FRESH AIR
Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors’ offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid is a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post — in whose pages he recently addressed five major myths about other countries’ health-care systems — and the former chief of the paper’s London and Tokyo bureaus. Reid was the lead correspondent for the 2008 Frontline documentary Sick Around the World, which examined five other capitalist 
democracies, looking for lessons on health-care delivery. His books include Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West and The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. ALSO, the second full-length album from the Providence, R.I.-rooted band Deer Tick is called Born On Flag Day. Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker has a review.
RADIO TIMES
A new report says that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Despite public health efforts and media coverage, obesity rates continue to climb. This hour, are we losing the battle with obesity? And, how can we turn the tide? We talk with obesity researcher Gary Foster, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University.
SOUND OPINIONS
Jim and Greg are joined by the original members of The Jesus Lizard this week: singer David Yow, guitarist Duane Denison, bass player David William Sims, and drummer Mac McNeily. As Jim and Greg explain, The Jesus Lizard was one of the most influential bands to come out of the post-punk scene in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. While they had a number of important recordings on the Touch and Go label, it’s live that the band really stood out. They broke up in 1999, but now a decade later, they have re-formed for a number of shows including the recent Pitchfork Music Festival. Before that show they spoke with Jim and Greg and performed live in our studio.
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