Cultured Media

Discussion with Laura Waters Hinson, director and producer of “As We Forgive,” about her stumbling upon her thesis topic on a church trip to Rwanda, told the ongoing story of reconciliation between killers and the families of genocide victims. The majority of militia members have been released after confessing their slaughter of women and children. Some have chosen to do community service in penitence. Plus, a look at a new Rwandan report accusing top French officials of complicity in the 1994 genocide.

Listen on the Diane Rehm Show

In “The Return of History and the End of Dreams,” Robert Kagan, Washington Post columnist and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior associate, argues that the international stability predicted after the end of the Cold War did not emerge and that instead we now have a contest for power between liberal democracies, autocratic governments, and radical Islamists.? He states that the majority of the world has regressed into 19th century diplomacy with their spheres of influence.

Listen on Book TV

Being the victim of a bully at school is often dismissed as just a part of growing up, but many say it can leave lasting emotional scars. A survivor of peer abuse offers advice for parents, teachers and children on coping with and putting an end to the abusive practice. Her main point is not to tell your children to take an adult route and “just ignore it.” She also stresses that we should find out why someone is bullying and deal with the problem and not the symptom.

Listen to Jodee Blanco on Diane Rehm

Ben Stein is perhaps best known for his role as the boring teacher in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and his stint as host of the award-winning game show “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” But Stein’s experience extends far beyond the entertainment world. As a former speech writer for Presidents Ford and Nixon, a lawyer, a financial expert, and author of over a dozen books, Ben Stein spoke recently at the Commonwealth Club of California about the financial, political and social challenges he sees facing the world today.? He quotes Martin Luther King, tells about the death of his parents, and references “America’s Most Smartest Model,” a VH1 comedy special to determine how much models know.

Listen to How not to ruin your life, Word for Word from American Public Media

Those are the words that Journalist Paul Watson heard as he took a photograph of a battered, mutilated American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. His war-zone work leaves him suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress, and he says the Mogadishu photo still haunts him. Wilson believes his photograph prevented intervention into Rwanda’s genocide to save hundred of thousands of lives and empowered Al-Qaeda. The war leader that Americans were chasing at the time sent a thank you letter to Wilson for providing propaganda for his forces. He even invited Wilson for dinner.

Fresh Air: Journalist Paul Watson on Witnessing War

Gilbertson grapples with the day-to-day life in Baghdad–sniped soldiers and dog ravaged human carcasses. He does not condone torture, but states that it has saved lives in Iraq. He also worries that he only photographing the demise of the Iraqi state as it falls apart and into a civil war.

Award-winning photographer Ashley Gilbertson has spent much of the past five years in Iraq, taking incredible photographs for The New York Times and other publications. Born in 1978, Gilbertson has captured some of the world’s most dangerous places on camera. A book of his work, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer’s Chronicle of the Iraq War, will be published this fall.

Fresh Air Interview with Ashley Gilbertson

Since when did a debate become a boxing match? Four years into the Iraq War, what have we learned? Soldiers, civilians, Iraqis, and Americans talk and sometimes yell? about what they’ve learned in the last few years.
#333: The Center for Lessons Learned (1:15:27)

About halfway through is a debate between Saun Hannity and Rocky Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City, that has the atmosphere of a boxing match with booing and interrupting. It saddens me.

America at a Crossroads?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ series of 11 documentaries is scheduled to launch on Sunday, April 15 and will run nightly through Friday, April 20, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m. (ET). Additional films will air as specials following the premiere.

America at a Crossroads is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s role overseas.

Aimed at creating a national dialogue surrounding the crucial issues explored in the series, an extensive media and outreach campaign in more than 25 communities accompanies the series. The campaign features screening events with the filmmakers and their subjects in discussions with United States military personnel, leading policy experts, leaders of the Islamic community, scholars from across the country as well as
members of the public. Integrated Web and educational initiatives further extend the campaign.

SCHEDULE:

Sunday, April 15:
Jihad: The Men And Ideas Behind Al Qaeda, 9:00 - 11:00 P.M.

Monday, April 16:
Warriors, 9:00 - 10:00 P.M.
Operation Homecoming: Writing The Wartime Experience, 10:00 - 11:00 P.M.

Tuesday, April 17:
Gangs Of Iraq, 9:00 - 10:00 P.M.
The Case For War: In Defense Of Freedom, 10:00 - 11:00 P.M.

Wednesday, April 18:
Europe?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s 9/11, 9:00 - 10:00 P.M.
The Muslim Americans, 10:00 - 11:00 P.M.

Thursday, April 19:
Faith Without Fear, 9:00 - 10:00 P.M.
Struggle For The Soul Of Islam: Inside Indonesia,
10:00 - 11:00 P.M.

Friday, April 20:
Security Versus Liberty: The Other War , 9:00 - 10:00 P.M.
The Brotherhood, 10:00 - 11:00 P.M.

And the host is Robert MacNeil! Listen to an interview with him on Diane Rehm.