All Things Considered on 90.5 WKAR

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On May 3, 1971, at 5 p.m., All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations.

In the 40 years since, almost everything about the program has changed, from the hosts, producers, editors and reporters to the length of the program, the equipment used and even the audience.

However there is one thing that remains the same: each show consists of the biggest stories of the day, thoughtful commentaries, insightful features on the quirky and the mainstream in arts and life, music and entertainment, all brought alive through sound.

All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. Every weekday the two-hour show is hosted by Robert SiegelMichele Norris and Melissa Block. In 1977, ATC expanded to seven days a week with a one-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays, currently hosted by Guy Raz.

During each broadcast, stories and reports come to listeners from NPR reporters and correspondents based throughout the United States and the world. The hosts interview newsmakers and contribute their own reporting. Rounding out the mix are the disparate voices of a variety of commentators, including Sports Commentator Stefen Fastis, Poet Andrei Codrescu and Political Columnists David Brooks and E.J. Dionne,

All Things Considered has earned many of journalism's highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Overseas Press Club Award.

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The Two-Way
6:17 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Armless Archer Matt Stutzman Describes How He Shoots A Bow — And Wins Medals

Credit Dennis Grombkowski / Getty Images
Archer Matt Stutzman of the U.S. prepares to shoot in the London Paralympics. Born without arms, Stutzman uses a release trigger strapped to his shoulder to fire.

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

American Paralympian Matt Stutzman won the silver medal in archery this week, a feat he accomplished despite being born without arms. In the men's compound open final, he was narrowly beaten by Finland's Jere Forsberg, who has the use of both arms.

In the gold medal match, Forsberg fired a perfect 10 on his final arrow to avoid a shoot-off with Stutzman.

The Paralympics have helped Stutzman, who is from Fairfield, Iowa, become something of a celebrity, thanks to his competitive spirit and his refusal to let his talents go to waste.

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Sports
5:12 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Suspensions Of New Orleans Football Players Lifted

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

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Economy
5:09 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Obama Administration: 'Recovery Has Been Resilient'

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Joining us now to talk about today's jobs numbers is Alan Krueger. He's the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Welcome.

ALAN KRUEGER: Thank you.

SIEGEL: Is it fair to say that the good news here, the lower unemployment rate is produced by bad news, so many people leaving the workforce and that 96,000 jobs in a month is a discouraging jobs report?

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Humans
4:31 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Sound A Major Emotional Driver For Humans

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

Seth Horowitz is an auditory neuroscientist at Brown University and author of the new book The Universal Sense. Horowitz says sound is a sense that's always "on" — and we take it for granted. He says it developed to trigger deeply-held emotions.

Commentary
4:31 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Week In Politics: Democratic National Convention

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

Audie Cornish talks to regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks of The New York Times. They discuss the Democratic National Convention.

Summer Nights: Funtown
3:02 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

A Slamming Good Time On The Jersey Shore

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 6:30 pm

The "Bumper Car Psychos" are easy to spot. While the other bumper cars at New Jersey's Keansburg Amusement Park spin wildly from one collision to the next, the Psychos cruise gracefully around the track, grinning from ear to ear as they slam their targets into the wall.

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Sports
2:59 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

A Year After War Wound, American Wins Paralympics

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 10:06 pm

The first thing you need to know about Navy Lt. Brad Snyder is that he's a bit intense.

If you go to the U.S. Naval Academy, swim competitively, and make the cut for the Navy's elite bomb-disposal squad, you're probably going to be the competitive type.

"Crossfit, surfing, biking, running, swimming, you name it I'm into it. Rock climbing," says Snyder.

The second thing you should know is that Snyder plans to continue doing all these things — even though he's now blind.

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Planet Money
2:58 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

The Economics Of Stealing Bikes

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

The normal bike market is pretty straightforward — supplier, middleman and buyer. The market for stolen bikes has the same roles, but different players. Here's a quick look at how it works.

The Supplier

The supplier, instead of Schwinn or Cannondale, is the bike thief.

Hal Ruzzal, a bike mechanic at Bicycle Habitat in Manhattan, describes two types of thieves.

Thief Type 1: "Your standard drug addict."

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Mom And Dad's Record Collection
2:51 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

'American Pie' And The Box Of Records A Father Left Behind

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Mel Fisher Ostrowski played Don McLean's American Pie until she "learned every word."

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

This summer, All Things Considered has asked listeners and guests to share a personal memory of one song discovered through their parents' record collection.

NPR listener Mel Fisher Ostrowski wrote in to tell us about how Don McLean's "American Pie" helped her "bridge a gap between my long-deceased father and baby boy." Hear the radio version at the audio link above — and read a lightly edited version of Ostrowski's original letter to NPR below.

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Book Reviews
2:04 pm
Fri September 7, 2012

Safe Landing For 'Stag's Leap'?

Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 6:18 pm

What do you do when, after 30 years, your husband tells you he is leaving you for someone else? If you're poet Sharon Olds, you grab your spiral-bound notebook and write about it. And though the marriage ended in 1997, she has waited 15 years to tell us about it — half as long as her marriage lasted.

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Education
7:09 pm
Thu September 6, 2012

Students Say They've Been Denied The Right To Read

Credit Mike Glinski / Mlive Detroit
Michelle Johnson and her family talk about conditions within Detroit's Highland Park schools, in July.

