FRESH AIR
Secularist Shiite politican Ahmad Chalabi was for years part of an opposition group dedicated to overthrowing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Son of a wealthy exile family that fled Iraq in the late 1950s, he moved easily in Washington, D.C.’s political and policy circles, making allies among neoconservatives and helping to convince journalists and intelligence agencies alike that Iraq was a threat demanding urgent action. After the U.S. invasion, he was appointed interim oil minister and then deputy prime minister — but when parliamentary elections were held in Iraq in
December 2005, he failed to win a seat and was bypassed for the cabinet. Now investigative journalist Aram Roston joins Fresh Air to discuss his new book on Chalabi, The Man Who Pushed America to War. Roston has reported for CNN, the Washington Monthly and the investigative unit at NBC News. As a producer for the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, he helped produce the Emmy-nominated Iraq: Life on the Streets.
RADIO TIMES
The CDC reported last week that one in four teenage girls ages 14-19 has a sexually transmitted disease. We talk about the alarming rate of STDs among the nation’s adolescent females, how we got here and what we can do about it. Our guests are LENORE ASBEL of the Philadelphia Department of Health and LORETTA ROSS of SisterSong, a women of color reproductive health collective based in Atlanta. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3
THE WORLD CAFE
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Dengue Fever
Southeast Asia meets Southern California as Dengue Fever join host David Dye on the World Cafe with music from Venus on Earth. The Long Beach, California band was formed by brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman, both heavily influenced by Cambodian rock of the late 1960s. They soon found their muse in Chholm Nimol. A charismatic pop star renowned in her Cambodian home country, she sings in both her native Khmer and English. Their combination is an arresting but easy-going blend of surf rock, psychedelia, and vintage eastern pop sounds that is really unlike anything else around.
DENGUE FEVER: One Thousand Years Of A Tarantula