Tag: This American Life

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Children's Zone

I’m amazed by this week’s This American Life (as always).

In Act 1, they tell the story of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone.

From the show…

Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children’s Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada. Among the project’s many facets is Baby College, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful. Tough’s just-published book about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem’s Children Zone is called Whatever It Takes.

After he started raising his second son and saw all the science showing the best practices for raising and developing a child in their early years, Geoffrey decided to go big and make a huge impact on the streets of Harlem. As he learned the best practices, he went looking for people putting the ideas into practice in Harlem — and found none.
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This I Used to Believe: Act 2

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Recently on This American Life:

Act Two. Team Spirit in the Sky.

This past Christmas a story swept the internet about a football coach at a Christian high school in Texas who inspired his team’s fans to root for the opposition: a team from the local juvenile correctional facility. Among the thousands of emails that the coach received in response to his actions, one stood out to him. Trisha Sebastian mentioned her loss of faith, and coach Hogan got a message from God that he was meant to bring her back. We eavesdrop on their phone calls. (19 minutes)

Click here to listen to the audio of the story. It starts at 20:02 into the show.

I love the initial story of the fans cheering for the other team. Great work coach! We need lots more of that! Even just in regular high school games.

But as you listen to the story, you hear Trisha tell Ira Glass that she’s leaning towards agnosticism after the loss of a dear friend. She shares this with the coach and he attempts to change her mind with apologetics and logic.
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The Crisis of Credit

In case you missed This American Life’s excellent job of explaining The Giant Pool of Money (go listen right away), or you’re more of a visual person, here’s a great visual explanation of why your 401(k) is in the crapper* and why the economy is going with it.

*Yes, I think that’s the official/technical term for the Credit Crisis right now :-).

Which of these is different?

America is the “land of freedom” a “melting pot” and as Christians we’re taught to “love one another” but how has our attitude changed since 9/11?

From This American Life:

Serry and her husband’s love story began in a place not usually associated with romance: the West Bank. That was where the couple met, fell in love and decided to get married. Then Serry, who was American, convinced her Palestinian husband to move to America. She promised him that in America their children would never encounter prejudice or strife of any kind. But things didn’t quite work out that way.

How should we as Christian Americans respond to those around us who may not see eye to eye with us?

Also I learned in this particular podcast, there’s a statue of the prophet Muhammad in a federal building in Washington D.C. Didn’t know that.

In the 1930s, the designer of the U.S. Supreme Court made a frieze to adorn the courtroom walls. It depicted eighteen great lawgivers through ages, including Moses, Solon, Confucius…and Muhammad. The only problem is that Islam forbids such portrayals of the prophet. Host Ira Glass talks to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, about why the frieze is offensive to Muslims, and what they tried to do about it.

Interesting. Listen online.