Music Reviews
10:44 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Kobo Town: A Haunted 'Jukebox' Filled With Caribbean Sounds

Credit Paul Wright / Courtesy of the artist
The Toronto band Kobo Town plays a mix of old-school calypso, ska and West Indian styles.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 5:03 pm

Throughout Kobo Town's new album Jumbie in the Jukebox, frontman Drew Gonsalves declares his love for the past even as his feet are firmly planted in the present. The music of the Toronto band can drift between classic Caribbean pop styles and even verge on hip-hop, but the singer's perspective remains sharply focused, wry and witty. The song "Postcard Poverty," for example, ribs tourists for whom tropical slums become an exotic backdrop to fun-in-the-sun adventures.

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Interviews
10:11 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Remembering Ray Manzarek, Keyboardist For The Doors

Credit Express / Getty Images
The Doors at London Airport in 1968. Left to right: John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. Manzarek died May 20 of bile-duct cancer.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 11:31 am

This interview was originally broadcast in 1998.

The mythology surrounding The Doors has centered largely on its lead singer, Jim Morrison, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1971. Morrison is still considered one of rock music's tortured poets and sex gods, but instrumentally, The Doors' distinctive sound was based on Ray Manzarek's keyboard playing. His are the riffs made famous in such songs such as "Riders on the Storm," "Break on Through" and "People Are Strange."

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U.S.
9:58 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Why Former Gitmo Chief Left In Protest

President Obama is once again calling for the prison at Guantanamo Bay to be shut down, even though new polls suggest most Americans want it to stay open. But the chorus of critics has gained one surprising member: former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor Morris Davis. Host Michel Martin talks with Davis about why he now feels the facility should be closed.

Shots - Health News
9:57 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Health Insurance At 'Good Prices' Coming To Calif. Exchange

Credit Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, unveiled the plans and prices that will be offered by private insurers at a media briefing in Sacramento on Thursday.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 3:12 pm

California just unveiled a wide array of choices for the 5.3 million people expected to qualify to buy coverage through its online marketplace established by the federal health overhaul.

It's the first disclosure of prices in the nation's most populous state for individual health insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act, and the menu of affordable options surprised some consumer advocates and analysts who had been expecting premiums to be much higher.

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Interviews
9:55 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Marcus Samuelsson: On Becoming A Top Chef

Credit / Courtesy of Marcus Samuelsson
James Beard award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson has been a judge on Top Chef, Iron Chef America and Chopped.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 11:31 am

A longer version of this interview was originally broadcast on June 28, 2012.

Marcus Samuelsson owns two restaurants in New York City and two restaurants in Sweden. He's cooked for President Obama and prime ministers, served as a judge on Top Chef and Chopped, and recently competed against 21 other chefs on Top Chef Masters. (He won.) He's the youngest chef ever to receive two three-star ratings from The New York Times.

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The Two-Way
9:23 am
Fri May 24, 2013

James Joyce Coin-troversy Reportedly Could Have Been Averted

Credit Irish Central Bank
A commemorative 10-euro coin featuring James Joyce bears an image of the author that his literary estate did not approve. It also misquotes his work.

Irish banking officials should have known there were problems with the controversial 10-euro coin commemorating James Joyce, according to Ireland's RTE News. The coin misquotes the author's Ulysses, and bears an image of Joyce that his estate did not approve.

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The Two-Way
9:15 am
Fri May 24, 2013

2 Men Arrested After Pakistani Jet Is Diverted Over U.K.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 1:49 pm

Two men were arrested and removed from a Pakistan International Airlines passenger jet Friday. It had been on its way from Lahore, Pakistan, to Manchester, England, when something that happened aboard led authorities to scramble Royal Air Force fighter jets and divert the passenger plane to London Stansted Airport.

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TED Radio Hour
8:58 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Memory Games

Credit Marc Grimberg / Getty Images
"We all look through family albums. We all hear stories at the dinner table. ... They become incorporated into what we believe we actually remember." — Scott Fraser

"Some memories come with a very compelling sense of truth about them. And that happens to be the case even with memories that are not true." -- Daniel Kahneman

Memory is malleable, dynamic and elusive. When we tap into our memories, where's the line between fact and fiction? How does our memory play tricks on us, and how can we train it to be more accurate? In this hour, TED speakers discuss how a nimble memory can improve your life, and how a frail one might ruin someone else's.

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TED Radio Hour
8:58 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Can Anyone Learn To Be A Master Memorizer?

Credit James Duncan Davidson
Joshua Foer says that one past memory champion developed a technique to remember more than 4,000 binary digits in half an hour.

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Memory Games.

About Joshua Foer's TEDTalk

Some people can memorize thousands of numbers, the names of dozens of strangers or the precise order of cards in a shuffled deck. Science writer and U.S. Memory Champion Joshua Foer shows how anyone can become a memory virtuoso, including him.

About Joshua Foer

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TED Radio Hour
8:58 am
Fri May 24, 2013

How Do Experiences Become Memories?

Credit James Duncan Davidson / TED / James Duncan Davidson
Daniel Kahneman says, "we tend to confuse memories with the real experience that gave rise to those memories."

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Memory Games.

About Daniel Kahneman's TEDTalk

Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman goes through a series of examples of things we might remember, from vacations to colonoscopies. He explains how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently.

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