Happy Labor Day. Wes Moore is a decorated combat veteran and a Rhodes scholar. He tells his story, and that of another man with the same name is serving time for a violent crime in The Other Wes Moore. The cultural implications of disco. And, “Testing Teachers” an American RadioWorks documentary.
The Other Wes Moore
An all-American success story, Wes Moore is a Rhodes Scholar, honored college football player, decorated combat veteran, former White House Fellow and investment banker. But was his success due to chance or choice? That question haunted Moore when he heard about his doppelganger, a young man with the same name now serving life in prison for killing a cop. Fascinated by their similar backgrounds, Moore contacted the other Wes Moore in an effort to find answers to his own life questions. How did two similar boys from the inner city grow up to have such different lives? What can be done to create brighter futures for disadvantaged youth?
Guest:
Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Spiegel & Grau). Rhodes Scholar, investment banker and former aide to Condoleezza Rice.
Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture
Disco music ruled the charts from 1973 to 1979 with slick songs that were catchy, mindless, and self-indulgent. But aside from its musical impact, disco was a driving force of social change for gays, women, and blacks. In "Hot Stuff," Alice Echols chronicles the disco phenomenon, from its origins in 1960's soul through its lasting influence 30 years later- not just on wedding receptions, but on today's music and artists like Madonna and Lady Gaga. Echols and Larry Mantle boogie down and talk about an era when the tunes and the clothes were equally synthetic.
Guest:
Alice Echols, author of Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture (W. W. Norton). She is a professor of English and gender studies at USC. Echols is a former disco deejay, and the author of the biography of Janis Joplin, Scars of Sweet Paradise.
Testing Teachers: an American RadioWorks documentary from American Public Media
Teachers are at the center of education debate today because a huge body of research has shown that teachers matter a lot to the educational success or failure of children. Studies show students who get the best teachers learn three times as much as students with the worst teachers. Researchers also say that achievement gaps that exist between poor students and their higher-income peers could disappear if poor students had better teachers. But teacher's unions are pushing back. They say teachers are being blamed for much larger problems in America's struggling schools and that teachers alone can't overcome the achievement gap. In this documentary producer Emily Hanford delves into this debate about teachers and about the research that's fueling it.