The Next Big Thing: We Require an Assertion of Value

The Next Big Thing

Episode #522

We Require an Assertion of Value

Friday, January 28, 2005

A mischievous and dark short story written by the late Donald Barthelme. A visit with Hiba Dawood, an Iraqi translator, as she prepares to go back home after a three-month visit to the United States. Conversations with philatelists. Classically-influenced pop/punk music from singer/songwriter Regina Spektor. And another round of "Stump Zero Boy" with our favorite vocal acrobat.

Voice of Gandhi

Mohandas Gandhi's words and image have been reproduced, worldwide, for years. But have you ever heard the sound of his voice? Here’s a sample, on the anniversary of his assassination in 1948.

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Back to Iraq

After three months in the United States, Iraqi translator Hiba Dawood had a lot of reasons to worry about her return to Baghdad. As she prepared to go back, she shared some of her worries with The Next Big Thing's Julie Subrin.

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New York Under the Snow

"The first oriole had already been spied hanging its nest from a cedar in Central Park ..." The Blizzard of 1888, as described by Cuban poet José Martí.

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Regina Spektor in a Piano Shop

Regina Spektor, a 24-year-old singer and songwriter born in Moscow and raised in the Bronx, is a classically trained pianist. But she writes songs more in the mode of punk and pop music. She doesn't have a piano in her new apartment, so ...

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Stump Zero Boy

Zero Boy is back to field cartoonish scenarios from listeners, which he then renders in sound — creating cinema for the radio with only his voice. Produced by Julie Subrin.

» Find out where Zero Boy's appearing live

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"The School"

A story by the late experimental fiction writer Donald Barthelme. A series of classroom mishaps, involving (among other things) salamanders, plants, and death, lead students and teacher alike to question the meaning of life. Teacher played by Jacob Weber; student played by Amy Pearl. ...

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Tackling the Big Questions

Who is God? That's what this group of children tried to figure out, as documented, back in 1970, by Tony Schwartz.

» More Tony Schwartz recordings are available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

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Sexy Stamps

One of America's most distinguished stamp-collecting organizations is the Collectors Club, formed in 1896 to "promote interest in and knowledge of philately, among its members and the public generally." The club's by-laws require an annual meeting, which happened this month. Next Big Thing producer ...

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Regina Sings and Plays Again

Two more songs from pianist, singer and songwriter Regina Spektor.

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