On this week’s episode, the Political Gabfest panelists discuss Michigan’s new right-to-work law and the declining power of unions while the Culture Gabfesters talk about the award-winning indie darling, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and Beck’s "Song Reader."

For this New Sounds, we’ll sample music that shows the influence of traditional Cajun music from the fiddling, the accordion, the triangle and other instruments, in somewhat unusual contexts.  Listen to several excerpts from Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin's score for the film “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” set in Louisiana, along with music by the late Michael Galasso. Then there’s music by the Penguin Café Orchestra who drew from Cajun fiddling, and the influence comes out on pieces like “Swing the Cat” and “Bean Fields.” 

Hear music from Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi, inspired by Bossi’s mother’s recollection of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Carol in 1954 on this New Sounds.  Then there’s a musical warning from the Australian band Coolangubra, along with an excerpt from Ted Hearne’s “Katrina Ballads.” Also, listen to music from Alexander Desplat and Benjamin Britten’s score to “Moonrise Kingdom,” where the pivotal scene takes place as a hurricane sweeps through the island off the New England coast.