discuss his new book Kill ‘Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul.  The book goes beyond being a biography of “The Godfather of Soul” and the inventor of funk music.  It also incorporates McBride’s life as a musician, and is a thorough analysis not only of Brown’s life and music, but the nature of black music and identity in America.