Originally published on Thu September 6, 2012 8:08 pm

Eight Detroit-area public school students returning to classes this week are plaintiffs against a school system they say has failed them.

Their families and the American Civil Liberties Union say that the Highland Park school system has denied the students the right to learn to read, and that the state has a responsibility to fix that.

Michelle Johnson has five children in Highland Park schools. Her daughter is heading into the 12th grade, but can read at only about the fourth-grade level.

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Middle East
5:33 pm
Thu September 6, 2012

Syrian Refugees Move Into Lebanon's Crowded Camps

Credit Mohammed Asad / APA/Landov
The Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are overcrowded and run down. But Syrian refugees are moving in as they flee the fighting in their homeland.

Originally published on Sun September 9, 2012 8:34 am

The conflict in Syria is sending a staggering number of refugees into neighboring countries. Turkey, Jordan and even Iraq are building tent cities.

But Lebanon has yet to build such camps. The country is already home to more than a dozen teeming, squalid camps for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who fled the war after Israel's creation in 1948, as well as their descendants.

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Election 2012
4:49 pm
Thu September 6, 2012

Most Facts Check Out In Bill Clinton's DNC Speech

Originally published on Thu September 6, 2012 7:09 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Last night, former President Bill Clinton delivered a speech remarkable both for its eloquence and for the sheer quantity of facts it contained. The folks at FactCheck.org described it this way: A fact-checker's nightmare - lots of effort required to run down his many statistics and factual claims, producing little for us to write about.

We're going to put a few of those claims of fact to the test now with Robert Farley, who's the deputy managing editor at FactCheck.org. Welcome to the program.

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Remembrances
4:43 pm
Thu September 6, 2012

Art Modell Was Hero, Villain To Football Fans

Originally published on Thu September 6, 2012 7:09 pm

Football icon Art Modell has died. Modell was hero to Baltimore Ravens fans because as owner of that NFL team he brought them a Superbowl. But it's a different story in Cleveland, where Browns fans vilify him for moving the team to Baltimore after a dispute with Cleveland political leaders.

Author Interviews
4:37 pm
Thu September 6, 2012

Getting Around To Writing 'Art Of Procrastination'

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 11:12 am

At the end of July, when NPR's Robert Siegel set off on the longest vacation since his honeymoon 39 years ago, he packed a few books, including the new book The Art of Procrastination by John Perry, emeritus professor of philosophy at Stanford.

After two weeks in Delaware, two weeks in Iberia and a week of work in Tampa, Fla., Siegel finally finished it Wednesday night. He says his timing is fitting: The book is 92 small, double-spaced pages.

It expands on a short confessional essay Perry wrote in 1996 called "Structured Procrastination."

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Music Reviews
3:39 pm
Thu September 6, 2012

Cat Power Rips It Up, Starts Again

Originally published on Thu September 6, 2012 7:09 pm

I recently listened to the first single from the new Cat Power album with some fellow fans, and the room was deeply divided. Some thought the song was fabulous, but others were startled and upset — which I could understand, sort of. Chan Marshall's songs generally speak to pain and trauma with a hushed and intimate musical vocabulary. But this song, "Ruin," was different — not just a rock 'n' roll song, but one you might even want to dance to.

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Latin America
10:34 am
Thu September 6, 2012

Guess Who's Chopping Down The Amazon Now?

Originally published on Thu September 6, 2012 8:20 pm

Though Brazil's Amazon has been the focus of environmental groups for decades, the deforestation rate there has fallen dramatically in recent years as clear-cutting of Amazonian jungle in eight other countries has started to rise.

As a result, the 40 percent of Amazonia located in a moon-shaped arc of countries from Bolivia to Colombia to French Guiana faces a more serious threat than the jungle in Brazil. The culprits range from ranching to soybean farming, logging to infrastructure development projects.

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Crisis In The Housing Market
5:56 pm
Wed September 5, 2012

Democratic Convention Draws Troubled Homeowners

Credit Yuki Noguchi / NPR
David Sole rode a bus from Detroit to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., to protest how the Obama administration and the nation's banks have handled the foreclosure crisis.

Originally published on Wed September 5, 2012 7:03 pm

Charlotte, N.C., host of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, is the nation's biggest financial center outside of New York. But Charlotte and surrounding Mecklenburg County have the highest foreclosure rates in the state, and many thousands of homeowners owe more on their homes than the properties are worth.

As thousands of Democrats converge in Charlotte for the convention, some troubled homeowners have also gathered, lamenting that the foreclosure crisis has not been sufficiently front and center in the presidential campaign.

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The Salt
5:09 pm
Wed September 5, 2012

Recession Still Hurting U.S. Families Trying To Put Food On The Table

Credit Carrie Antlfinger / AP
Jacque Holland, 43, of Milwaukee picks up food at the food pantry at United Methodist Children's Services of Wisconsin.

Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 4:12 pm

The number of U.S. families struggling to put enough food on the table remains at record-high levels, according to new figures out today from the government. Last year, 1 in almost 7 households were what the government calls "food insecure." That's about the same level as in 2010, but still far higher than before the recession.

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Music News
4:30 pm
Wed September 5, 2012

Music Is Everywhere: John Cage At 100

Credit Rowland Scherman / Getty Images
John Cage during his 1966 concert at the opening of the National Arts Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Originally published on Wed September 5, 2012 6:05 pm

OK, let's get the elephant out of the room right away. John Cage's most famous, or infamous, work is "4'33"," in which a musician walks onstage and sits at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

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