KUOW Presents connects listeners to a diversity of stories and perspectives from around the Pacific Northwest and around the world on topics that matter to our daily lives.
Pop singer Beck’s latest record isn’t actually recorded at all. It’s a binder full of sheet music. The idea behind it hearkens back to the days before mass-produced recorded music, when people bought popular songs on sheet music and gathered to play the songs together. Local composer Wayne Horvitz loves that idea, so he’s getting musicians from all over Seattle together to play some of the pieces Saturday night. He talks with KUOW’s Dave Beck.
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In the days before records were mass-produced, people learned about popular songs through sheet music. The pop musician known as Beck (no relation to KUOW’s Dave Beck) was so intrigued by that idea that his latest album isn’t even a recording at all.
Until recently, only men competed in boxing at the Olympics. That ended at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where women climbed into the ring to compete for the first time. Claressa Shields is a 16-year old from Michigan, and she was one of the boxers at the 2012 Summer Olympics. We’ll hear her story today.
When Eric Molinsky lived in Los Angeles, he kept hearing this story about a bygone transportation system called the Red Car. The Red Car, he was told, had been this amazing network of streetcars that connected the city — until a car company bought it, dismantled it, and forced a dependency on freeways. But like most legends, the one that Eric heard about the Red Car is not entirely accurate.
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It’s a familiar problem wherever there are immigrants: students who don’t speak the language of their teachers. But it’s not just a problem in the United States. It’s also a problem in Mexico. But in Mexico, the immigrants come from the US. Many have never visited Mexico before. Many don’t speak Spanish.
The idea of the “boom town” – a town that suddenly springs up or expands to support a lucrative operation nearby – may seem like something straight out of the Gold Rush days of the mid and late 1800s. But thanks to oil drilling, Williston, North Dakota, has quickly become a modern-day boom town. Resident and reporter Todd Melby tells APM’s Dick Gordon about life in a 21st century boom town.
Other Stories From KUOW Presents on January 14, 2013:
Michelle Kennedy was in a bad relationship. She had three kids and bills to pay, so she stayed. But when her neglectful partner allowed one of his sled dogs to attack her toddler, she packed up the kids and split. Michelle talks about how she and her kids spend three years living out of their car.
Other Stories On KUOW Presents On January 11, 2013:
She was a perfectly normal mom. She had a loving family. She took her kids to sports practices. But all that was just a façade. And in one moment, that façade came crumbling down, revealing the truth: 30 years ago, Mom escaped from jail, changed her name, and never looked back.
Editors' Note: This story contains descriptions of suicide. If you or someone you know might be suicidal, visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or call 800.273.8255 (800.273.TALK). Support groups and grief counseling for survivors can be found throughout the Puget Sound region.
Portland writer Kim Stafford has struggled to make sense out of the suicide of his brother Bret for 25 years. Though Bret was just 14 months older, Kim always looked to his brother as a leader and teacher. When he shot himself at age 40 in 1988, nobody in Bret’s family knew how much he was struggling.
Members of the Stafford family, even their father and famous poet William Stafford, couldn’t bring themselves to speak or write about Bret's loss. It was largely up to Kim Stafford to break the family silence. Kim’s new memoir, “100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared,” is the story of his brother’s life and death and its devastating and transformational effect on Kim and his family.
Stephen Rochelle was a high school principal, and he always had a good relationship with his students. But when it came to his own son, Mathew, things got complicated. In Keeping Hope Alive, Stephen Rochelle tells the story of how mental illness made his own son a stranger to him.
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