The Big Ponder

Germany’s beer influence has spread around the world, and one of the epicenters of this trend is New York City. There are now more than two dozen beer gardens and halls in the city. And every year, Oktoberfest celebrations are held in all of the five boroughs, lasting several weeks.

Thomas Buergenthal saw the Nazi concentration camps through the eyes of a child. Luckily, he survived and later became a lawyer and eventually a judge on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Netherlands and the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador.

Buffalo, New York, was at one time the world’s foremost grain port. More than a dozen enormous grain silos still attest to that fact: Awesome colossi made of wood, steel, and reinforced concrete. Their surreal quality also fascinated European pioneers of modern architecture, including Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe.

When Jake Nawrocki had the idea to revive the Southside of downtown Atlanta – which could take 10 to 20 years – he had to find investors interested to commit for the long term. He found a partner in Olaf Kunkat, a German real estate investor.

In 1975, the German journalist Frances Schoenberger interviewed John Lennon in New York, a dream gig for her – but this interview was never published. For The Big Pond, Schoenberger listens to the recordings again for the first time in more than 40 years, recalling what she calls the best day of her career.

There are things that hold history for each of us - a stitch, a book, a hat - things that we carry around for our whole lives. In this episode, we hear three stories about things that were brought to the U.S. from other countries and what they mean to their owners.