The Big Ponder

Coffee is more than just a beverage – it can be a jumpstart to a day at work or a relaxing afternoon with friends. This episode explores the meaning of coffee across cultures, from Baltimore to Berlin, including the typically German tradition of afternoo

German baseball may sound like an oxymoron, but the Bonn Capitals have successfully maintained a leading position in the German baseball league for years. The success of the Capitals can be traced back to earlier times when Bonn was the capital of Germany and home to a large American community that popularized the sport.

St. Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth-century German nun – a writer, composer of chants, mystic and visionary. You might be asking yourself, what on earth does a twelfth-century nun have to do with life today? What does medieval chanting have to do with music today? It turns out, a lot.

German entrepreneurs and winemakers have shaped the manufacturing of wine in the US for over a century. Join our producer Gary Lee on a tour of three US vineyards with surprisingly German roots to see the full scope of German influence on this industry in the US.

Five generations have lived at the Alexander Haus on Groß Glienicker See over the past century - enduring fascism, war, the division of Germany, and the Fall of Communism. Now, the former family home has undergone yet another transition into an educational center.

Every year, tourists from around the world flock to Southern Utah to take in the scenic landscape. Most travel by car, but some opt for a less traditional mode of transport. Ride along as our producer Scott Carrier accompanies a German motorcycle club on their trip through the Red Rock Canyons.

Within the historic walls of Zion Lutheran Church in Baltimore, Maryland, you’re just as likely to hear a rousing polka band as sacred organ music. For more than 250 years, the congregation has remained dedicated to its German immigrant heritage, faith, and ministry. Now, they’re grappling to find the right balance that will carry Zion Church into the future.

Leigh Hamilton is a dramatic soprano who has been based in Germany for more than 17 years. This episode follows Leigh’s story, which takes her from small-town in Ohio to metropolitan Berlin where she now trains the next generation of singers for the rigors of the stage in her private voice studio.

Driven by a critical lack of skilled technicians, a group of largely German-owned manufacturers in Chicago have launched a new apprenticeship program based on German education models. This idea is now spreading to a number of American companies.

He is a soccer legend in Germany as player and as coach: Jürgen Klinsmann. After leading the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup, he also coached the U.S. men’s soccer team from 2011 to 2016. But now, Klinsmann is anything but retired: In the summer of 2018, he created the SilverLakes Cup, an international youth soccer tournament in Southern California.