Scene on Radio

Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. After a visit to his hometown, Mankato, Minnesota -- the subject of the Scene on Radio episode, "Little War on the Prairie" -- John reflects on the changes there and America's latest assault on history. 

Music by goodnight, Lucas. 

To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form

We're sharing an episode from another podcast that asks big questions about who we are and how we got here: The Alabama Murders, a new series by bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast. Entangled in an affair with a parishioner, a Northwest Alabama minister made a devastating choice. Eventually, the consequences led to the center of a hot national debate about who should be allowed to live, who should die, and how the state should kill them. Malcolm asks: why, in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse? 

A rebroadcast of a Scene on Radio episode, eighty years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.  

The word “Hiroshima” may bring to mind a black-and-white image of a mushroom cloud. It’s easy to forget that it’s an actual city with a million people and a popular baseball team. What did the cataclysm of 1945 mean in the place where it happened, to the people who lived through it? John Biewen went to Hiroshima and interviewed A-bomb survivors in 1995. 

“Voices of Hiroshima” is a production of Minnesota Public Radio, from American Public Media.

Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Reflections on the Trump Administration's attempt to wrangle control of the national story and how it's told. Will this attack on factual history succeed?  

Music by goodnight, Lucas. 

To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form

The video of David Joy referred to in the episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0g_6uidwcE

The fourth installment in our between-seasons miniseries, "a few of my favorite things," chosen by host John Biewen -- selections from exceptional podcast series. From CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times, this is Season 1, Episode 5 of The Outlaw Ocean, reported by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Urbina. The episode, titled "Waves of Extraction," uncovers brutal exploitation of sea life -- and of people. It's a powerful complement to Scene on Radio's Capitalism season. 

To listen to more Outlaw Ocean: https://link.mgln.ai/bW26Ku

The second in a between-seasons miniseries, "a few of my favorite things," chosen by host John Biewen: Episode 1 of The Copernic Affair, from the Canadaland network. The series tells the story of a sociology professor living near Ottawa who finds himself accused of a decades-old bombing attack against a synagogue in Paris. Did Hassan Diab do it? By reporters Dana Ballout and Alex Atack. 

The first of a between-seasons miniseries, "a few of my favorite things," chosen by host John Biewen. From Slow Burn, episode 1 of "Becoming Justice Thomas," an exploration, by journalist Joel Anderson, of how Clarence Thomas, a poor Black kid from a tiny town in Georgia, became ... Clarence Thomas. Episode 1 is called, "America's Blackest Child."

Host John Biewen teases Season 8 and reads an installment from his new newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Eight years after our "Seeing White" series, whiteness is still a helluva drug -- and a powerful tool for Trump 2.0. 

Music by goodnight, Lucas

Michael Kliën wants to help bring about profound change in the world, but not through the usual means. An Austrian-born Dance professor at Duke University, Kliën is a leading social choreographer. He sets up experiments involving people moving amongst each other -- wordlessly -- in pursuit of new ways of being and the "soul democratic." 

By Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen. Music by goodnight, Lucas and Blue Dot Sessions. 

Scene on Radio is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. 

Links:

Michael Klien’s website

Video of Kliën works: 

Parliament

Constitution

The Utopians

Sharing an episode from a series we think many of our listeners will like to hear. Reverend William Barber II and Yara Allen discuss how music intertwines with social movements, focusing on the contributions of theomusicology and Repairers of the Breach’s journey, alongside the Moral Mondays initiative. Their conversation highlights personal stories, regional influences, and the unifying power of protest music, showcasing music as a profound force for addressing social injustices and personal struggles.